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Keeping your cool

Calm hands when it all goes wrong.

Last life, last boss, screen full of bullets. Players who tense up die. Players who breathe and keep their thumbs loose get through. Old shooters and fighting games are pressure cookers built to teach exactly this.

The trick is that calm is a skill, not a mood. You can practise it.

Train it on purpose

  1. When you feel the grip tighten on the pad, notice it. Loosen your hands on purpose. That is the whole drill.
  2. After a big death, wait five seconds before you hit continue. Do not rage-restart.
  3. Play the hardest bit on purpose, over and over, until it stops making your heart race.

Off the couch

Job interviews, arguments, a first date where the conversation stalls, the moment your mate's car breaks down on the highway. The person who stays level gets to think while everyone else reacts. And here is one for free: nobody fancies the bloke who throws the controller. Calm is attractive.

Sources

  1. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Games that train it

ActRaiser 2 coverActRaiser 2
Spells only fire after you hold the button to charge, and on the higher settings the charge takes longer while monsters keep coming. Panic and let go early, and you've wasted a scroll.Axelay coverAxelay
Take a hit and your current weapon breaks, so you limp on with the weak default. A second hit kills you. The bloke who panics after the first hit takes the second.Batman: The Video Game coverBatman: The Video Game
Getting knocked back into a pit right at the top of a shaft is the moment most people throw the pad.Battletoads coverBattletoads
The walls come faster and faster in the Turbo Tunnel. Tense up and you're done.Castlevania: Dracula X coverCastlevania: Dracula X
The difficulty's real and the level layouts own some of the blame. The game asks for patience, not anger.Contra III: The Alien Wars coverContra III: The Alien Wars
The action is dense and loud from the first screen, the bosses are huge, and the difficulty is brutal above normal. Every death is your fault, which is the point.Donkey Kong Jr. coverDonkey Kong Jr.
A bonus timer counts down the whole time, and every loop runs faster. Rush it and you fall.Double Dragon coverDouble Dragon
The Mission 3 cavern, with its jumps and traps, stops being a brawler and becomes a test of your jumping. The platforming can be cruel.EarthBound coverEarthBound
Hit points roll down like an odometer, so a mortal blow gives you a few seconds to heal before the number hits zero. Panic and you waste them.Earthworm Jim coverEarthworm Jim
In one level you whip Peter Puppy over pits, and if anything hurts him he turns on Jim. Funny once, tense every time after.Faxanadu coverFaxanadu
Movement is stiff, the jump is short and knockback can push you off a ledge. Rush a ladder with an enemy nearby and you lose a screen of progress.Final Fantasy IV coverFinal Fantasy IV
Active Time Battle means enemies act when their gauge fills, whether you've chosen a move or not. Hesitate and you take the hit.Final Fight Guy coverFinal Fight Guy
It's one player only, so there's no partner to bail Guy out when the street fills up. Get swarmed and you need a calm head to get clear.Friday the 13th coverFriday the 13th
An alarm sounds, Jason's attacking someone and a clock starts. Panic and you sprint the wrong way through the woods.Gradius III coverGradius III
When the screen fills, the game halves its speed. Treat it as time to think, not a reason to panic.Gradius coverGradius
Losing a ship stings, because a well-built Vic Viper is worth far more than a fresh one. The next life is where most runs fall apart.Hogan's Alley coverHogan's Alley
The hesitation before you fire on a cut-out you aren't sure about is the whole game. Ten mistakes and it's over.Ice Hockey coverIce Hockey
Let two players tussle long enough and their teammates pile in, and the loser of the scrap goes to the penalty box. The crowd gets louder as a close game ticks under two minutes.Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run coverKen Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run
Late innings, tied game, the throw coming in. The controls are quick, so a panicky press costs you the run.Killer Instinct coverKiller Instinct
An Ultra Combo is coming and you're stuck in a 20-hit string. The bloke who mashes eats all 20. The one who stays calm waits for the gap and lands the combo breaker.Kirby's Avalanche coverKirby's Avalanche
Grey rocks start raining onto your side and the middle columns climb. Against a friend it becomes a race of nerve.Metal Gear coverMetal Gear
Snake starts with nothing, guards patrol every screen, and the game wants you to slip past rather than shoot.Mighty Final Fight coverMighty Final Fight
Mad Gear thugs pile in from both sides of the street. The bloke who mashes gets surrounded; the one who stays calm picks them off one at a time.Mortal Kombat coverMortal Kombat
Goro has four arms and hits like a truck. Players who panic and jump in get flattened.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom coverNinja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
Small mistakes turn into deaths fast. The players who get through stay steady instead of flinching.Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures coverPac-Man 2: The New Adventures
When you know exactly where he needs to go and he won't go there, it's maddening.Pilotwings coverPilotwings
Anti-aircraft guns kill in one hit on the helicopter mission, and the later licences ask for more precision under the same pressure.Pocky & Rocky coverPocky & Rocky
Danger comes from every direction you can move in, and kappa don't wait for you to settle. The player who panics slides into trouble; the calm one dances through the crowd.Rad Racer coverRad Racer
Traffic thickens from Beetles to Testarossas and the clock's always ticking. When time runs out you coast, and the calm driver can still roll over the line on fumes.Silver Surfer coverSilver Surfer
Enemies and their shots fill the screen, and reviewers at the time called it frustrating. Tense up and you clip a bullet.Solomon's Key coverSolomon's Key
A timer runs and demons keep spawning while you're still working out the room. Think too long and you're dead.Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting coverStreet Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
At high speed the bloke who panics mashes buttons. The calm one waits for the opening.Sunset Riders coverSunset Riders
One hit costs a life and every power-up you were carrying, and lit dynamite has to be thrown back before it goes off.Super Bomberman 3 coverSuper Bomberman 3
Five players at once means every corridor is somebody's trap, and the last two standing often survive on luck.Super Bomberman coverSuper Bomberman
After ninety seconds the game shouts Hurry Up and seals the arena from the edges in. Most players panic. The calm one finds the last safe square.Super Castlevania IV coverSuper Castlevania IV
Difficulty climbs steeply in the final stages, where a knockback into a pit costs a long stretch. Rush and you fall.Super Mario Bros. 2 coverSuper Mario Bros. 2
Poison mushrooms, invisible blocks and wind gusts mid-jump. It feels mean, and the angry player keeps dying in the same spot.Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island coverSuper Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Get hit and baby Mario floats off in a bubble, wailing, while a countdown ticks. The shrill crying is the perfect setup for a second mistake.Super Punch-Out!! coverSuper Punch-Out!!
No points decision, no draw: if three minutes run out, you lose. The later circuits become a race against the clock as much as the boxer.Super R-Type coverSuper R-Type
When the screen fills with bullets, the game slows almost to a standstill. Panic wastes that gift; calm players thread straight through.Tecmo Bowl coverTecmo Bowl
The play call is a tense little bluffing contest, a game takes minutes, and once you pick you can't take it back.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coverTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The second mission, defusing timed bombs underwater, is the bit everyone remembers. The ticking clock is built to rattle you.Top Gun coverTop Gun
Three planes, no continues. The dogfights are fun; the pressure lands when you're lining up the carrier.Volleyball coverVolleyball
Most rallies end in a guess about where the ball is, which tests your temper more than your hands.Wild Gunman coverWild Gunman
Fire too soon and the duel is lost before it starts. The wait before the flash is pure tension.Yoshi's Cookie coverYoshi's Cookie
In the single-player VS Mode, the grid keeps filling from the top and right while you race the computer. One panicked slide wrecks the next line.