Like a lot of people, I took up some new hobbies in the Great Pandemic Year of 2020: jigsaw puzzles, reality TV (bless), playing pretend-podcaster, becoming a sommelier of weed edibles. One of the few hobbies/coping skills that stuck was cozy gaming, and my favorite game of that era is finally getting a sequel.
First, I have to pay the requisite respects to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the ultimate cozy game gateway drug, for introducing me to the strangely soothing world of creating a little me-avatar to perform inane daily chores in a customizable digital landscape populated by cutie pie characters. But after about a year and one big, briefly engaging DLC release, the lack of newness left me hungry for another cozy game. Which is how I discovered Cozy Grove.
Our own Vivian Kane has written about her love of Cozy Grove, aptly describing it as the anti-capitalist successor to Animal Crossing. In Cozy Grove, you play a Spirit Scout who finds themselves shipwrecked on a mysterious island populated by ghost-bears who can’t remember how they lived—or died. By completing little chores for your ghost-bear pals, including a drunken seagull boat captain and a neurotic fellow with far too many ghost-cats (don’t worry, you’ll take a few off his hands), you help them remember their lives, bringing light and color to the desaturated island and its inhabitants. You can buy decor and supplies from a local shopkeeper, plant and harvest various types of flowers, fruit, and nuts, and craft all manner of furniture and tchotchkes to decorate your island to your heart’s content.
Unfortunately, like Animal Crossing, the characters and stories and chores in Cozy Grove eventually run out, leaving you with little else to do besides continue amassing supplies to decorate your island. I’ve since moved on to Disney Dreamlight Valley, which, despite its bugginess, is filling the cozy void in my life. What’s for dinner tonight? Sorry, I can’t think about that right now, I’m doing chores for Merlin and Scrooge McDuck. Thankfully, I’ll be taking a hiatus from Dreamlight Valley soon because (drumroll) there’s a sequel to Cozy Grove!
Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit was first announced by developer Spry Fox back in 2022, but we haven’t heard too much about the sequel since then. That fall, Netflix acquired Spry Fox as part of its plans to develop and release exclusive games for subscribers—which didn’t sound like the most promising news for Cozy Grove 2. The whole vibe of the first game is pro-socialism, anti-capitalism. I come to this game to escape Netflix (or keep myself occupied while half-watching a Netflix Original)! Still, I’m optimistic about Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, which might have a longer tail than its predecessor with more financial backing and resources. The biggest problem with cozy games is that the developers eventually stop developing, leaving us without new story missions and fresh content. Maybe this time will be different?
Netflix has finally set a release date for Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, which will be available to subscribers on June 25. Here’s the official description of the sequel, which sees us returning to an island—this time via bus:
Attention, Spirit Scouts! Something spooky is afoot in this lim-sim game: A bus crash has left you stranded alone on a mysterious (yet delightfully cute) island. Explore the unique island, meet and befriend cute, ghostly spirit bears who need your help to remember their pasts and find peace. Customize a bustling, beautiful campsite — crafting, decorating, and building furniture to bring life and color back to this cute island — and hopefully reunite with your lost scout troop as you gradually repair your bus.
I somehow missed this new teaser for Camp Spirit when it dropped a couple of weeks ago:
So far, Camp Spirit looks very similar to the OG Cozy Grove, but with new characters, stories, and upgraded graphics—i.e., exactly what you want out of a cozy sequel.
