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There’s no denying it. Minecraft is one of the best building games on the market.
It is, however, far from the only building game out there worth giving a try.
Whether you want a lot of action to go with your crafting creativity or are looking for an uncomplicated, yet-addictive escape, we’ve got a little something for everybody.
Recommended Read: Best Building Games for the Nintendo Switch
All of these games have a Minecraft feel to them, but they’ve each got a style and a flavor that’s all their own.
Let’s take a look at some Nintendo Switch games like Minecraft that can give your creativity a workout and will keep you coming back for more!
Table of contents
- Dragon Quest Builders 2
- Terraria
- Stardew Valley
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- The Survivalists
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Lego Worlds
- My Time at Portia
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Playable as a single-player story adventure or a co-op multiplayer for 4, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a fine sequel to the original that you’ll love and is available for the Nintendo Switch.
As far as gameplay, it’s like Minecraft with story elements, but it has a flavor that is all its own.
Starting off, you can design your character, picking a male or female and deciding how they look, and then a story tutorial begins.
You’ve found yourself a captive on a monster’s ship, and throughout the tutorial, you will learn the basics that you need for your arrival to the Isle of Awakening.
Here you’ll find allies, enemies, weapons, and raw materials, and from there, it’s up to you.
You aren’t just crafting for yourself, either, as you can arm members of your town to keep the bad guys at bay while you build your characters up through crafting and quests.
If you played the original, you are gonna love some of the tweaks to the crafting mechanics in this second installment of Dragon Quest Builders.
The game is charming, challenging, and you’ve literally got a whole world to play with!
Terraria
Playable as a single-player or a split-screen co-op with a good friend, Terraria has taken all the block-building goodness of Minecraft and squashed it down into a 2D side-scroller with its own unique style.
In Terraria, the story is sparse but crafting potential is almost unlimited. You start off by meticulously crafting your game persona, and then the fun begins.
The character you’ve just spent time building is put into a strange world where you’ll find jungles, dungeons, monsters, caves, and more.
It’s enormous, and your job is to survive, craft, and explore the world and underground.
If you have the right tools, you can get all kinds of materials from the nature around you, getting you ready to craft away.
Making an anvil gives you a place to beat heated metal into shapes for weapons, for instance, and you are certainly going to need them.
Whether it’s pirates, zombies, or even a Martian attack, you’re going to need to be ready.
Best of all, you aren’t pushed to perform everything in a linear fashion. This open-ended world lets you pretty much do whatever you want.
If you love the beauty of crafting and enjoy exploring and progressing at your own pace and in your own way, then you are going to love the freedom and fun that Terraria has to offer.
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley totes itself as a farming simulator, but it’s much more than that!
The game is well worth a look if you want something peaceful but challenging that you can spend a lot of time playing.
Stardew Valley can be played alone or with up to 4 total players, and it’s almost like living a second life.
You can build your farm, plant and harvest your crops, and numerous achievements are waiting to be unlocked.
Minecraft has a lot of farming elements as well, but Stardew Valley has a much greater focus on farming, as it is essentially your main task in the game to keep your farm running!
The game isn’t too difficult nor too easy. You don’t feel panicked or harried, but you can definitely make mistakes, and you’ll learn from them quickly.
Holiday events occur in your towns, and your in-game calendar will remind you of all of these.
You should take your time to do a little exploration besides your farming efforts as well, as it will help you to find mines and all kinds of things that you’ve missed – the world in this game is enormous.
There’s a reason why this game won awards, and the Nintendo Switch version is well worth your while.
It’s a farming simulator in your hand that you can and will want to play just about anywhere.
Come for the cartoony scenery and stay for the second-life level serenity!
ARK: Survival Evolved
So far, we’ve talked about games like Minecraft, where you can play up to four players in some of them.
So let’s take a look at a Nintendo Switch game like Minecraft, where you can play with tons of people at the same time!
Ark: Survival Evolved allows you to play on servers hosting up to 64 people, and it’s definitely a jungle out there – literally.
