Hatchi
2012, Portable Pixels
iPhone
Those of you who had Tamagotchis as children are already aware of their magic. For those that aren’t, the gist is this: you have a tiny digital pet that you have to feed and play with and even poop-scoop. It sounds simple, but it’s really easy to become obsessed—you make all the decisions for this little bundle of pixels who needs care at least twice a day. Hatchi adapted this concept into an iPhone app, and I can’t leave it alone! Your Hatchi evolves into one of many adult forms based on the choices you make for it. Mine is named Salad, he has flames on his head, and his favorite food is bread. Based on this, I think my decision-making skills are pretty on point. —Amy Rose

Bubble Explode
2011, Spooky House Studios
Mac, iPhone
I am the procastinatin’est girl in the world. When I have some Big Thing to do, I fret and freak out and clean my room and go for walks and tease my hair while watching Rihanna videos on YouTube—whatever it takes to avoid the task at hand. When I’m feeling intimidated, it helps to remind myself that even Big Things are really just a bunch of little things combined, and that at a certain point, I have to stop thinking and JUST START DOING whatever it is, even if it feels like moving a mountain pebble by pebble. No lie, the game Bubble Explode on my iPhone totally helps me do that. It’s really simple—you just tap strings of same-colored bubbles to clear them from the screen—but it moves so quickly that I literally DON’T HAVE TIME TO THINK, I just become a bubble-popping machine, eliminating all obstacles in my way with a satisfying digital “POP!” as my reward. I often play it to get myself hyped up to work on something I’ve been avoiding. It reminds me that there’s a time for hows and whys and strategizing, but sometimes you just gotta get to work. —Leeann

Paperboy
1984, Atari Games, MindScape, and Elite Systems
Arcade
Paperboy is an old game, and when I tell you what it’s about you’ll be all like, “WHAT? THEY MADE VIDEO GAMES ABOUT THAT?” and I’ll tell you that they did because it was the ’80s and everything was topsy-turvy back then. This is a game about a boy who delivers papers on his bike. He’s not a superhero; he’s just a boy with a mission on a bike, and even though being a paperboy should not be a very stressful job, it is, because his street is full of dogs trying to bite him, gnarly skateboarders, and leather-clad dudes riding unicycles. The cool thing, though, is that he can use the newspapers he’s delivering as weapons—chucking rolled-up papers at peoples and animals (and windows!) makes you feel pretty powerful and therefore awesome (in the video game world, NOT in real life!). Also, at the end of the round when I always died and never managed to make it to the second day of delivering papers (I’m sorry, did I not reveal that I suck at video games because my mom hated them and this was the only game I owned and still I never managed to finish it—because it’s true), the GAME OVER window was a newspaper and the headline was “PAPERBOY CALLS IT QUITS” and nothing made me feel more powerful than knowing that my sucking at delivering papers made it to the front page. Also the background music is awesome. —Laia

Bloons
2009 Ninja Kiwi/Digital Goldfish
iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Old love letters. Crappy relationships. Bubble wrap. Nothing is off limits when it comes to stuff I’ll wreck, because few things are more empowering than destruction. My favorite video games, if you can even call them video games, are the kind where you’re given a beautiful array of things to ruin. There are lots of games of this type: Poppit, Bubble Spinner, and the best one, in my opinion, Bloons. There’s something cathartic about popping a bunch of computer-generated cartoon balloons. Bloons takes this feeling to the next level by adding obstacles, bonus balloons, and kinda-but-not-really hard-to-beat levels. Turn the sound up: the soundtrack is simultaneously irritating and satisfying. —Jamie

EarthBound
1989-2006, Nintendo
Famicom, Super NES, Game Boy Advance
EarthBound is a Japanese RPG with a humorous and skewed view of America: the setting is “Eagleland,” a hamburger costs $48, enemies have names like New Age Retro Hippie. You control Ness, the main protagonist, as well as his friends Paula, Jeff, and Poo. Buzz Buzz, a bumblebee from the future, comes to tell you that the evil alien Giygas is taking over the universe through mind-control. So, naturally, you and your friends are embarking on this quest to save the universe—but you’re also just kids. Sometimes you get homesick and lose power points, often crying uncontrollably until you can call your mom to recharge. And you can order pizza and a delivery boy will come bring it to you, no matter where you are in the game. It’s features like this that make EarthBound incredibly complex from a design standpoint. It has over 50 hours of play, tons of unpredictable elements, plus three hours of original, awesome music. What I really love about this game is that, alongside the humorous and goofy elements, it is darkly philosophical. Giygas is so evil that he has lost his mind and become a limitless entity of horror, with no real identity. There are a lot of spiritual moments in the game as well: at one point you fight your inner demons naked in a dream; at certain crucial times only the power of prayer can save you. When you’re playing Poo, you go through intense martial-arts training that involves a god descending to eat your eyes. And since it’s an RPG, the god is like, “I WILL EAT YOUR EYES NOW—do you accept this? Yes/No.” And you have to keep clicking “yes” until your training is complete and the god has taken everything away from you, including your mind. —Maggie

Rampage
1986, Bally Midway, Sega, Data East, Atari, and Activision
Arcade Sega Master System, NES, Atari Lynx, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, IBM PC, Gamecube, Xbox, PS2
Growing up, my brother and I used to play Rampage for 64 just about every Saturday afternoon. The game isn’t very hard: All you do is pick one of three characters (a lizard or possibly Godzilla, a King Kong-looking gorilla, or a werewolf), all of whom, for some reason, looked like they had rabies. Then you set out on a path of destruction, razing buildings and killing bystanders (and watching their blood gush out). You can jump on the buildings and grab and smash airplanes and helicopters, too. That is basically it, but it was SO MUCH FUN. It was kind of a stress reliever to just kick and punch and gain points for it. —Erica

Black & White 2
2005, Electronic Arts, Feral Interactive
Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
I am obsessed with this game, in which you play a god (you choose if you’re a good one or a bad one) and you get to cast spells and go on missions and have a pet creature (I always pick the…tiger thing? Cat? The other pets are unfortunate-looking, I gotta say). You can also, if you choose, sacrifice people to gain power, make your pet eat people, and play catch with your pet using small children as the “ball”…not that I’ve done so or anything. The game starts off with a story where Aztecs have raised an undead god and ruined your perfectly lovely civilization; your job is to rebuild by gaining followers and influence through either brute force or goodwill. It’s very fun and strategic and THANK GOD FINALS ARE OVER because now I can play for days at a time without moving. The power that comes with being an actual god is, predictably, addicting. —Arabelle ♦