Gravity Falls is a wildly popular cartoon about twin siblings, Mabel and Dipper Pines, who spend a summer with their Grunkel Stan in a rural Oregon town. The show is quirky, but it can also be pretty heartfelt at times. Dipper and Mabel’s makeshift family has to contend with Gravity Falls’ peculiar paranormal weirdness, like zombies, gnomes, and living wax sculptures. Of course there’s also the usual adolescent problems—crushes, befriending older teens, and sibling rivalry. Although it’s mostly a kid’s show, lots of teenagers also enjoy Gravity Falls. (I fell in love with it at 25.)
I’ve collected a list of games that remind me of Gravity Falls, so when you or your kids are waiting for a new episode, you’ll have something to tide you over.
Don’t Starve
Don’t Starve is a Tim Burton-esque survival game with a lot of quirky humor and characters. Players have to survive in the woods by gathering materials during the day so they can save themselves from the monsters that come out at night. Gravity Falls, similarly, has a lot of episodes where Dipper and Mabel have to survive monsters in the woods through cleverness and resourcefulness. Both show and game are a little bizarre, in a good way.
Jenny LeClue
Jenny LeClue is a game that takes place in a small town in mid-century America. It has a young girl protagonist named Jenny who is an amateur sleuth. The setting includes a lot of diverse characters, including adults and kids, and is pretty dang reminiscent of Gravity Falls and its inhabitants. Plus small-town mysery-solving? Check. This game isn’t out yet, but is available for preorder now.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is tonally pretty different from Gravity Falls but shares the sibling dynamic with the show. Brothers is about two brothers who must go on an adventure to save their father, who is dying. The player controls both brothers. They have to work together to solve the puzzles, much like Gravity Falls’ Mabel and Dipper do.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Five Nights at Freddy’s is a horror game. A very scary horror game. Players are a night watchman in a Chuck-E-Cheese-like pizza joint. They have to use limited resources to avoid being caught by the animatronic monsters inhabiting the place. Despite being thoroughly terrifying, it’s not necessarily a child-unfriendly game. There’s no blood or gore, strong language, sexual content, or even overt violence. I’m including Five Nights at Freddy’s because one episode of Gravity Falls (“Soos and the Real Girl”) takes place in a similar setting and may have even inspired the game.
Costume Quest 2
Mystery-solving twins? Yep. Quirky humor? Mm hm. Halloween candy? Definitely. Costume Quest and Costume Quest 2 might be the perfect games to play when you’re in a Gravity Falls mood, especially because of the show’s Halloween episode, “Summerween.” (Gravity Falls, the town, loves Halloween so much they celebrate it twice a year.)
Broken Age
Broken Age is a puzzle game with dual protagonists, both teenagers, who have to find their own way to escape different types of confinement. While it might not overtly remind me of Gravity Falls, there’s a similar brand of humor. The characters in both are self-aware and strong, but they still have all the silliness and angst that comes with adolescence. And the detailed conspiracy mystery that serves as the ongoing background plot definitely rings some bells.
3D Ultra MiniGolf Adventures
Remember that one episode where Mabel and Pacifica Northwest face off in a minigolf tournament? Yeah…that’s pretty much it.
Disney Original Games
There is also a collection of actual Gravity Falls games on Disney’s website. They’re all pretty simple design-wise. If you find one you like let us know in the comments!
