10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

Oxenfree

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

Stranger Things takes some big inspirations from classic ’80s movies, especially in the realm of a group of kids’ coming of age story. Films like E.T., The Goonies, and The Gate all tell a story of a group of adolescents dealing with something extraordinary or paranormal, and finding out about themselves in the process. Oxenfree follows that same idea, revolving around a group of teenagers that take a trip to a local island to party it up. Alone and secluded, the group discovers a paranormal threat and tries to unravel the mystery of what’s happening on the island.

If the characters and their personalities is what appealed to you most about Stranger Things, Oxenfree is definitely for you. The big focus of the game is getting to know the main character Alex, and her group of friends. Instead of telling things through cutscenes, however, all dialogue in the game happens in real time, assigning different conversation choices to the different face buttons. This keeps you in the action and the flow of the game active, forcing you to make decisions constantly. While the paranormal threat is the main threat of the game, the crux of Oxenfree is how these characters learn and grow because of it. You’ll have a hard time not getting attached to at least a couple of them in your time it.

Night in the Woods

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

Much like Oxenfree, Night in the Woods is a coming of age story, this time revolving around a 20 year old cat named Mae who has abruptly returned home from college. The game is mostly focused on Mae, although her friends also play important roles. At the start of the game Mae starts having strange dreams and encountering strange events in her home town of Possum Springs. These events and mysteries aren’t really developed on until later though, as most of the first half of Night in the Woods is about exploring Possum Springs, learning about the residents, and helping Mae work through here issues. As a main character she is deeply troubled and conflicted, even suffering from depression and mental illness. The truly impressive thing about Night in the Woods is how the game tackles these subjects, presenting them as natural things that the characters have to overcome instead of making them the entire point of each character’s personality.

Mae and her friends build heartwarming bonds throughout, but make no mistake there is a threat and mystery to contend with, more than one in fact. It has a lot in common with Stranger Things, even if it does sport an anthropomorphic animal aesthetic.

Earthbound

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

EarthBound is one of the more underlooked Nintendo games, releasing to little fanfare and acclaim initially, mostly due to a questionable marketing campaign. However, over the years the game, and Mother series, has developed a strong cult following, and for good reason. Unlike most Nintendo games, EarthBound takes place in the real world, with a young boy named Ness as the main character. When an meteorite lands near his house, Ness goes to investigate with his neighbor Pokey, where they find that an evil entity known as Giygas is consuming the world in hatred and turning animals, humans, and everyday objects into malicious creatures.

Ness has to travel around the world to try and stop Giygas, building a party of friends and other characters along the way. EarthBound is a traditional turn-based RPG that has an incredibly quirky sense of humor, and even tries to subvert the genre to a degree by parodying known staples. The similarities with Stranger Things stem from EarthBound’s story and characters. It’s a story about friendship, growing up, and the value of embracing human emotion. The cast of characters is mostly made up of youngsters around the age of the Stranger Things’ kids, meaning you’ll see a few similarities in tone.

Until Dawn

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

Until Dawn embraces nearly everything that both horror games and movies are known for, and it does it to great effect. As you might expect, the game is about a group of teens that take a trip up to a family ski lodge, for a weekend to themselves. There is some trepidation, however, as two of the group’s friends died on the mountain due to an accident. Right from the get go things don’t seem right, and strange events start to hit the group of teens one after another.

The truly unique thing about Until Dawn is how it flip flops perspectives from one character to another. You’ll have to make crucial decisions that will affect the outcome of the game, and the safety of another character. It is entirely possible for each and every character to die in the game, or it’s also possible to save everyone. Until Dawn plays with some major horror tropes, and without spoiling anything, it turns them on their head.

The horror elements of the game are much more in line with Stranger Things, as they aren’t usually in your face, but more about atmospheric terror. That’s not to say the game doesn’t have jump scares or anything, as it utilizes just about every trick in the book. The group of teens in Until Dawn aren’t nearly as likable at first as the Stranger Things crew, and you’re intentionally supposed to dislike a few of them. But the cast does grow on you, and you’ll become invested in seeing each one to safety (or to their death).

Thimbleweed Park

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

Thimbleweed Park is developed by the renowned Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, and is basically a spiritual successor to classic point and click games like Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island. In all honestly, Thimbleweed Park may remind you of The X-Files, mostly due to its main characters, FBI agents Ray and Reyes who are seemingly inspired by Mulder and Scully. The mystery and quirkiness of the game is sure to appeal to fans of Stranger Things though.

The two FBI agents arrive at the town of Thimbleweed Park to investigate a murder, which ends up turning into a string of murders. As you’d expect this string is anything but normal, and turns out to be so much more. Surprisingly, you don’t only play as Ray and Reyes the whole time, as there’s actually a rotating cast of five characters you take control of. Even better for Stranger Things fans, Thimbleweed Park is also packed with references and nods to the ’80s.

