Ever wanted to live out a zombie apocalypse? Influence the choices of a Jane Austen character? Be Beyonce’s assistant? Date a pigeon? The choose-your-own-adventure format of storytelling has come a long way since R. A. Montgomery’s book series, which took off in the ’80s and ’90s, selling around 250 million copies.
These novels have since influenced game developers, leading to thousands of games built around interactive storytelling. The choose-your-own-adventure story can even be a live event, as seen in Goosebumps’ recent Welcome To Sand Hands collaborative online effort and Melbourne’s choose-your-own-adventure theatre performances.
Last year, Black Mirror‘s sci-fi horror film Bandersnatch brought this form of storytelling back into the limelight. So in this article, we’ll look at some of the best – and strangest – choose-your-own-adventure games and books created over the past four decades.
9. The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series
Die-hard fans of zombie apocalypse series The Walking Dead will love this game. This new edition sees players choose their character’s dialogue, and each choice has severe consequences on the dynamics of the group, resulting in survival or death.
Why it made the list: Inspired by Robert Kirkman’s comics, Telltale Studios have remained faithful to the original story while taking the game to a whole new level.
You can buy The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series from EB Games.
8. Hatoful Boyfriend
In this Japanese visual novel and dating simulator, you’re tasked with, uh, dating a pigeon. Released in 2011, this game garnered a following for its enjoyable, wacky, and relatable storytelling. You play a woman attending her second year at an all-bird school called St Pigeonation’s Academy for Gifted Students. It takes about an hour to finish and is surprisingly charming.
Why it made the list: The multiple storylines explore teen romance and high school drama in a sophisticated way. But with, erm, pigeons.
You can buy it on Google Play.
7. Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster
In this 2007 choose-your-own-adventure novel, you play Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet as she hunts for her Mr Darcy, wondering through scenes found in Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Sense and Sensibility.
Why it made the list: Jane Austen’s literature has some great sentiments, but let’s face it, trying to make your way through all that old-timey language can be a bit of a bore. What better way to get to know these classic novels than with a choose-your-own-adventure book?
Buy it from Booktopia.
6. Space and Beyond by R.A. Montgomery
Explore the corners of the universe with one of the original choose-your-own-adventure novels. Published in 1980, this book allows you to choose between two planets: your mother’s world of birth or your father’s. With many potential endings, you could end up in a black hole, become a space pirate, or join a planet ruled by old babies. For a series aimed at kids, it had some genuinely freaky content.
Why it made the list: It’s an original – albeit a bizarre, slightly disturbing and very entertaining one.
Buy it from Booktopia.
5. A Girl Walks Into a Bar: Your Fantasy, Your Rules by Helena S. Paige
Choose-your-own-adventure meets erotica? Why not! Published in 2013, this novel will leave you with some steamy choices.
Why it made the list: It’s hot!
Buy it on Booktopia.
4. Beyonce’s Twitter Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
Learn what it’s like to be Beyonce’s assistant for a day. Spoiler: it’s stressful! While playing, I got fired after I asked Beyonce to get ready in the car – she threw up all over herself!
Why it made the list: If you win, you feel, like, pretty incredible.
Play it here.
3. We Sing for Healing
This free musical text adventure game was made in a place undocumented by Google Maps and unreachable by Wifi. In the game, you go on a non-linear journey by selecting the text of your choice.
Why it made the list: It’s a very soothing game. “We Sing for Healing calls on players to slow down, listen, make choices, revisit paths, and reflect on their worldview and relation to the teachings expressed and experienced during gameplay,” writes First Nations animator and academic Elizabeth Lapensee.
You can play it here.
2. Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North
Does the objectively crappy ending of this Shakesperian tragedy really grind your gears? Well, thanks to author Ryan North, you’re in luck: you can finally influence Romeo and Juliet to make way better decisions!
Why it made the list: In one version of the story, Juliet gets swoll instead of waiting around for a dude. The possibilities are endless.
Buy it on Amazon Australia.
1. The Outer Worlds
From the makers of Fallout: New Vegas, this new release is a role-playing video game where players lost in transit in space have to work against a conspiracy that could destroy their colony.
Why it made the list: Written with a tongue-in-cheek, dark satirical tone, The Outer Worlds has incredible depth when it comes to possibilities and outcomes in the game. The Outer Worlds also feels like a critique of the erosion of worker rights. When you go to apply for sick leave from the ship, you get a message that says: “Allow for two-four weeks to process your sick leave. Lost hours must be compensated to the company.”
Ryan Jones, a game critic for Trusted Reviews, writes, “The narrative always adapts to your decisions too, providing the illusion you’re not simply following a pre-written script but carving out your own story. There are blatant play-choice crossroads, but each possible route is as morally ambiguous as the next. Abandoning the typical ‘good’ and ‘bad’ morality meters in favour of these murky ethics makes for far more engaging and memorable storylines.”
Buy The Outer Worlds from Microsoft.
Disclaimer: New Idea did not receive a commission to write about these products. These products were selected via user review.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
