6 Similar Games Short List
Here are our hand-picked short list of similar games; the perfect thing to play next if you enjoyed Bad North. We don't use automatic matching, instead, we hand-pick games that are good to play if you have enjoyed Bad North.
Release Date: 21/07/2023
Out Now: Switch
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Components: 3D Third-Person and Day and Night
Pikmin 4 is an action strategy game where you direct tiny, plant-like creatures to clean up the world and collect treasure. Different coloured Pikmins have different abilities, with several new types in this fourth game. The challenge is using the right...
Release Date: 08/09/2022
Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Side-On, Cards, Grid and Hand-Made
Isle of Arrows is a strategy game where you defend a magical crystal from waves of enemies. Using randomly assigned pieces and cards that grant you bonus abilities, you construct the invader's path and then fortify it to travel on with weapons, traps,...
Release Date: 30/08/2022
Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made
Tinykin is a puzzle game where you play Milo. You have landed on Earth in 1991 but are tiny. To survive you catch hundreds of mysterious Tinykin who can use their powers to create ladders, bridges and explosions to help you find a way home.
Release Date: 05/08/2021, updated in 2023
Out Now: Android, PC, Switch and iOS
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks, Cartoon and Grid
My Little Universe is a world-building adventure game where you are stranded on a barren moon with a set of tools. You collect resources and build habitation to incrementally improve life on your lonely planet. It's a simplified exploration and strategy...
Release Date: Coming soon
Coming Soon: PC
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon, Day and Night, Grid and Hand-Made
Trackline Express is a strategy game where you build and resource a train on an adventure through an unforgiving desert. Play involves running around to gather scarce materials to create the resource you need - coal, ore and wood for starters. It...
Release Date: 27/02/2018, updated in 2020
Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Stadia, Switch and iOS
Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Grid, Hand-Made and Pixels
Into the Breach is a fantasy turn-based battle. It's set in a future where humanity fights an army of giant monsters. You control mechs equipped with a variety of weapons and armour in carefully coordinated actions played out on super-small tile-based...
30 Similar Games Long List
Here are our hand-picked long list of similar games; the perfect thing to play next if you enjoyed Bad North. We don't use automatic matching, instead, we hand-pick games that are good to play if you have enjoyed Bad North.
Release Date: 21/10/2015
Out Now: Amazon Fire, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS
Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds
Components: 2D Side-On, Day and Night and Pixels
Kingdom is a retro-look strategy game where you must defend your town from the nightly attack of zombies as you develop your technology and civilisation day by day. But unlike other tower-defence games – where you set up defences and fend off waves of...
Release Date: 13/08/2019, updated in 2020
Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox X|S and iOS
Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds
Components: 2D Side-On, Cards and Dice
Dicey Dungeons is a video game adventure where you build a deck of cards to represent characters, attacks and weapons. Here the novelty is that these cards combine with dice rolls to determine who wins battles.
Release Date: 01/01/1999
Out Now: Android, PC and iOS
Components: 2D Side-On and Text
King of Dragon Pass is a fantasy strategy game where you control barbarian clans settling in the dangerous frontier region of Dragon Pass.
Release Date: 01/04/2019, updated in 2022
Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S
Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds
Components: 3D Third-Person
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (known as TABS) is a fighting game where you choose different armies and troops to battle each other in an automatic simulation that models their offensive and defensive abilities. Once set up, the fight is largely...
Release Date: 04/04/2019, updated in 2021
Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon
Islanders is a city-building game where you carefully place structures to earn points from their geographic location and relation to other features and buildings on your islands. Earn enough points and you unlock new buildings and eventually the chance...
Release Date: 26/10/2013, updated in 2020
Out Now: Switch and Wii U
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 3D First-Person and Day and Night
Pikmin 3 Deluxe is the latest in a series of puzzle games where you direct hordes of titular plant-like creatures to navigate garden locations. Different colour Pikmins have different abilities so the challenge is to get enough of the right ones to...
Release Date: 19/03/2021, updated in 2023
Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and iOS
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Hand-Made and Open World
Cozy Grove is a life simulation where you camp on a hand-drawn island. You play a scout and explore the ever-changing island's forest to find secrets and help the local ghosts. Like Animal Crossing, it has a children's storybook look but is a...
Release Date: 23/10/2020
Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead and Grid
Transformers: Battlegrounds is a strategy game that's accessible for a range of abilities. It offers a robot-themed XCOM-style game for younger players.
Release Date: 10/06/2013, updated in 2019
Out Now: Switch, Web and iOS
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: Open World and Text
A Dark Room is an adventure where you try and survive in the wild. The world is depicted with just text but leads you into a dense narrative with intriguing visitors and a steadily expanding world. It has a simple start – a single option to stoke a...
Release Date: 17/09/2019
Out Now: Apple TV, Mac and iOS
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead and Open World
Outlanders is a building simulation where you are the leader of a group of regular people building a town together. Some want to survive, while others want to build amazing things. It’s up to you to guide them towards their goal
Release Date: 26/10/2001, updated in 2009
Out Now: GameCube, Wii and Wii U
Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds
Components: 3D Third-Person
Pikmin is a real-time strategy game where the main character Captain Olimar crash lands on an alien planet filled with strange small creatures called Pikmin. You are able to control and use these creatures to knock down walls, build bridges and attack...
