If you’ve ever been a fan of Edge magazine, you’ll probably know that Thursdays are special. One Thursday a month is Edge Thursday, which means a trip to the shops to pick up the latest issue. Coronavirus has seen to that lovely ritual for the time being, alas. But Edge has had its own response, and it’s genuinely magical – a reminder of the power of games, but also a reminder of the power of magazines. Magazines! This perfect bit of technology that can package up a bunch of things and bring them together with some kind of order and structure and glittering coherence. If this makes you think about Lucky Peach, save it – I’m not ready to face those emotions yet.
Edge’s first issue since Lockdown is called Feel Better. It’s actually pretty hard to get hold of now – I had to buy it online but I gather it’s since sold out. I wanted to talk about it a little bit, though, because it genuinely did make me feel better. Mission accomplished.
(I should probably get this caveat out of the way now. Although Edge is not affiliated with Eurogamer, a lot of us have written for the mag in the past, and many of our freelancers still do. When it comes to Edge I am deeply partisan. Also I appreciate that media writing about media can be at best a bit cozy – apologies!)
Feel Better ditches the usual Edge formats for a selection of games that are chosen for their power to soothe and lift players up a bit. The whole thing’s presented alphabetically, taking you from A Short Hike to Yakuza 0, and the edges of the pages push you through the spectrum, probably my favourite secret touch in the whole thing. The last book I read which did this was Kassia St Clair’s unmissably thrilling The Secret Lives of Colour. In that book I found a bunch of stories about all the colours of the rainbow – a celebration of unusual facts, strange histories and perfect description. Feel Better belongs alongside it on the shelf for sure.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Gameplay – An Island After 80 Hours Watch on YouTube
The inspiration for this issue apparently comes from a WhatApp group and a friend in the grip of anxiety. In the words of the opening letter: “we found ourselves recommending some games that would ease the tension and nourish the soul.” This is what games are often for, and it’s lovely to see it written down.