
When you were a kid, "sandbox" meant "small plastic box, usually full of sand and ants, which lets you pretend you're at the beach even though you're in a nursery down the road from your parents' workplace". As an adult, "sandbox" either means "a game that lets you choose most of your goals" or "ant-filled nightmare that gets your child all gritty", depending on whether or not you have kids.
Don't worry. Today, we're focusing on sandbox-as-in-video-game, a genre of entertainment in which most of the enjoyment is derived from setting your own targets. Sandboxes range from the no-direction-at-all end of the spectrum, like Garry's Mod (a PC-only asset toybox), through the some-direction games like Minecraft and Astroneer, all the way to games that hold your hand or guide you a lot more towards goals, like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.
Fundamentally, though, these games will, at points, all let you roam free, doing whatever you want with the world (or your little slice of it, anyway). Want to plant bananas in someone else's garden? Go for it. Interested in digging a tunnel down to bedrock? Sure. Do you wish to eschew all social norms and build a gigantic fortress right in the middle of town? Hey, this is your power fantasy.
Here are a selection of our favourite sandbox games (and games with sandboxy bits in them) for all of you looking for an off-the-rails experience!
Two Point Campus (Switch)
Two Point Campus is the sequel to Two Point Hospital, except instead of fixing the ailing population, you'll be educating them.
The main challenge in Two Point Campus comes from perfecting and truly excelling rather than simply reaching one, two, or three stars. If that still isn’t enough to sate your masochistic tendencies, Sandbox mode’s ‘Challenge’ option will leave you crying yourself to sleep. Still not enough? The ‘Custom’ option will let you adjust every detail of your mad idea of fun. Want to earn only a tenth of what you’d normally earn and start with barely enough to build a lecture hall? Have at it.
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Terraria (Switch)
There’s no story (at least not overtly) in Terraria — you’re simply a person who’s dropped in a new, strange world and tasked with surviving within it to the best of your ability. Upon booting up and pressing on through the impressively in-depth character creation screen you’re transported to a randomly-generated world that’s packed with monsters, dungeons, caves, jungles, and all manner of fascinating life that coalesces into an impressive ecosystem. What you do in this ecosystem is entirely at your discretion, but what’s for sure is that when night falls and the zombies come for you, you will die if you’re not prepared.
Minecraft (Switch)
It's difficult to describe the appeal of a game such as Minecraft. Though there is technically an 'end' to it, the whole experience isn't really about anything. You can explore caves. You can build houses. You can fight mobs in the night. You can farm crops and animals. On the surface, Minecraft seems like a simple game that one would grow bored of quickly, but the freeform nature of its gameplay structure makes it an extremely compelling experience that's tough to put down.
Astroneer (Switch eShop)
Astroneer's story is simple: You are a very cute little astronaut, who has landed on an Earth-like planet called Sylva. Although there are no real objectives — you can do whatever you want, really — a Mission Log will gently guide you towards the game's wider story, which involves activating mysterious purple structures around the planet, and eventually venturing to the other planets in your small solar system. Or you could just build a giant statue of yourself.
Townscaper (Switch eShop)
With sandboxy house-builder Townscaper, Oskar Stålberg has made a charming and compelling toy for imaginative play. Anyone willing to project themselves into its worlds and tell stories to themselves as they build will have a great time. Townscaper will take the merest of throwaway inputs and interpret it as a clever instruction to draft a delightful little village scene, like a waiter congratulating you on your choice from the menu as if the gastronomic talent lies with you and not the chef.
Little Inferno (Switch eShop)
What do you call a sandbox where all the sand is on fire? Well, that's what Little Inferno is, anyway. Little Inferno sits you down in front of a fireplace with one goal: burn whatever you like. Each time you burn something you'll be rewarded with money, that money can then be used to purchase items to further burn things. It's very simple, but we found it — in a way — to be almost relaxing.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch)
Though the Minecraft formula has been iterated on to hell and back, Square Enix managed to offer up an interesting take on the sandbox classic with Dragon Quest Builders, a blocky, open-ended crafting RPG. Then, Square decided to take another crack at the idea with Dragon Quest Builders 2. As many sequels should strive for, this release proved to be a more refined experience than its predecessor, fixing many of its flaws, adding in a wealth of quality of life improvements, and generally providing a stronger case for its own brand of sandbox-style gameplay.
Don't Starve: Nintendo Switch Edition (Switch eShop)
Gameplay in Don’t Starve plays a lot like the survival mode of Minecraft, with some notable changes. Your character spawns in the center of an enormous procedurally generated world and the goal is simply to survive for as long as possible. You have health, hunger, and sanity meters to keep filled, with there being dire consequences for letting any one of them drop too low. Through clever manipulation of materials that you find, you must build tools, hunt and forage for food, and figure out how to survive events like the coming of winter or a Deerclops attack. It’s brutal and unforgiving, but there’s something immensely satisfying in beating such towering odds.
