Strategy games
Think a turn ahead: tactics and strategy games for when you’d rather plan than react.
48 strategy games to play in your browser with a controller. Free every day; log in with Discord to play.
- Shining Force II (Sega Genesis, 1993, Sega): A thief steals two jewels and frees the devil Zeon, and young Bowie leads an army of knights, mages and centaurs in turn-based battles to stop him.
- Pokémon Stadium 2 (Nintendo 64, 2000, Nintendo): Battle with all 251 Pokémon from Gold and Silver in 3D arenas, take on the Gym Leader Castle and play twelve minigames with up to four friends.
- Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (Nintendo 64, 1999, Atlus): Young officer Magnus Gallant leads squads of soldiers, monsters and mages in real-time strategy battles across a kingdom at war.
- New Horizons (Super Nintendo, 1994, Koei): Uncharted Waters: New Horizons: sail the Age of Discovery as one of six captains, trading, mapping and dueling across a world of ports, in Koei's seafaring RPG.
- Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (Super Nintendo, 1995, Enix America): Lead a rebel army of units across real-time maps, liberating towns and managing your reputation, with tarot cards that shape the campaign and its ending.
- SimCity (Super Nintendo, 1991, Nintendo): Zone, tax and build your way from a village to a megalopolis, with Dr. Wright's advice, gifts like a Mario statue and a Bowser attack among the disasters.
- Herzog Zwei (Sega Genesis, 1990, Sega): Fly a transforming jet that drops bought units onto the battlefield and orders them around, against the computer or a friend in split screen, in the game that invented real-time strategy.
- Master of Monsters (Sega Genesis, 1991, Renovation Products): Summoners raise monsters on hex maps, level them up and fight for towers, against the computer or a friend, in SystemSoft's fantasy wargame.
- Shining Force (Sega Genesis, 1993, Sega): Max leads a growing force of knights, mages and centaurs in turn-based battles across Rune, with town scenes between, in the first Shining Force.
- Warsong (Sega Genesis, 1991, Treco): Prince Garett and his commanders lead squads of soldiers in turn-based battles to retake his kingdom, in the first Langrisser, released here as Warsong.
- Pokémon Stadium (Nintendo 64, 2000, Nintendo): Battle the first 151 Pokémon in 3D with rental teams through the Gym Leader Castle, the Stadium cups and the minigames.
- StarCraft 64 (Nintendo 64, 2000, Nintendo): Both StarCraft and Brood War campaigns on a controller, with a split-screen two-player mode made for this version.
- Worms Armageddon (Nintendo 64, 2000, Infogrames): Teams of worms lob bazookas, holy hand grenades and banana bombs across destructible landscapes, turn by turn, for up to four players.
- Pokémon Trading Card Game (Game Boy Color, 2000, Nintendo): Learn the Pokémon card game from Dr. Mason, build decks from over 200 cards and beat the eight Club Masters and Grand Masters for the Legendary Cards.
- Warlocked (Game Boy Color, 2000, Nintendo): A real-time strategy war between humans and beasts: gather resources, build armies and recruit wizards in a pocket-sized Warcraft.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories (Game Boy Color, 2002, Konami): Duel the cast of Yu-Gi-Oh! with a deck built from hundreds of cards under the early rules, winning new cards and fusing monsters along the way.
- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Nintendo DS, 2008, Nintendo): After meteor strikes ruin the world, Will and the 12th Battalion command tanks, bombers and infantry in turn-based battles across the wasteland.
- Advance Wars: Dual Strike (Nintendo DS, 2005, Nintendo): Orange Star and its allies take on the Black Hole army, with battles fought on two fronts at once across both screens and commanding officers in tag teams.
- Age of Empires: Mythologies (Nintendo DS, 2008, THQ): Greek, Egyptian and Norse armies clash in turn-based battles, calling on heroes and the powers of their gods, in a pocket Age of Mythology.
- Age of Empires: The Age of Kings (Nintendo DS, 2006, Majesco Entertainment): Joan of Arc, Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, Genghis Khan and Minamoto no Yoshitsune lead their nations through turn-based medieval campaigns.
- Blue Dragon Plus (Nintendo DS, 2009, Ignition Entertainment): Shu and his friends set out to stop a mysterious cube world from tearing their planet apart, in a real-time strategy RPG sequel to Blue Dragon.
- Disgaea DS (Nintendo DS, 2008, NIS America): Demon prince Laharl wakes from a two-year nap and fights to claim his father's throne in the Netherworld, in the over-the-top tactical RPG.
