Just about everyone in the gaming world (and their cats) enjoys the cyberpunk-meets-kitty-cat video game Stray, but it’s not the only game that lets you play as a realistic animal. The subgenre dates back to the early days of gaming and features all manner of animals, from mischievous geese and terrifying sharks to helpless badgers.
Below are my 13 favorite games featuring semi-realistic animal protagonists. I gave up on games with over-anthropomorphized heroes like Sonic the Hedgehog and his ilk – they’re basically people in animal costumes, the furries of the gaming world.
Untitled Goose Game (2019)
In this delightful game, the player is a goose in a picturesque and peaceful village. Like real geese, you’re a right bastard. Your missions inevitably include wrecking everything, wreaking havoc and hurting everyone you meet, as well as honking your horn. The contrast between Goose Game’s twee, hand-drawn look and wistful piano soundtrack and the mindless mayhem of your goose antics is hilarious.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, macOS, Microsoft Windows
Shelter (2013)
Shelter is a survival game set entirely in the desert. You are a humble badger trying to feed and protect your five cubs in an unforgiving world. You don’t have magical powers, a gun, or anything beyond your drive to protect the ones you love. In other words, this game will make you cry. In the Shelter sequels, you’ll also mourn the death of lynxes and elephants.
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems, classic Mac OS
Tokyo Jungle (2012)
If playing as a single animal isn’t enough for you, check out Tokyo Jungle, where you can embody the whole damn zoo. In this unique game, Tokyo has been abandoned by humans, leaving zoo escapees and domestic animals to fight over the remains. There are over 50 animals to play with, from beagles to hyenas, with each section of the main game spotlighting a new species.
Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
Endling – Extinction is Forever (2022)
Endling puts you in the shoes of the last mother fox left on earth. Your task is to protect your four cubs and, by extension, your entire species. Like a real fox, you’ll have to hunt for food while avoiding predators, natural hazards, and the dangers of humans, who are relentlessly working to destroy what’s left of the planet. It’s not a heartwarming game by any means, especially when all your efforts aren’t enough to save your precious babies, but it looks cute and it’s actually about something.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Depth (2014)
Shark attacks are the perfect theme for an asymmetric multiplayer game. In depth, one player is a great white shark and four others are human divers, aka lunch. There are more humans and they have guns and other tools, but the shark is in its element: it can swim faster and farther, use sonar to track enemies at a distance, and chew up anyone with its powerful jaws. In short, a classic confrontation.
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Frogger (1981)
The original lifelike animal game, Frogger wowed your grandparents when it hit arcades in 1981. In it, you pilot a frog across a busy road and a river full of logs and alligators to get to your frog house in the top of the screen. Like real frogs, you end up getting road kill most of the time. Unlike Centipede, there are no unreal elements like missiles in Frogger. It’s just pure frog action.
Platform: arcade cabinet, ports/clones to almost every system imaginable
Away: The Survival Series (2021)
Away: The Survival Series has its problems, but it’s such an interesting concept that I had to include it. The idea behind this Kickstarter-funded indie title is to combine the atmosphere of nature documentaries with a video game, so a velvet-voiced narrator is your constant companion on the Away. You play as a sugar glider trying to survive in a hostile world. Fortunately, all the humans are now dead, so you’ll just have to contend with hunger, environmental hazards, and other animals, including the vulture that stole your mother.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5
Here’s the Dolphin (1992)
The plot of Ecco the Dolphin, in which an alien invasion is thwarted by a brave dolphin, is not very realistic, but the mechanics and gameplay are faithful to the dolphin-ness of the titular character. You won’t survive if you don’t gasp for air, say, like a real dolphin, and your special actions include dolphin things like using sonar and charging at enemies. If you’re nostalgic for the old days of punishingly difficult 2D platformers with insane control issues, step back in time with Ecco the Dolphin or one of its four sequels.
Platforms: Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, MacOS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Linux
Spirit of the North (2019)
In Spirit of the North, you play as a little fox in the frozen wastelands of Iceland. Your insignificant life is irrelevant to all the rest of Earth until the Guardian of the Northern Lights reveals your true purpose and grants you the ability to fight the corruption of the world by freeing the spirits of the dead from their eternal prison , just like real foxes do.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5
Okami (2006)
Okami’s main character is the goddess Amaterasu in the form of a white wolf, not an actual wolf, but I couldn’t make a list of animal-based video games without including this absolute classic. Told through visuals that look like Japanese ink paintings and steeped in Shinto mythology, Okami is a unique game, although real wolves don’t generally fight with swords and magical spells.
Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Wii, Xbox One, Windows
Bear Simulator (2016)
If your idea of a good time is running through a forest doing bear things, Bear Simulator is going to be your game of the year. Your bear adventure begins when you are a cub. You will have to find food, explore your world, build a den and fight other animals to survive. I realize real bears don’t collect hats in the wild, but come on. It’s just a game. Other “Blank Simulator” games include Horse Simulator, Dog Simulator, Cheetah Simulator, Deer Simulator and many more.
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS
Maneater (2020)
In Maneater, you are a murderous bull shark, bent on revenge against Scaly Pete, the heartless fisherman who killed your mother. You start out as a baby shark (doo doo doo doo doo doo) eating catfish and other chips to eat. As you explore the open ocean environments, you’ll eat larger prey and grow to the size of a leviathan, eating seals, people, and entire ships. It’s like Jaws from the shark’s point of view.
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S and X, PlayStation 5, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft Windows
Goat Simulator (2014)
Like a real goat’s life, Goat Simulator has little point beyond destruction, but it’s such hilarious destruction. Playing the role of an angry angry goat and banging its head against people, cars, buildings and everything else the world throws at you is great fun, but intentional glitches and exaggerated physics take Goat Simulator into the realm of hyper-chaos. It’s like watching a real goat: so stupid you have to laugh.
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS, Windows, macOS, Xbox Cloud Gaming