Although I totally love decapitating zombies with chainsaws, sometimes I just have to pick up a game that’s cute and quirky to restore balance to the force. I’m a girl and I love cute stuff, but I’m not into kiddie games. These seven games are my go-to cute games that either challenge my skills or chill me out.

7. JoyJoy – Xbox Live

Radiangames’ JoyJoy has beautiful graphics, a great soundtrack, and dual-joystick controls that will drive you absolutely insane. Colors swirl as you swish around the screen, shooting everything in sight. Using one joystick to move and the other to shoot is more difficult than it sounds, and its actually an incredibly frustrating game. The soothing music and graphics must have been added in to keep you from throwing your controller through the television. Regardless, JoyJoy is beautiful and worth a download.

6. Orisinal – Flash / iOs

The Orisinal website has been around for what seems like forever, but the flash games on the site are still fresh thanks to beautiful graphics and simple yet difficult gameplay. I don’t think I’ve ever been more pissed off at bunnies and bells in my life. This site has been entertaining me for years, and the browser-based games load quickly and are free to play. There are also four games available in the iTunes app store in case you feel the need to take the cute with you. It’s just the right thing for when you want to goof off at work.

5. The Undergarden – Xbox Live / PSN / Steam

The Undergarden is the ultimate in beautiful chill-out games. You are a tiny little sea money, picking up pollen and growing beautiful underwater flowers. Along the way, you pick up cute little musicians who serenade you on your journey. Although The Undergarden is a very laid-back game, there is still an objective. Getting a 100% grow rate and picking up special gemstones and rare flowers gets you upgrades, allowing you to change your sea monkey’s colors and features. However, I often fall asleep playing this game because it’s so soothing.

4. The Tiny Bang Story – Steam / PC / Mac

So many adjectives can be used to describe The Tiny Bang Story. Precious, maybe. Or quirky. But what this little game hides behind beautiful hand-drawn artwork is an addictive puzzle game. By the way, it takes the term “puzzle game” literally, as the basic premise of the game revolves around finding puzzle pieces to put Tiny Planet back together. It looks simple, but finding all the puzzle pieces and figuring out some of the mini-games is actually pretty difficult. I’ll admit, I found a walkthrough online and totally cheated. It’s that hard.

3. Pocket God – iOs / Android / Windows Mobile

I love playing games where I get to control and kill a god-fearing populace. Maybe I’m a psychopath, but when a game is this cute, it’s kind of excusable. In Pocket God, you have your own little army of pygmies to feed to dinosaurs, turn into zombies, shoot into volcanoes, and so much more. Once you’ve killed them all, click the + button and boom, instant victims. It’s a great game to release some steam when you’re pissed off at your boss. Name them all “Larry” and go to town.

2. Sneezies – iPad / iPhone / iTouch

For the longest time, Sneezies has been my anti-productivity go-to game. You can spend hours throwing dust at these cute little guys and watching them sneeze themselves to safety. It’s such a simple game, but you’ll find yourself developing strategies to get all of these little guys out of their bubbles. When you see a speck of dust almost reach a Sneezie, but they don’t sneeze… it’s one of the most frustrating things ever.

1. Little Big Planet 1 and 2 – PS3 / PS Vita

It almost feels wrong to put such a popular game on a list of indie titles, but let’s face it, Little Big Planet and LBP2 are freakin’ adorable. Add in the fact that they’re huge, addicting games and highly customizable, and they deserve to be at the top of the list. Sackboy is one of the cutest little game heroes, and being able to dress him in a million little outfits is the ultimate in cute. I just wish that it wasn’t the only game that I play on the PS3…

Special Mention: Harvest Moon – Nintendo 64

Harvest Moon is a game I used to play all the time back when I still had a Nintendo 64. It almost overdosed on cute (what was with the squeaking noise when you milked cows?), but was still more fun than Farmville. I haven’t played it in years, and just remembered it right before hitting “publish”, so Harvest Moon gets its own special mention right here.

What do you think? What are your ultimate cute games? Leave them in the comments!