What is the most charming game you've played?

[brodie21]

it was probably an online game called 'learn to fly'

 

[Mr. Win]

Little King's Story
I was gonna post a video but couldn't find one that does it justice.
The music, the gorgeous environment, the quirky (sometimes ridiculous) enemies.
Everything about it screams charm, I guarantee if it was a better known game I wouldn't be the only one saying this.

Yes. It's a beautiful game that has tons of depth. It's too bad the art style and the fact that it was on the Wii ruined its appeal.

 

[fletch_talon]

Little King's Story
I was gonna post a video but couldn't find one that does it justice.
The music, the gorgeous environment, the quirky (sometimes ridiculous) enemies.
Everything about it screams charm, I guarantee if it was a better known game I wouldn't be the only one saying this.

Yes. It's a beautiful game that has tons of depth. It's too bad the art style and the fact that it was on the Wii ruined its appeal.

I assume you mean its appeal to self proclaimed "mature" gamers?
Cuz the art style and the fact that it was for the Wii were very much positive features in my eyes.

Nowadays a game apparently isn't worth looking at if it doesn't have tits, gore or preferably both.

 

[MellowFellow]

Animal Crossing, it was just an all-around good game.

 

[Doctor VonSexMachine]

Katamari was amazing. I can't really think of any PC titles I think would fit, although Osmos was pretty neato. Until it got frustrating. D:

ETA: fucking bubble bobble. hands down.

 

[Steppin Razor]

Dragon Quest VIII and, to a lesser extent, Flower. I love the both of them to death.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Probably Final Fantasy IX, just from the ridiculous amounts of confusion at first, tsun-dere later that Garnet throws Zidane's way.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Zelda Ocarina of time, the skull kid in the lost woods playing the flute and the entire Kokiri village is about as charming as it gets.

Agree. Best game ever.

Also, welcome to the Escapist! Have fun checking out all the great features, but steer clear of the basement.

OT: In addition to OoT, I would Banjo-Kazooie does a good job of being charming. Gotta love that bear.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

Portal, listen to the gun turrets when you kill them. And the song "still Alive' is epically cute.

 

[burgbrand22]

Psychonauts!
best game ever
very charming, funny, and original

While I no doubt agree that Psychonauts is very charming, and I can go on with its beautiful artwork, set pieces, voice actors, etc....

But Psychonauts is an easy and boring platformer. I don't understand why folks praise it so much.

 

[AMMO Kid]

LoZ: The Windwaker had that approach. I also thought that Fable 2 was very charming. The thing I remember about that game wasn't that combat or fighting, it was running through a field with the beautiful sun shining on the horizon, and butterflies flying through the flowers.

 

[Lord_Panzer]

Hmm, charming you say?

The first game that pops to mind is Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, for me anyways. The cell-shading, the soundtrack, the fact that you don't think a game that 'cute' could have a final boss as awesome as Phantom/Puppet/actual Ganondorf. Even the endless amounts of sailing was a joy because of the night and day cycles, depth of view, and random encounters at sea.

There's not an awful lot I don't like about that game, to be honest. While it certainly isn't my favourite, it may very well be the most charming one I've played.

LoZ: The Windwaker had that approach.

#@!%. Ninja.

 

[Zhukov]

Tie between Portal and Psychonauts.

Ohhh, original!

 

[Lord_Panzer]

Oh bugger, double post.

 

[Jfswift]

Zelda Ocarina of time, the skull kid in the lost woods playing the flute and the entire Kokiri village is about as charming as it gets.

*nods* I agree. I had that song from the woods stuck in my head the other day too.

 

[HT_Black]

It's a tossup between Fable 2 and Overlord. Both were relentlessly stupid, agressively juvenile, and downright irresistable. Fable was undeniably humorous, in a sick, twisted, Terry Pratchett sort of way, while Overlord (curiously) was a gag-a-minute jokefest; but what really sold me on it was the minions. They're so cute I just wanna pull of their heads, bleed them out, throw them in a pot of boiling water, make a stew out of it, and then throw it out into the streets.

And that's pretty damn cute.

 

[NEVRINx54]

Braid, one of my favs as well.

 

[medicvalues]

dont fell that but im going to put flower very relaxing and beautiful

 

[BattlePope]

I'd say it's a tie between Um Jammer Lammy and Brave Fencer Musashi. Both were quirky enough to be fun, silly enough to make death look like a goofy side effect of failure, and just had enough heart behind what they were doing to make you endeared to just about all the characters. Of course Ico wouldn't necessarily be cute, but charming in that the landscapes were beautiful and the rest of the visuals felt like you were viewing real, tangible art on your TV in addition to being a "save the princess" and escort game that actually felt like a new game altogether.

I can also remember Captain Fussenpepper's and Paul Chuck the Woodchuck's stages in Lammy more than quite a few anythings that happened in any of the games that I've played in sometime.

I don't know if I lose points in this crowd for liking the Penny Arcade games, but they were really charming in their own way for making me nostalgic for older games. They also did steampunk pretty well.

But of course most of the other games mentioned are charming in their own ways: Mother had "Annoying Old Party Man" and Psychonauts wasn't necessarily charming all the time, but it was still an awesome game that made just summing it up into a few words feel like blasphemy against all the heart and soul that it had.