The recently released little indie Anxiety Arcade helps us understand how anxiety affects others — and ourselves
SLOW THE FUCK DOWN
TAKE A DEEP BREATH
That’s essentially the point behind the short and sweet game Anxiety Arcade from developer Matt Allen. Anxiety can move us to overthink everything, to push ourselves too fast and too much. While this novel project won’t necessarily help us deal with the mental health issue, it will perhaps help us understand, just a little more, what happens when we’re knee deep in the muck of life.
Anxiety Arcade is a short game filled with mini experiences that are meant to evoke moments of unplanned panic. “Where are my keys? Why doesn’t this work? Am I feeding my fish too much or not at all? Did I do my laundry in time?” The game looks at how anxiety can affect our daily tasks, often the little and mundane things that can feel like mountains.
The game really is charming, almost therapeutic, but not in the traditional sense. Just knowing that someone else has gone through or goes through something similar can lift a bit of the weight off. It helps that the design of the game is pleasant and clean, utilizing a pixelated style to be relatable. We walk around our home, hoping to do whatever things we need to do, with the intent that everything *should* be in its place. But, like the effect of real life anxiety, things aren’t there, or they are but it’s not apparent, or they are but we actually don’t need them, or they are but we make getting to them more complicated. And when we’re done with a task, when we’ve showered or fed a fish or found our keys, there’s a moment where we find ourselves, in real life, taking a breath.
Anxiety Arcade isn’t going to heal us, that’s not its intent, but having a little reminder can do wonders.
Take a breath. A deep breath. Slow down. Just for a second.
This review is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. Images and video courtesy publisher. This video first appeared on The SideQuest for January 30, 2026.
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