Amazon Alexa is mostly about controlling speakers and your smart home, but being a modern digital assistant, it can handle a lot more than that. In fact there’s a surprisingly large number of voice-based games for Alexa, so we’ve compiled a list of the best Alexa games to try if you’ve got a compatible speaker or smart display.
Related: The best skills and apps for Alexa
The best Alexa games:
The Bard’s Tale — Warlocks of Largefearn
Price: Free to enable, $4 to unlock
Based on the classic Bard’s Tale role-playing series, Warlocks of Largefearn is pretty ambitious for an Alexa game. While it’s single-player only, it’s a true RPG in its own right, including classes, levels, attributes, and a battle system. When you’re outside of combat, you can use four action verbs — “look,” “talk,” “use,” and “pick up” — to interact with your environment.
Players with an Echo Show get to see both their opponents and the town of Largefearn, but the game still works on an audio-only device. It’s worth noting, though, that you’ll have to pay $4 to unlock all content, including the Bard and Practitioner classes.
Kids Quiz!
Price: Free
Riddle and quiz games are pretty common with Alexa, probably because they’re easy to make and play on a voice-based platform. Kids Quiz is targeted at children aged 5 to 12, who have to answer fact questions and other brainteasers spanning a range of topics. New questions arrive every day, so the game should keep kids engaged for a while.
No Way That’s True
Price: Free
If your kid wants to get a little more competitive with quiz games, Nickelodeon’s No Way That’s True supports up to four players, testing them on facts about animals, people, and places. Another attraction is the voices of characters like SpongeBob Squarepants and Lincoln Loud. It’s a treat for diehard Nickelodeon fans, although you might hear too many repeat questions if you play on a regular basis.
Wraith: The Oblivion — The Orpheus Device
Price: Free
Taking a sharp left turn, our next recommendation is based on White Wolf’s classic Vampire: The Masquerade spinoff, Wraith: The Oblivion, which focuses on ghosts and the fetters linking them to the mortal plane. The Orpheus Device revolves around the Marten family, whose spirits are still haunting their old house — as you play, you learn more about each member and how you might free them.
We need to stress that the game is not for kids. Like anything in Wraith, it doesn’t shy away from themes such as alcoholism, violence, and death, so the result is a very adult choose-your-own-adventure.
Escape the Room
Price: Free to enable, optional $2.80 per month Escape Club
Escape the Room takes the concept of an escape room puzzle to audio. You have just three verbs — “look,” “inspect,” and “use” — to overcome a series of obstacles in each space, opening up the exit. There isn’t much replay value, but it’s meant to be tough, and you can play three rooms for free.
The remaining three rooms require paying for an Escape Club subscription, and get progressively harder. You do however get a hint system with your subscription, so you shouldn’t be stuck forever. There’s an Escape the Room 2 if you just can’t get enough.
Starfinder
Price: Free to enable, $8 for all episodes
Somewhere in between an audiobook and a role-playing game, Starfinder is an episodic title starring Nathan Fillion, best known for Firefly, Castle, and Dr. Horrible. It’s not as interactive as something like The Bard’s Tale, but there is a combat system, and you’ll be spending many hours with it if you spring for the $8 season pass. The first episode alone runs 30 minutes, and the other six are 90 minutes apiece, for a total of nearly 10 hours with Alexa if you want to see the story to completion.
Twenty Questions
Price: Free
This game is such an obvious choice that it comes straight from Amazon. Once you come up with a person, animal, object, or abstract concept, Alexa will try to guess the answer in as few questions as possible. You’re not limited to saying “yes” or “no,” either — words like “sometimes” and “irrelevant” are perfectly valid answers. The game is dependent on the honor system, but then, cheating an AI wouldn’t be very glorious.
Detective X
Price: Free
Detective X puts players in the role of a detective trying to catch a serial killer, including minigames such as defusing a bomb or getting out of an escape room. It’s really about the story and presentation, though. The title features professional actors, effects, and music, and is openly influenced by movies like Blade Runner.
Gram Slam Word Game
Price: Free
Another one from Amazon, Gram Slam challenges players with anagram puzzles based on a category and a handful of letters. While you can play it alone, things get a little more interesting in the two-player mode, especially if each “player” is actually a whole team. The game also gets harder as more puzzles are solved, so you can’t get complacent.
If you’re not up for a full game, there’s a Daily Bonus mode that offers a quick puzzle with the chance to earn extra lives for future single-player matches.
The Wayne Investigation
Price: Free
Originally meant as tie-in for the unfortunate Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Wayne Investigation should still hold up for anyone who’s a Batman fan in general. Players are tasked with investigating the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents, Thomas and Martha, in a series of choose-your-own-adventure interactions.
The experience is strictly linear — Warner Bros. offers “go back” and “skip” commands — but much like Detective X, it’s really about the story and production value. Expect to finish it in about 30 to 40 minutes.