Crashlands (Switch eShop)
If you’ve played Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders or Don’t Starve you’ll immediately be familiar with the crafting mechanics at the heart of Crashlands. In terms of its top-down aesthetic, and the barren landscape of its opening hours, it might appear that Crashlands has a lot in common with Klei Entertainment’s survival hit, but rather than forcing you to battle hunger and thirst you’ll spend most of your time at a far more relaxed clip, exploring the map, collecting resources and crafting new armour as you go. It's more suited to short bursts of play, but we still love it.
Comments 33
You just listed some of the best games yet
I think my favorite one has gotta be Minecraft
Townscaper is really good! It’s more of a toy than a game but it’s an amazing toy like the imaginext batcave or the Barbie dreamhouse
Why has no one created a VR Sandbox Simulator with buckets, shovels, and sand? Or did they? They probably did, didn't they? Surely someone must have.
They could call it Sandbox Simulator, or just Shovelware VR.
Minecraft is probably the one I like the most
How does BoTW count as a sandbox? At that point you could list any open world game as a sandbox.
Portal Knights is also Sandbox game on Switch.

If you're going to count BotW as sandbox, then I think that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 deserves a mention too. Sure, there is a lot of story and direction, but it is also possible to mess about for hours on end without the story going anywhere. There is just so much to see, do, and explore. You can just roam for hours.
@Anti-Matter
Would you recommend Portal Knights?
Animal Crossing the game I played almost 1000 hours. Easily one of the best experiences I had with my Switch. Dragon Quest Builders 2 is great, I can not recommend this game enough. Really cool people and dialog. And thankfully the islands did not feel as dark as in the first game.
Also, Nintendolife have ever reviewed Portal Knights on Switch but didn't mention that game as Sandbox game on this article.
How could you forget this game ?
@Jhena
If you don't mind with 30 fps, you can pick Portal Knights. I have both PS4 & Switch version but recently I played PS4 version more than Switch version for having 60 fps and better environment textures. I have accumulated more than 240 hours for Switch version.
@Anti-Matter
Oh cool 240 hours seems like a fun game. I have a PS 4 pro but I really feel more comfortable playing on my Switch. It is strange. Thanks for posting the NL video of Portal Knights. I am going to watch it now.
@Shambo nice one
@Anti-Matter
Ok the game seems like an overlooked gem and I really like the atmosphere, so I put it on my list. Thanks again for recommending.
I was so disappointed with how Jurassic world evolution turned out in handheld, the visuals are just extremely blurry. Much better docked, but such a shame handheld didn’t turn out great
@blindsquarel Years before Minecraft/Roblox and the following wave of building simulators came around, sandbox was used more or less interchangeably with open world, especially with ones where the focus is more on playing with the environment over story progression. Breath of the Wild definitely fits that description.
@Ooyah Breath of the Wild barely should be on this list. A non-open world game like Xenoblade 3 definitely shouldn't.
I love starting these kinds of games, but I've yet to find a satisfactory way to stop playing them. I'd also throw in Saints Row: The Third for anyone who's not easily offended by...well, anything really. Sure, it has a story, but the main draw of the game is using the many, many tools at your disposal to actively disrespect every inch of Steelport and everyone in it.
Oh no!
Autonauts is not on that list
@blindsquarel I understand what you are saying, but I do think it counts as sandbox. I recently began playing it again just for "fun". My first reason to go back was to find more Koroks, but then I had fun fighting, trying to find something without a map, finding a high place to fly from, etc etc. Like others in this article, it is fun just to roam around.
Great article: I love Townscaper. I still play it on occasion since it is such a chill, imaginative, pretty "game".
You guys try WAY too hard to shoehorn Zelda into as many articles as possible.
Think how cool a Switch remaster of Fantasy Life would be
I don’t think the author of the article actually knows the definition of a sandbox game.
I don’t think some of the commenters on this article know that there are different types of “sandbox” games. BOTW is an open-world sandbox, Stardew Valley is a simulation sandbox, Terraria is a crafting sandbox, Don’t Starve is a survival sandbox…
The other games are good, but BOTW....5 years on, 350+ hours and counting.
there's a lot of games on this list, that i agree about being sandbox, you can do pretty anything you want to in these games, and worry about the main content later.
before the hard drive i used on my Wii U died, in BOTW i always tried to the dungeons and run around fighting enemies. one of the key reason why i liked playing BOTW, and i'm honestly excited to play BOTW 2 for that reason.
Now that Everything is on this best Switch games list, will it be removed from the Best Switch Games That Don't Fit In Other Lists Of Best Switch Games list? 🧐
streets of rogue is a procedurally generated sandbox game that deserves to be on this list
Everything has been forever on my wishlist-- It never goes on sale. Just racking up gold coins until I can discount it to my liking.
@MeloMan
I have waited, and will continue to, for a sale on Everything as well before I buy it.
@NotTelevision you’re confusing sandbox with genre, otherwise the term sandbox could be applied to most things by your rationale!
Most games I like to just finish in a certain time and then move on. BotW is the only title on this list that I have true patience for. Like hundreds of hours of patience. My daughters have put at least that much time into Animal Crossing though.
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