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (Nintendo DS, 2008, Square Enix): Luso is pulled into Ivalice by a magic book and takes on clan quests in grid battles, where a judge's law changes each fight.
- Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Nintendo DS, 2007, Square Enix): Vaan and his crew fly to the floating continent of Lemurés, summoning espers and leading sky pirates in real-time battles.
- Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Nintendo DS, 2009, Nintendo): Prince Marth fights to win back his homeland in turn-based battles where fallen allies are gone for good, in a remake of the first Fire Emblem.
- Front Mission (Nintendo DS, 2007, Square Enix): Wanzer mechs fight turn-based battles over Huffman Island, in the remake of the first Front Mission with a second campaign.
- Heroes of Mana (Nintendo DS, 2007, Square Enix): Roget and his allies fight a real-time strategy war across the world of Mana, summoning beasts and gathering resources.
- Knights in the Nightmare (Nintendo DS, 2009, Atlus): A wisp guides the souls of fallen knights through bullet-dodging tactical battles in a dying kingdom, in Sting's genre-bending strategy RPG.
- LEGO Battles (Nintendo DS, 2009, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment): Build LEGO bases and armies of knights, pirates, wizards and space troops in real-time strategy battles.
- Lock's Quest (Nintendo DS, 2008, THQ): Young Archineer Lock builds walls and turrets between waves of the Clockwork army, then fights alongside them in real-time defense battles.
- LostMagic (Nintendo DS, 2006, Ubisoft): Isaac draws runes with the stylus to cast spells and command monsters in real-time battles.
- Luminous Arc (Nintendo DS, 2007, Atlus): Alph and the Garden Children of the church battle witches in a turn-based tactical RPG.
- Luminous Arc 2 (Nintendo DS, 2008, Atlus): Roland of the Rune Knights fights alongside witches in a turn-based tactical RPG.
- Ninjatown (Nintendo DS, 2008, SouthPeak Games): Defend Ninjatown from Mr. Demon's army by placing huts that send out wee ninjas, in a tower-defense game.
- Plants vs. Zombies (Nintendo DS, 2011, PopCap Games): Plant sunflowers, peashooters and wall-nuts to stop the zombies shambling across your lawn, lane by lane.
- Pokémon Conquest (Nintendo DS, 2012, Nintendo): Warlords of the Ransei region team up with Pokémon in turn-based battles to unite its seventeen kingdoms.
- SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS (Nintendo DS, 2007, SNK Playmore): Build decks of SNK and Capcom characters and battle with them, in the DS sequel to the Neo Geo Pocket card game.
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (Nintendo DS, 2009, Atlus): Locked inside a demon-infested Tokyo for seven days, a group of teens fights back with demons summoned on their COMPs, in a tactical RPG.
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 (Nintendo DS, 2012, Atlus): Invaders called Septentriones strike Japan, and students with a demon-summoning app have seven days to save it.
- SimCity DS (Nintendo DS, 2007, Electronic Arts): Zone homes, shops and factories, lay roads and power lines and keep the budget balanced as your city grows on two screens.
- Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (Nintendo DS, 2009, Square Enix): Wylfred makes a pact with the goddess Hel to avenge his father, sacrificing his own allies for power in tactical battles.
- Worms: Open Warfare (Nintendo DS, 2006, THQ): Teams of worms take turns lobbing bazookas, grenades and sheep across destructible landscapes.
- Worms: Open Warfare 2 (Nintendo DS, 2007, THQ): More worm warfare, with new weapons, a level editor and a single-player campaign.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour (Nintendo DS, 2005, Konami): Duel your way through Domino City with a deck built from more than a thousand cards, under the anime's rules.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Stardust Accelerator: World Championship 2009 (Nintendo DS, 2009, Konami): Duel on a riding duel runner through New Domino City, with thousands of cards and Turbo Duels from the 5D's anime.
- Final Fantasy Tactics (PlayStation, 1998, Sony Computer Entertainment): Ramza Beoulve is drawn into Ivalice's War of the Lions and a church conspiracy, fighting turn-based grid battles with a deep job system.
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP, 2007, Square Enix): Final Fantasy Tactics retranslated, with new cutscenes, new jobs and new characters in Ramza's turn-based war.
- Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP, 2010, Sega): Cadet Avan Hardins leads his military academy class in a civil war across Gallia, in turn-based battles fought in real time.