In Ark: Survival Evolved, you play as a man or a woman stranded on a deserted island, but you’ll soon find that you aren’t alone.
Over 80 creatures are out there and very interested in getting to know you better, but whether that is by eating you or serving you is going to be up to you.
We’re talking about dinosaurs, folks, and you can capture, tame, and train these animals and ride them around if you like.
Soar the skies on a Pteranodon or hunt your foes on the back of a hungry Tyrannosaurus! These are just a few of the options at your disposal.
Don’t fret if you are worried about the learning curve, as you can set up a single-player game to get a little crafting and taming practice in so that you are ready for multiplayer.
Once you arrive, oh the sights you will see! Give Ark: Survival Evolved a try and experience it for yourself.
Who doesn’t want to ride a dinosaur?
The Survivalists
Designed for up to 4 players, the Survivalists adds a little ‘monkey business’ to your survival experience.
Washed up on a deserted island and with a mysterious stranger nearby giving you helpful clues and quests, the Survivalists lets you do all kinds of crafting with the help of your furry friends.
Monkeys gather your resources, help you build, and can even serve as soldiers to help keep the other inhabitants of the island at a safe distance.
With some banana bribes and an innovative ‘Mimic system’ that helps you train your monkeys, you’ve got plenty of ways to get settled and ready to take on mythical boss creatures with special loot just waiting to be taken.
Have you got what it takes to explore, survive, and master those monkeys? Try the Survivalists and see for yourself!
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing is back, and whether you are new to the game or a veteran player, this is one sequel that you don’t want to miss out on.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons can host up to 4 players, and it’s less about pressure and more about crafting and discovery.
As far as a story, you’ve basically booked a desert island retreat from Tom Nook, and he and his nephews are there to help you adjust to your new life in paradise.
You’ll be starting off in a tent but don’t worry, you’ve got two animal friends to help you build something solid and make the most of your island experience.
You can gather seashells and bugs or look for fossils lying about, which you can display like trophies in the island museum.
Like Minecraft, this game really gives a true feeling of escaping to somewhere amazing where you’ll find yourself losing hours on the island with happy abandon. There’s even weather to make things a little more real.
You can play at your own pace, slowly increasing your crafting skills at Tom Nook’s table or on equipment of your own.
If you are looking for an animated escape that you can play for a long time, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is definitely a must-have game for your Nintendo Switch.
Lego Worlds
The original Minecraft was something that we used to play with all the time and which made us curse when we stepped on them.
We’re talking about Legos, of course, and Lego Worlds takes our favorite building blocks virtual in an exciting way.
You start off as a Lego astronaut who has crash-landed on a strange planet, and you’re going to need to craft and complete quests to rebuild your ship as well as gather fuel if you don’t want to be stranded forever.
Lego Worlds can be played in single-player mode, or you can play two-player for some nice building time with a friend.
As far as gameplay goes, it will definitely keep you longing for more. It’s like running around in a Lego movie, except that you are the one coming up with builds to solve problems at hand!
The scenery on the different worlds that you may explore is amazingly varied too.
You’ll find yourself in residential areas, dinosaur-filled jungles, climbing a beanstalk to a giant’s castle, and more. You just have to see and build it for yourself!
My Time at Portia
In My Time at Portia, a single-player title from Pathea Games, your Pa’s workshop in the town of Portia has been growing dusty from disuse.
In this game, you’re going to bring the workshop back to greatness through tons of crafting, but that’s not all that you get to do in this game.
There are also dungeons that you can challenge when you feel a little adventurous. Furthermore, you can set up your farm and help the NPC locals to build up Portia to new levels of glory.
If you get tired of your town, why not saddle a horse and explore?
There’s plenty to see and plenty to create in Portia, and as a nice bonus, the graphics have a style to them that’s a pleasure to behold.
So, the next time you’ve got a little free time, why not visit the fantasy town of Portia? They could really use your creativity and your help!
Those are our picks on the best Nintendo Switch games like Minecraft!
Know of any other great titles that you believe should be included in this list? Let us know in the comment section below.