Inside

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

Inside is admittedly a bit different than most of the other games here, mostly due to the lack of an interesting cast of characters. That’s the point of Inside though, unraveling the mystery of what’s happened in this world and who the small boy you’re playing as is. Everything in Inside is shrouded in mystery, and you’ll uncover tiny little bits and pieces of story as you go along. This certainly isn’t an in your face or gory horror game, however, as Inside works wonders with its absolutely unsettling atmosphere and imagery.

The world of Inside is wrapped in drab greys and blacks, with the game making smart use of bright colors like red in certain instances. Just like the previous game from Playdead, Limbo, there’s plenty of puzzles and platforming segments to get through along the way. If the mystery and horror elements of Stranger Things is what you love, you’ve definitely got to check out Inside. Without spoiling anything, there’s even something quite similar to The Upside Down.

Persona 4 Golden

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

Lengthy JRPGs may not be the first thing you think of in relation to Stranger Things, but Persona 4 and even Persona in general definitely fits the bill. There’s probably not a series out there more about teenage coming of age stories or self discovery. In Persona 4 you play as Yu Narukami, who’s come to the sleepy town of Inaba for the school year to stay with his uncle Dojima. Inaba is a small town in every sense, and Yu quickly makes friends. Before long, however, a grisly murder takes place sending the group on a path that leads to more murders, a mysterious other world, and the formation of the “Investigation Team.” Sound familiar? Persona 4 does have quite a lot in common with something like Stranger Things, and one of the big selling points of the games is their interesting mix of role-playing and everyday life.

You’ll attend school, take tests, decide which friends to hang out with, and work part time jobs. Persona 4 lets you live the life of a Japanese teenager, albeit one that can summon a freaky alter ego to battle shadows. The characters of Persona 4 are exceptionally well fleshed out, with realistic issues and fears that are deeply explored by the game. For as important as the main mystery is, it’s really the relationships the characters build that takes center stage.

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

White Day is a Korean horror game originally released for PC in 2001, with a remake just recently hitting mobile devices, as well as PCs and the PS4. As you might guess the game heavily involves a high school, and the students therein. Yeondu High School is the main location of the game, and its construction messed up the feng shui in the surrounding area, which was pristine with nature. You play as Lee Hui-min a student of the school in a first person perspective, exploring the school, avoiding possessed janitors, and uncovering its mysteries. You and a group of other students end up getting trapped in Yeondu, and have to find a way out while contending with spirits and malevolent forces.

As you’re assuming the role of high school students there’s plenty of drama that unfolds, as well as an interesting main narrative that deals with the religious studies of Taoism and the school’s checkered past. While it’s definitely got some warts like awkward gameplay elements and odd pacing, it is a remake of a 16 year old game after all, White Day still presents an intriguing mystery to unravel. It’s a more methodical horror game focused on exploration and puzzle solving, something that might just match the slower pace of Stranger Things.

Minecraft: Story Mode

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

While regular Minecraft may not have much to do with something like Stranger Things, Story Mode can match up a bit, in tone at least. Minecraft: Story Mode casts you as Jesse who lives in an interpretation of the Minecraft world. The series starts whimsically with Jesse and friends preparing for the Endercon building competition. Before long in the episodic series a sinister plot is discovered, forcing the group to travel around the world in an effort to save it. Despite being based on Minecraft and being more family friendly, Story Mode does get a tad bit creepy as you have to contend with the strange and imposing Enderman.

What’ll really appeal to fans of Stranger Things though is the camaraderie with its main cast. Although not strictly teenagers or anything, the cast of Story Mode is still fairly naive about how the world works, which leads to some personal growth. Story Mode can be a fun and comical romp as these characters travel to different parts of the world discovering ancient secrets and facing dangers. In a way it really emulates the teenage movies like Goonies or E.T., backed up by a stellar voice cast with the likes of Patton Oswalt, Catherine Taber, and Dave Fennoy.

Stranger Things: The Game

10 Games to Play While You Wait For Stranger Things Season 2

That’s right, if you happened to miss the news recently there’s even an official Stranger Things game available now. Netflix worked with indie developer BonusXP to release a retro, SNES style Stranger Things game. Even better, it’s available completely for free. As you might expect the game follows the story of the show pretty loosely, just using events and locations as setups for levels. You do get to play as a number of characters from the show, each of which have different skills that you’ll need in order to solve puzzles.

After an initial level you’ll get to travel around the town of Hawkins, battle government agents, explore The Upside Down and more. The retro style fits perfectly with Stranger Things’ vibe, and the simplistic touch controls work well for exploring and solving puzzles.