Summary
One sentiment commonly thrown towards gamers who spend hours in front of their console is that they desperately need to go outside. People say they need to touch grass, hike through a forest, and inhale fresh air. While this certainly might be true of some gamers, what if video games offer more engaging versions of outdoor spaces than reality?
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Many games have vivid and creative simulations of even the plainest and coziest outdoor spaces. Take, for instance, the garden. A small cabbage patch where your mom works in a sun hat can suddenly become a battleground, an alien landscape, or an underground labyrinth in the world of video games. Here, we look at the best gardens in video games for when you need some outside-time inside.
10Backyard Battleground - Plants Vs. Zombies
This garden, famous among mobile gamers, is the setting of one of the most notorious tower defense games in history. The Backyard Battleground fromPlants vs. Zombiesis home to a grove of over 40 different plant species, each dedicated to defending their gardener from an onslaught of the undead.
Unlike many other gardens, this game makes characters out of the plants grown there, from the energy-making Sunflower to the standard offensive Peashooter and the stalwart Tall Nut. While strolling through this backyard barrage might not be the most relaxing of pastimes, this violent and unconventional garden is surely memorable.
9Garden of Hope - Pikmin 3
A series that has always focused on the interaction between nature and humanity,Pikmin3’s main area is a sizable and significant garden. The only main area to feature two significant bosses and the site for multiple rescue missions, you will spend a good amount of time exploring the strange flora and fauna within the Garden of Hope.
As Pikmin 3 is largely focused on rescuing teammates fromstrange alien creaturesand scouting fruit seeds to combat a famine back home, it makes perfect sense that a foreign garden is the perfect place for our miniature heroes to explore. Anyone who fancys the real-time strategy of Pikmin will surely get a kick out of this iconic garden.
8Special Garden - Gardening Mama
The ultimate chef returns with a green thumb to become the ultimate gardener. A spinoff game from the lauded DS seriesCooking Mama, this game sees our titular mother branch out into growing her own produce and flowers as well. You’ll use the stylus to water plants, trade produce with others, and get rid of rodents and insects trying to snack on Mama’s crops.
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The Special Garden, in particular, is a unique location that only Mama is allowed to tend. Filled with otherworldly produce like the Golden Apple, Metallic Silver Rose, and Star Potato, the Special Garden crops can only be created when using a special item during growth minigames. With both her effortless charm and her oddball crops, Mama’s special garden can’t be replaced.
7Memory Gardens - The Gardens Between
Developed by The Voxel Agents, The Gardens Between is a small game that follows two heroes exploring a dreamscape of spire-like gardens. Arina and Frendt, two childhood friends, explore these gardens, each littered with human objects that end up being significant to their memories.
Modeled after Japanese dry-gardens (or zen gardens), these levels are designed to be contemplative and intriguing, as you weild control over time to solve puzzles and unlock the mysteries of this ethereal archipelago. While it is not one unified garden like other games, this series of small garden puzzles showcases a poignant message about memory and how to appreciate significant relationships while still moving on.
6Black Garden - Destiny
One of the most ominous gardens in video game history,Destiny’s Black Garden serves as an incredibly significant locale for all of those invested in the series' tale of Light and Darkness. Home to a platoon of Vex called the Sol Divisive, the Black Garden exists outside space-time to protect the Black Heart, a significant relic associated with the nature of Darkness itself.
Light and Darkness, while confusing and mysterious elements within Destiny’s world-building, are primordial forces that defy the laws of physics. Thought to be linked to the duality that created the Universe, these forces prop up the paracausal titans of Destiny’s imagining of the future: the Traveler and the Witness. While you might be tempted to smell the roses of the Black Garden, be warned that it houses dark secrets.
5Queen’s Gardens - Hollow Knight
A lush area within the rich undergroundworld of Hallownest,Hollow Knight’s Queen’s Gardens serve as an overgrown and abandoned retreat for the queen of Hallownest, The White Lady. Even though she still resides there, intentionally bound to stop generating Vessels, the locale is now overrun with Mantis Traitors and other bugs who roam the structure.
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Despite housing two bosses and countless other dangers, the Queen’s Gardens are elegant and regal in their design, with lush flora and striking metallic structures like the bench gazebo and Stag Station. Much likethe rest of Hollow Knight’s locales, the danger of this garden does not measure up to the tinges of sorrow that permeate this forgotten estate.
4Gusty Garden Galaxy - Super Mario Galaxy
One ofthe countless galaxieswithin the sprawling world ofSuper Mario Galaxy, Gusty Garden Galaxy captures the levity and jubilant nature of gardens with its gameplay and ambiance. Located in the Bedroom dome of the Comet Observatory, this galaxy is largely defined by the Floaty Fluff dandelion and wind-stream gimmick, as Mario spins around its sparse planets to generate updrafts.
While Gusty Garden Galaxy is being terrorized by the evil mole Major Burrows and his undergrunts, the entire galaxy captures an exciting and energetic feel. From its cubic garden-maze planet to its caterpillar-infested apple planets, Gusty Garden Galaxy captures the excitement and strangeness of a garden to a tee. It also doesn’t hurt that its theme song is legendary.
3Tuley’s Wellspring Garden - Ori and the Will of the Wisps
This garden is nursed to fruition by the gardener Tuley inOri and the Will of the Wisps, the sequel toOri and the Blind Forest. This game’s central hub world is Wellspring Glades, where various creatures gather to seek shelter from the spreading Decay. One of the creatures housed here is the beaver gardener, Tuley.
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Recently relocated from Baur’s Reach and committed to fostering the plant life of the Glades, this eager beaver enlists Ori’s help to gather seeds and create a garden to rival his former plot back home. By collecting different seeds throughout your exploration (like Blue Moon, Firemoth’s Delight, and Wellspring Wildflowers), you can resuscitate the vegetation in the Glades and bring Tuley some newfound peace.
2Alien Gardens - Mendel
Perhaps the game that exemplifies both the creativity and science present within a garden, Mendel is a sandbox game about alien plant genetics. The first game to win the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Public Understanding Award, Mendel has you harvesting floral genetics from an alien world to create colorful mutations and cross-breeds.
This game captures the spirit of gardening precisely, as there is no goal within Mendel besides experimentation and the proliferation of new forms of life. There is no enemy to conquer and no kingdom to save, creating a relaxing and meditative atmosphere that lines up perfectly with real gardening.
1Austin’s Garden - Gardenscapes
One of the most extravagant gardens in gaming, Austin’s Garden from the mobile game Gardenscapes simply cannot be beat. While the gameplay of this 2016 Playrix title consists of relatively simple match-3 gameplay akin toCandy Crush, the rewards for doing well in these levels involve periodically restoring the protagonist’s dilapidated garden.
This garden, though it begins outdated and abandoned, becomes spacious and luxurious as Austin effortlessly blends natural and artificial elements together (with customizable aesthetic input). Austin also befriends the members of his community while revitalizing this garden, meaning you’re able to share the natural splendor with others. In terms of video game gardens, Austin’s sprawling estate is the brightest blossom around.
