7 Voice Games Worth Playing From 2020

Gaming with voice tech reached new heights of creativity in 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping so many people home, there was plenty of opportunities to try out the new voice-enabled games and the innovative ways voice assistants could breathe new life into existing games. We’ve picked out seven of our favorite games released over the last year or so with a voice AI component, check them out below, and be sure to let us know what you are playing or anticipating playing in the year ahead.

Starfinder – Alexa

Starfinder is a big-budget interactive audio adventure for Alexa starring Laura Bailey and Nathan Fillion. Game developer Paizo created Starfinder as a tabletop role-playing game before collaborating with Amazon to make an episodic science-fantasy game where the player’s choice of character and the decisions they make during the game change how the story evolves. Each of the six episodes runs about 90 minutes, though that may vary based on your choices. The first episode is free, but the whole season costs $10.

RISK – Alexa

RISK is a great example of how voice assistants can enhance existing games. The free Alexa skill brings an extra element of chance to the classic board game. Acting as the voice of fortune, Alex will declare some random event at the end of each turn, from a medicinal plant helping heal troops that can be added to a player’s army, to a natural disaster wiping out a portion of their force. Alexa adds spice to the game, perhaps drawing those bored with the standard game to play it again.

Wraith: The Oblivion – The Orpheus Device – Alexa and Google Assistant

Alexa and Google Assistant guide players through a virtual haunted house in Earplay’s voice game built with roleplaying game developer White Wolf. The free game is set in the same world as White Wolf’s Wraith: The Oblivion takes the player into the home of the Martens, a tragic family with dark secrets who haunt the house. The Orpheus Device lets the player interact with the ghosts, find out what happened to them, and maybe help them find peace. The soundscape accompanying the narrative adds a powerful atmosphere to the whole experience, which took four years to publish.

Blue’s Clues & You! Listen and Play – Alexa

Perfect for families with young kids who wanted to entertain and educate them at the same time, Nickelodeon’s voice app gives preschoolers the chance to play with Josh and Blue from the show and solve puzzles in ten different stories.

PAC-MAN Waka Waka – Alexa

Pac-Man Waka Waka is a voice-based version of the classic arcade game for Alexa-enabled smart displays created by Doppio Games. Unlike the arcade with a joystick, the player moves Pac-Man around with voice commands issued in ‘Wakanese,’ the character’s native language which Doppio invented.

Word Pop – Alexa

Zynga, the creator of the popular Words With Friends line of Scrabble-type games, launched Word Pop as a voice-based version of its games. When a player asks Alexa to play Word Pop, the voice assistant reads out six letters which the player then uses to create as many words as they can in one minute. The words can either be spoken or spelled out and points are earned based on how many words are built and how many letters they contain. Zynga is also working on a similar game exclusively for Google Assistant.

Game Box – Alexa

Game Box combines several casual games that up to four people can play at once on an Echo smart display. The collection includes a balloon-passing game, a bomb-defusing game, a memory game about animals, and a sound-based safe-cracking game. The games are free for a week, after which one game a day can be played for free, with the other available to play by buying virtual tickets.

Voice Quest – Google Assistant

Another Doppio Games creation, Voice Quest is a side-scrolling adventure where the player as Merlin tries to rescue King Arthur from Morgana. Players send a soldier on this dangerous quest, helping out by yelling spells at the smart display to smooth the path the hero takes.

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