Release Date: 29/10/2020
Out Now: Android, Switch and iOS
Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon
Barbearian is a hectic action game where you fight through three-level missions by hacking and slashing hundreds of tiny enemies, collecting cash and rescuing minions to add to your army. It's a role-play game you can take on in bite-sized portions each...
Release Date: 20/10/2022
Out Now: Switch
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Grid
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is a strategy game where you control Ubisoft's Rabbids (cartoon rabbits) and Nintendo's Mario team in turn-based battles. It expands upon the previous game by adding a wider...
Release Date: 12/07/2016, updated in 2016
Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4 and Xbox One
Components: 2D Side-On
Cannon Brawl is a two-player battle where you collect resources and build weapons and defences, all in real time. It’s shout-out-loud fun where one wrong shot can let your opponent get the upper hand. Each battle is as frantic as it is silly. To win...
Release Date: 05/09/2021
Out Now: Android and iOS
Components: 2D Side-On and Text
Home Quest is a strategy game where you incrementally build a town, recruit an army and manage your economy. Like other idle games, it's a familiar set-up where you tap buttons to assign resources and then wait for the results. However, the unusual...
Release Date: Coming soon
Coming Soon: PC
Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds
Components: 2D Side-On, Day and Night, Pixels and Weather
Sons of Valhalla is a strategy base building game. You play the son of a Viking Jarl aiming to conquer England and save the love of your life. Like Kingdom, you incrementally upgrade your fortifications, farming and armies to defend...
Release Date: 14/01/2014, updated in 2016
Out Now: Amazon Fire, Android, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS
Components: 2D Overhead and Grid
The Banner Saga is a beautiful fantasy adventure where your strategic choices directly affect your personal story and the world around you. You play as two characters, each with their own related story.
Release Date: 08/07/2019
Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS
Components: 2D Overhead and Grid
Traffix is a puzzle game that puts you in charge of traffic lights on different road systems. By changing the lights to red, orange and green you work to get traffic to flow on increasingly complex and busy roads. It sounds complex, but with simple...
Release Date: 05/08/2014
Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS4 and iOS
Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made
Road Not Taken is a puzzle adventure game where you help a village from losing its children in the storms. It's a low pressure, but complex, puzzle where you head into the forest to find and free the children by moving items and enemies around. You fail...
Release Date: 24/01/2008, updated in 2018
Out Now: Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS3, PS4, PSP, Switch and Wii U
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead
PixelJunk Monsters is a strategy game where you build defensive towers to defeat a linear march of enemies before they reach your base and kill your creatures.
Release Date: 01/02/2019
Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon and Grid
Wargroove is a fantasy war game, similar to Advanced Wars from the Gameboy era, where players take turns in a variety of battles. Computer-controlled and human opponents compete to achieve objectives and be the last player remaining.
Release Date: 20/07/2020
Out Now: iOS
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Side-On and Text
Good Soduku is the classic puzzle game but made more accessible by removing the leg work of counting and tracking which numbers have been used where.
Release Date: 26/08/2021, updated in 2022
Out Now: PC and Switch
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Weather
A Winding Path is a hand-drawn adventure you play at a walking pace so you can take in the beauty of little things in the world. Your journey is to find the rainmaker to bring back the rain. You play by moving around and interacting with the people,...
Release Date: 18/02/2021
Out Now: Switch
Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels
Gemini is a fighting game where you defend a Crystal from waves of enemies. It's super simple in both visuals and gameplay. As you defend each wave you can collect coins to upgrade your character and purchase weapons. It's a great introduction to tower...
Release Date: 24/09/2021
Out Now: Android, PC and iOS
Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Board and Grid
Pawnbarian is a puzzle game where you attack enemies in a dungeon based on chess moves. You build a deck of different pieces and use them in battles
Release Date: 09/06/2021
Out Now: Android and iOS
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon
Botworld is a role-play battling game where you play a small creature in a huge explorable world. It's a bit like Pokemon. You discover new bots, collect scrap to craft items and work through a series of environments. It's an auto-battle game which...
Release Date: 13/10/2016, updated in 2017
Out Now: Android, iOS and iPhone, iPad
Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Text
Really Bad Chess is like chess, but with random pieces selected for each player. Try 8 Knights, 4 Bishops, and 3 pawns. Starting positions are also non-standard. It sounds like a bad idea (hence the name) but actually opens the imposing chess challenge...
Release Date: 21/04/2015
Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS Vita and iOS
Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead and Grid
Rymdkapsel is a strategy game where you command a stylised space station filled with minions. You make decisions about to spend your manpower and expand your space station. It's minimalist and intentionally opaque to understand, but through multiple...
Release Date: 18/12/2009, updated in 2011
Out Now: 3DS and 2DS and DS
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made
Starship Patrol (Starship Defense) is a shooting game where you defend your ship from waves of enemy attackers. You have a combination of static guns and defence ships to form an efficient strategy. It's well executed, but most unusual for its hand...
Release Date: 02/08/2023
Out Now: PC
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon, Day and Night and Open World
Thronefall is a miniature strategy game that focuses on tactics without the usual headaches of ever-expanding scale. You play in a fantasy world and build your defences during the day to be ready to defend yourself at night. It stands out not only for...