At first glance, Diablo is not exactly what most people would describe as comforting. It is a series that explores the dark realms and fights all kinds of undead and demonic monsters. But its formula of exploring dungeons, collecting loot and constantly ramping up facilitates access to these places, despite the darkness of the subject. This feeling of comfort is even more pronounced when you take this formula and apply it to a familiar world, such as the Marvel universe. Now we can say the same thing about Minecraft.

 Minecraft Dungeons is exactly what it seems to be. It takes the best-selling series, removes its two most iconic features (mining and crafts), and replaces them with a light and charming experience that is perhaps the most accessible Diablo-type game ever created. Just like his inspiration, history - a fairly standard account of "evil invades the kingdom" - is not really important here. On the contrary, the heart of the experience is the loop: prepare, venture into new areas to explore, fight and collect the loot, then use its new skills and improved equipment to venture into more difficult areas.

 Dungeons doesn't innovate too much here. Rather, it is a matter of streamlining the experience. You choose dungeons from the menu of a map, for example, instead of exploring a vast world where it's easy to get lost. Similarly, the gear system is very easy to grasp. I received regular good weapons and armor, and for everything I didn't need, I could easily get rid of it in exchange for money. Each piece of equipment - you'll have a melee weapon, a remote bow and armor - also has a special ability, called enchantment, that you can increase several times as you gain experience. If you decide to switch to a new weapon, you can retrieve all these enchantments and reinvest them in something else. This is often a heavy and complex aspect of role-playing, which boils down to the essentials. At the same time, it gives you a lot of freedom to experiment.

You could say the same thing about the fight. Minecraft Dungeons is a hack and slash game; You will spend a lot of time moaning about zombies with your sword and cleaning the skeletons with well-placed arrows. But there's just enough here to make it interesting, like special abilities that allow you to do things like sprinting and leave a trail of fire in your wake or use an explosive fireworks instead of an arrow. You can only have a few at a time, so it's never really overwhelming, but they add enough strategy to make things interesting. Despite this simplicity, the game still has the essentials that most people expect of the genre, such as interesting areas to explore, huge bosses to shoot down and inventive abilities to exploit. One of the best features is a difficulty at scale, where you can choose the difficulty of the action before jumping into a dungeon.

 What really makes it work, however, are the traps of Minecraft. Dungeons is a new way to explore an incredibly familiar environment. Yes, the gameplay is very different from the original, but there's something satisfying about loading into a crowd of creepers while swinging a blocked sword and casting magic spells. It is good that the world is lovingly rendered and incredibly charming, from the beautiful landscapes - I particularly love the desert areas - to the wonderful soundtrack. Even when you are surrounded by lava pools or giant gelatinous cubes, there is something in Minecraft's aesthetic that makes it very light and playful. Even puzzles can be funny, like the keys to the dungeon that will run away when you are attacked.

 The most appropriate way to describe Minecraft dungeons is "comfort food." It takes two things that many players probably already know well, crushes them together in a surprisingly cohesive set, and then streamlines the experience so that almost everyone can take it and have fun. It is not particularly profound or innovative. For the most part, it doesn't do things that haven't been seen before - but in the case of Minecraft Dungeons, that's its greatest strength.

 Minecraft Dungeons is now available on Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.