Video games for ancient gamers

December 11, 2020 2:57 PM

My household is acquiring a Nintendo Switch, and I’d like to find a game for myself to get sucked into this winter. Problem: the last games I enjoyed were Civ II and the Sims on my college PC. Is there a modern Nintendo world-building game that scratches that exploration/world building itch?

Bonus difficulty level: I played a couple hours of Animal Crossing and thought it would be a good fit, but I actually kind of hated it (perhaps it was the confusing indentured servitude).

posted by Maarika to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (17 answers total)

Fellow Sims player back in the day, I found Minecraft scratched a similar itch.
posted by freethefeet at 2:59 PM on December 11, 2020

Untitled Goose Game. It's so perfect
posted by scruss at 3:00 PM on December 11, 2020 [7 favorites]

Civ VI is available for the Switch in case you want something to really get sucked into.

For actual world building there's Minecraft and the Dragon Quest Builders games.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:08 PM on December 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

Civ VI is $10 on eshop right now. Northgard is a real-time (not turn based) strategy game that is excellent.
posted by mattholomew at 3:30 PM on December 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's not perfect but you might check out My Time at Portia, I really enjoyed that. Exploration, very mild combat, lots of building, relationships, etc.
posted by MustangMamaVE at 3:59 PM on December 11, 2020

Best answer: Stardew Valley? Farming, mining, meeting people, making stuff.
posted by humbug at 4:31 PM on December 11, 2020 [19 favorites]

For exploration it will be tough to beat the most recent Legend of Zelda called Breath of the Wild.

Untitled Goose Game is also great but pretty short.
posted by zenon at 5:21 PM on December 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

Best answer: The Stardew Valley vs Animal Crossing thing is much discussed. Stardew has some similarities, but you're much more in control of the passage of time and the trajectory of your story, so it's worth examining even if you initially suspect they may be too similar for you to enjoy.
posted by Jilder at 5:24 PM on December 11, 2020 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Yes, Stardew Valley. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve played Stardew and Animal Crossing and I think the difference is that Animal Crossing is mostly about grinding without much forward momentum, and the focus is on visuals, decorating, designing your own clothes, etc. I’ve noticed that my graphic designer and artist friends tend to enjoy it the most.

Stardew is much more about getting a system up and running, tweaking, accumulating, etc. in a way that isn’t as expansive as Civ but scratches the same itch while happening to be cute and idyllic. It’s kind of the middle ground between Civ and AC.
posted by stoneandstar at 5:30 PM on December 11, 2020 [5 favorites]

This is kind of a long shot, but Spiritfarer? It's side-on rather than top-down, and you're building your city on a (very impractical) metaphorical ship within a liminal space, but... damn. Good game.
posted by sourcequench at 5:40 PM on December 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

You might enjoy Don’t Starve, Minecraft, Breath of the Wild, Carto, Dragon Quest Builders 2 (2 is much better than 1, IMO), and of course Civ 6. If you do like Stardew Valley also you will like other games it was inspired by, which was a series called Harvest Moon but is now called Story of Seasons due to licensing issues - ignore all modern games calling themselves harvest moon. There is very little like the Sims other than the Sims.
posted by Mizu at 6:21 PM on December 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

In addition to the suggestions upthread, Ark Survival Evolved ticks both those boxes. It is a survival game where you explore the giant island you're on (with some story to piece together), collect resources, build.... and fight and tame dinosaurs. It's pretty great. I haven't played the Switch version (only Ps4 and mobile) but I assume it's similar.
posted by DTMFA at 6:51 PM on December 11, 2020

For what it’s worth, the indentured servitude aspect of Animal Crossing turns out to be pretty irrelevant from a gameplay perspective. It basically just caps how quickly you expand your house. You pay no interest and experience no other limitations on gameplay... like, if you want to put your funds toward home decorations, clothing, island construction projects (bridges and inclines, when they become available, both cost Bells), etc., you can just do that and ignore the Tom Nook loan balance as long as you want. It may turn out to not be the game for you anyway, but the loan mechanic matters less than you might think.

I do agree with the characterizations of Stardew Valley in this thread and would definitely second the recommendation that you check it out.
posted by Kosh at 8:44 PM on December 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I love the Civ games but found playing it on the Switch an unrewarding experience. In my opinion, the interface just doesn't work as well as it does on PC. If it's $10 then it's probably worth a try, but just wanted to note that it didn't spark the same joy for me as PC versions.
posted by knapah at 1:54 AM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Thank me later.
posted by nkknkk at 11:55 AM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Posting for closure: Stardew Valley has sucked me in, totally and completely. I tried Civ VI but got too frustrated (I missed keyboard shortcuts so much), but my husband seems to like it. Zelda was too scary for me (I don’t like random things jumping out and attacking me), but Untitled Goose Game was fun to play a couple times. My kid and I have also enjoyed Yoku’s Island Express - cute characters, soothing music, relaxing pinball vibe.
posted by Maarika at 1:19 PM on February 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's not quite as good or as long as Stardew Valley but when you're done with that and looking for your next fix, check out Littlewood.
posted by commander_fancypants at 11:20 AM on May 13, 2021