Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Practically the crowning example of a Spring video game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf is full of beautiful trees, juicy fruit, gorgeous flowers, and plenty of pretty bugs. In addition to taking care of your own village, you can beautify the environment, enjoy the weather outside with others, and take part in some fun activities like fishing and bug catching.
The seasons don’t particularly change so you can truly just hang out in the spring weather and enjoy the view. Spring is fresh and serene and Animal Crossing: New Leaf reminds us of all the good things that come out of the season.
Its sequel, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, will no doubt continue the series’ love for nature but with a more tropical twist.
Stardew Valley
Like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley is the ultimate chill and relaxing simulator. While the seasons do change over time, nothing beats the growth and beauty of Spring when it shows up after Winter turned the ground back into a blank slate.
The animals come back outside, the trees grow green leaves once more, the weather warms up, town residents spend time outside, and crops flourish once again. You can harvest fruit like sweet strawberries and other produce like fresh kale and delicious potatoes.
Honestly, Stardew Valley can easily make you feel like going camping or something or maybe even throwing everything away and becoming a farmer. If that’s not a true Spring game then I don’t know what is.
Flower
If you’re seriously having a bad day, boot up Flower and just relax. Made by the same devs that brought us the masterpiece Journey, Flower allows you to take control of the wind as you carry flower petals and leaves on a journey across a vast and gorgeous landscape.
Full of vibrant flowers, bright green grass, rolling hills, and a gorgeous sky, Flower truly encompasses the tranquility and zen that Spring can bring on a nice clear day.
There is absolutely no conflict or goal other than to just be wind so if you need a nice breather after a stressful day or simply want to enjoy a bit of Spring, give Flower a chance and you won’t be disappointed.
Viva Piñata
This game might as well be an ancient relic at this point in time but Viva Pinata is another great Springtime video game. For those of you that somehow haven’t heard of Viva Pinata at some point in your lives, it is essentially just Stardew Valley but everyone is a pinata.
Colorful, vibrant, and ridiculously bright, gardening has never felt so flamboyantly amazing. There’s a uniqueness to the scenery and characters within Viva Pinata that other games just haven’t managed to reach since the game came out in 2006.
It’s no wonder this game spawned an entire franchise. We only hope they might revive the series so newer audiences can experience the glory of Viva Pinata.
Equilinox
A lesser-known game that’s still just as great as the others on this list, Equilinox allows you to nurture and create your own ecosystem. Essentially Spore but ten times cuter, you can easily get lost in the beautiful Spring environment, the adorable creatures, and the peaceful atmosphere.
The game is practically National Geographic as a video game and, just like Flower, you can enjoy the vast and calming open world in a very un-stressful way. Watch your animals interact, your plants and trees grow, and your anxieties and stress disappear.
Springtime is all about rebirth, nature, and growth. With Equilinox you can sit back, pop some popcorn, and watch the world come alive in front of you.
Farming Simulator 19
On a similar vein to some of the other Springtime video games on this list, Farming Simulator 19 allows you to embrace the great outdoors and create the best farm you possibly can. Admittedly less colorful, Farming Simulator still enables you to dig deep to find your inner rural spirit.
This game takes a more realistic twist to its farming which can make it a little off-putting for some. However, there’s still a charm to keying on a tractor or a combine to help plow your fields and trim down vegetation.
You can easily spend your time planting seeds, feeding animals, or even driving to town to pick up some new supplies. We can’t forget to mention that you’ll be doing all of this with some pretty impressive graphics to look at.
Minecraft
Minecraft is a game that essentially allows you to do whatever you want. You can build a gorgeous house, start a farm, delve deep into caves, and even make a cake if you wanted. It’s yours for the taking beneath a gorgeous sky, a beautiful sun, and within an ever-changing environment.
You can spend hours exploring the world and its vastly different landscapes while truly embracing nature. Since there is no linear plot, there’s plenty of time to enjoy the weather, fishing, planting seeds, and doing plenty of other calming activities.
Terraria
Our list of Springtime video games concludes with Terraria, a game filled with so many different genre-bending elements. In its most basic form, Terraria needs you to dig and mine for resources. However, there are also world-ending Lovecraftian enemies, sky islands, magic, a literal Hell, and a parasitic virus that spreads across the world.
Honestly, that’s just a fraction of the wild things you can encounter in the game.
Like Minecraft, Terraria is non-linear so you can avoid all of the spooky, horrifying elements for as long as you want. Or until a Blood Moon show up, at least. Build your home, attract visitors, explore the vast world, and fish.
Terraria may have come out in 2011 but it continued to get plenty of new content in the years since. Its final update is planned to be released in 2020 so be on the lookout for some more additional weirdness.
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