6 of the best browser games you can play right now

Games and game development teams come in all shapes and sizes, and are all capable of achieving greatness. Those who assume that browser games can’t be as fun as any other have clearly never played Bloons.

But times have changed a whole lot since the Miniclip and GirlsGoGames days, so if you’re in the mood for a bit of download-free entertainment, here’s the latest and greatest in browser gaming for you.

Friday Night Funkin’

Beloved by the internet since its creation in late 2020, I had often seen discussions around this open-source rhythm game, but had never clocked that you can play it in the comfort of your browser.

Developed by Ninjamuffin99 during the 2020 Ludum Game Jam, with art contributions from PhantomArcade and evilsk8r, the result was a brilliantly addictive and jaunty game, with multiple levels (or “Weeks”) to complete in its Story Mode.

Its Week 7 update was so popular it crashed Newgrounds in 2021! After that, the devs decided to focus on creating Friday Night Funkin’: The Full Ass Game, which will receive full mod support due to the existing game’s active and dedicated modding community.

Friday Night Funkin’ is available to play now on Newgrounds and Itch.io.

Wayfarer

There are more visual novel browser games out there than you might expect! If you wanted to start delving in to the world of browser-based interactive fiction, Wayfarer is an excellent start. You play as a mercenary (with full character creation options, including point buy skills and class selection) who must navigate the escalating political tensions of the city of Velantis. Your choices will decide the fate of the city, and you may even uncover some (optional) romance routes!

Developed by Idrelle Games, Wayfarer combines storytelling with RPG elements, with four skills to level up, branching player choice and an interactive map.

Currently two of Wayfarer’s fifteen planned episodes are available to play on Itch.io.

We Become What We Behold

Created by Nicky Case, this browser game has received a warm reception from Let’s Players, including Markiplier, Jacksepticeye and Ludophiles. With a playtime of five minutes, We Become What We Behold proves that short games can still present shocking and thought-provoking themes to its players.

You play as a cameraman following a community of Circles and Squares. Observe them as they live alongside one another, and use your camera to choose the best events to broadcast on the news. Controversial scenes may lead to division, hatred or all-out anarchy – but controversy sells, after all. How will you influence these impressionable little guys?

You can play We Become What We Behold now on Itch.io.

The Wiki Game

This is the perfect browser game for those who often find themselves tumbling down online rabbit holes. This game is played entirely in Wikipedia, with the only aim to get from the start page to the goal in as few clicks as possible within 2-minute rounds. You can play solo or as a group, and there are even leader boards!

You can play The Wiki Game for yourself here – account registration isn’t necessary, but your progress won’t be saved without it!

Lookouts

You can never play enough visual novels! Lookouts is a queer romance set in the Old West, when a chance meeting between two outlaws give them both a chance of a better life.

Originally made for the Gay Western Jam, the updated version of Lookouts contains roughly 45,000 words, with a 5-6 hour read time. You can also pick up the Gold Edition for a very reasonable price, including a zip file of goodies containing high-res files of all art found in the game, a development artbook, and much more!

Lookouts was written and coded by ParanoidHawk, with stunning art direction from Coldoggo, and can be played here.

A Dark Room

I know – a text adventure, in the year 2023? But A Dark Room is so much more – a story that begins with basic resource management in an empty room sprawls out into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with a gameplay style that has been compared to the compulsion to check one’s phone for notifications.

A gripping narrative emerges from this simple button-based browser game, and can be played quite casually – you can leave the page while you wait for your abilities to cooldown, but the tab will let you know if an Event is taking place.

If you’re looking to expand your gaming repertoire without the hassle of “downloading files” or “spending money”, A Dark Room is a fantastic entry point.

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