In the 1970s and 1980s, when gaming began to grow increasingly popular with arcade games like Pac-Man and then Super Mario Bros. on the NES, little did anyone know at that time that one day a genre of video games currently identified as "cozy" would dominate the scene, defined by games that see players doing ordinary, everyday things like tending to a garden or conversing with fellow townsfolk. Today, the cozy game craze has stolen the spotlight with hit titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Stardew Valley, having grown to be almost just as popular as the currently most preferred video game genres. This is no accident, however, as the once-niche genre has been steadily infiltrating the mainstream for the last 25 years, following the humble release of Harvest Moon 64 on the Nintendo 64.