Books, movies, TV shows, music. They’ve all got the uncanny ability to bring me back to the first time I experienced them, evoking that sense of nostalgia, and sometimes longing, that makes you pensive and introspective.
Video games are the same. I still remember the first time I played Kingdom Hearts and heard that soundtrack. Or the first time my brother blasted me in Dragon Ball Z on the SNES (he’s 12 years older too). Whenever I think about those games, I’m back there, remembering the grind, the frustration, or the joy of finally getting that win.
That’s the feeling Melbourne-based indie studio Parasol Corp is trying to bottle with Cozy Game Restoration. On the surface, it’s a game about cleaning and restoring old video game cartridges. But for founder Adam Stormhardt, it’s more than that — it’s about restoring the memories attached to them.
I spoke with Stormhardt about nostalgia, why cleaning old cartridges is so satisfying, and the challenge of turning a chore into something players actually want to do.
READ MORE: Review | Marvel’s Wolverine: ‘A Brutal, Cinematic Adventure’ (PS5)
The Games That Made Us
For many of us, that’s what makes nostalgia for old games so powerful. We aren’t necessarily nostalgic for the game itself. We’re nostalgic for who we were when we played it. Stormhardt used to spend hours competing with friends in local multiplayer on GoldenEye 007, with new challenges and competitive metas emerging every few weeks.
“Over the years, as I’ve conversed with people about games like GoldenEye 007, Generals, or Counter-Strike: Source, they’re almost cultural foundations in a way. I was surprised by how these experiences let us connect,” Stormhardt explained.
It’s something I’ve experienced myself. Mention a game from your childhood to the right person and suddenly you’re not talking about polygons, pixels or frame rates anymore. You’re talking about your favourite character, your sibling who was a controller hog, or the hundreds of hours you spent trying to beat that final boss.
The pull nostalgia has on us is so strong that Stormhardt can’t walk past a Sega Rally machine without putting a few dollars in. He also has a particular fondness for Virtua Cop, admiring the passion packed into Sega’s arcade-era games. And that affection for the games of our past is baked into Cozy Game Restoration itself.
Why Is Cleaning So Satisfying?
I’ve touched on this topic many times, wondering why I’m always so interested in games that glorify menial tasks.
Cleaning isn’t exactly most people’s idea of a good time. It kind of is in real life for me, but I’d still much rather spend my afternoon playing a game than scrubbing the toilet.
Yet there’s something oddly satisfying about cleaning things up in a video game.
“While I don’t enjoy cleaning in real life, I love games like Crime Scene Cleaner that allow me to shift my brain down a few gears,” Stormhardt says.
“That’s the appeal of cleaning games — it’s about a simple workflow that lets you get stuff done.”
Cozy Game Restoration takes that idea and gives it a nostalgic twist. Instead of power-washing patios or cleaning crime scenes, you’re restoring old video game cartridges — peeling off stickers, scrubbing away grime and bringing forgotten games back to life.
But the real thing being restored isn’t necessarily the cartridge. It’s the memories that come with it.
READ MORE: Aus government responds to Steam verification blunder: ‘We’re engaging with Valve’
The Fine Line Between Relaxing And Chores
Stormhardt then hit me with what might be the most profound definition of a chore I’ve ever heard: “A chore is doing something which doesn’t give you satisfying feedback.”
For him, power-washing a driveway is fun, while sorting change for a purchase in a shopkeeper simulator isn’t. But he acknowledges that everyone has their own version of The Chore Line™.
Getting the cleaning in Cozy Game Restoration to feel good was the main goal, and one of the first things Stormhardt focused on before going all in on the game. The Chore Line is his North Star, guiding him to make sure restoration always feels satisfying rather than tedious.
That even meant cutting features that sounded perfectly sensible on paper.
One of them was label re-sticking. Stormhardt couldn’t find a way to make replacing or repairing a game’s label feel satisfying, particularly after the horrors of his primary school stationery.
“I had flashbacks to vinyl covers we’d put on binders in primary school, all crooked and bubbly. When I couldn’t get it to scratch that itch, I nixed it, but it might come back post-release.”
Honestly, fair enough. If a mechanic is going to give me flashbacks to badly covered school books, it probably deserves to stay in the bin.
A Love Letter To Retro Games
There are 109 games to discover in Cozy Game Restoration, each inspired by real games from the era. But rather than simply recreating those classics, Stormhardt has a little fun with them.
Four of the fictional games have been given particularly ridiculous, Isekai-style names, including I Was Sent to Clear an Abandoned Facility but Accidentally Adopted a Bio-Weapon with Feelings.
Which is, admittedly, a considerably more dramatic premise than anything I remember reading on the back of a cartridge box. Definitely more of an anime or manga.
For Stormhardt, these games are love letters to the titles that inspired them, giving him an opportunity to invent his own silly and overly dramatic interpretations of their plots and mechanics.
That same affection extends to the games he’d like to see immortalised in the collection. If he could add any Australian game to Cozy Game Restoration, his answer is Untitled Goose Game.
“It fits the light silly vibes that tickle me.”
It’s hard to argue with that.
READ MORE: Review | BOMBANANA!: ‘Absolutely Bananas’ (PC)
Making Restoration Feel Right
For all the nostalgia at the heart of Cozy Game Restoration, actually making the game has involved plenty of work that has nothing to do with cleaning cartridges.
“The stuff outside the cleaning has definitely been larger than I anticipated,” Stormhardt says.
That includes the options menus, quests and collection systems — all the things that answer the eternal video game question of “Okay, I’ve finished this… now what?”
Those systems have gone through some of the most iteration during development. Even the game’s visual style continued to evolve, with Stormhardt only settling on the aesthetic of an old NES-style booklet relatively recently.
The community also had a hand in shaping the experience. Feedback led to changes around stickers and accessibility options, including a toggle that prevents players from having to hold down the cleaning button for extended periods.
There are still ideas sitting in the post-release basket, including a new toothpick tool. I’m quite keen for that one after spending far too long scrubbing some stubborn dirt off a cartridge in the demo.
It seems that all that iteration has paid off, too. Cozy Game Restoration is one of six winners of the Digital PAX Aus Indie Showcase, giving the upcoming restoration sim a chance to show off its satisfying cleaning mechanics to even more players.
READ MORE: Review | Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave (NS2)
Restoring The Memories
For all the tools, quests, cartridges and questionable amounts of virtual grime, Stormhardt hopes players ultimately take something a little more personal away from Cozy Game Restoration.
“I think being reminded of games you grew up with can spark memories of old friends or moments with family,” he says. “Games have been a part of growing up and if my little game can help people remember some of the fun moments they’ve had with them, then I’d say the game has been an amazing success.”
That’s perhaps the most interesting thing about nostalgia. We think we miss the games, but often, we miss the moment in time — and the feelings that came with it.
Cozy Game Restoration might ask you to clean up some old cartridges, but what it’s really asking you to do is dust off the memories attached to them.
And honestly, those are probably the things worth restoring most.
If you want to do some restoration of your own, you’ll be able to get hands-on with Cozy Game Restoration at PAX Aus 2026, where it’ll be playable from October 9th to 11th at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.
You can wishlist Cozy Game Restoration on PC via Steam now.
