Sounds like an easy thing to find, right?

You know how you look at the games in your library sometimes and think "I don't really want to play any of these right now". Okay, I'm not quite there yet.

The problem is I'm playing Bloodborne right now and felt like mixing it up with another game. I installed the ones that caught my eye: Pathologic, The Black Watchmen and The Darkest Dungeon. My immediate thought looking at these four games was "How fucking dour". If I wanted to mix things up and unwind after some work, I don't think I'm doing it right.

What games do you turn to when you are looking for something fun? That are guaranteed to lift your spirits and put a smile on your face?

For me I think the Professor Layton series probably work, it's full of that fuzzy feeling of nostalgia without being about a single nostalgic thing in particular, it's more about the tone.

Maybe Call of Juarez Gunslinger is pretty fun too. Yeah, you go around killing hundreds of people, but it's all pretty cartoony and the meta antics that the narrator gets into, rewinding scenes, redoing them, telling things wrong on purpose, make it all pretty lighthearted and even funny at times.

Needless to say though...ehh...I'm just not in the mood to replay those games, y'know?

For me it's the Infinity Engine games: Baldur's Gate series, and Icewind Dale games. I love character creation and redoing the games with different NPCs (BG series) or different character class mixes (both series).

Saints Row 4. When I feel the need for some siliness I always fire it up and it cheers me up.

Simple ones.
You know - the kind, where you don't have to learn 20 keys to play them.
No story to follow.
Just plain, simple fun...mostly (old) Jump'n'Runs do the trick for me. Professor Layton is nice, simple enough to fit my criteria above...however, also a little bit flawed (some solutions to the riddles have to be "pixel-perfect" to get recognized as correct, which can be a bit too frustrating, if you just want some fun).

All tastes are different, but for me simple games (not mentally taxing) include

Guild of Dungeoneering
Papers Please
FTL
Bionic Dues

I also enjoy Heroes of Might Magic 2 - 5 and find them simple, but then I've been playing them since they were released, apart from a few breaks, almost daily.

I don't know, it really depends on what I'm in the mood of playing. Sometimes some Fight the Dragon maps (great creative community, but the gameplay gets a bit old after a while). Sometimes Tower of Guns. Or any of the countless open world games I started and couldn't be bothered to finish yet because they're so big, just doing some random stuff and side missions (Kingdoms of Amalur, Mad Max, Skyrim/Enderal, The Saboteur, Borderlands 2, Prototype, Just Cause 2 ...).

Street Fighter V - when I got kicked by some other more skilled player it puts a smile on my face, but when I kick the other the smile goes even deeper ;)

Looking for one right now.

I'm playing World in Conflict and it's a good game, but it's not fun! XD It's way intense and aggravating. I need something just.....FUN.

Big thanks to DaCosta because this thread comes at the perfect time. I can probably find what I'm looking for in here. If not I'll have to go play HuniePop or something.

okay, I'll play that

Though I am having some fun with "Kill the Bad Guy". I just killed my target by catapulting a dead animal over a building and onto him.

Something nostalgic from the SNES or PS1 era usually does the trick, but I've also discovered that colorful 2D platformers are pretty great at reminding me that gaming is supposed to be a fun experience. Freedom Planet, the Shantae games, Super Panda Adventures (which is criminally overlooked), that kind of thing.

Tug of war with the cyclops, the ONE game you KNOW will never have DRM. :P

Pocket Pinball

It the casual fun factor that makes me want very much for the Ultra 3D Pinball,Ultra 3d Minigolf and Lionel Traintwon to show up on GOG.

Well, there is no one kind of thing, it depends on what exactly I'm in the mood for, but I guess most often it would be point & click adventure games. There is just something inviting about knowing that I'll know exactly how to play the game from the get go, won't have to learn mechanics, controls, I'll just sik my teeth right into the story and puzzles without anything getting in the way.