10 Greatest Telltale Games, Ranked

Image via Telltale Games Published Aug 11, 2026, 8:27 AM EDT Ryan Menezes has written and edited for Cracked.com for 12 years, has written for Mental Floss, and has edited for Listverse and Grunge.com. His longest and most in-depth articles have covered movies and TV shows, with a special focus on how they changed between conception and when they reached the screen. That includes comparing adaptations to their original works, comparing finished movies to their screenplays, and documenting various disasters that popped up during production. Sign in to your Collider account Many studios have tried to copy the formula created by Telltale Games, and few have succeeded. In fact, talking just financial success, even Telltale didn’t succeed, as the company went bust in 2018. It’s possible that their formula (splitting games into five or six episodes, each concentrating on narrative while lacking combat and lacking any of the mechanical loops that many gamers consider “gameplay”) isn’t a great model for making money. It is, however, a great formula for making games. At least, it is according to the people who like those games, and they’re the only people whose opinion matters here. Telltale Games made some masterpieces. Let’s count down their best ones. 10 'Guardians of the Galaxy' (2017) Image via Telltale Games Guardians of the Galaxy: A Telltale Series is doomed to be overlooked today, even by fans of the Guardians movies. Four years after Telltale released it, Square Enix released their own Guardians of the Galaxy game, and today, someone might ask themselves why’d they’d play a narrative game about the superheroes when they can instead play a game that has narrative but also has combat and fancy graphics. One reason is arena combat can feel pretty repetitive after a couple dozen hours, especially when it’s not very challenging. Another reason is the Guardians themselves can get repetitive after a couple dozen hours, with their endless quipping and repeatedly learning how to be a team. Telltale’s story for the gang manages to be tighter and denser and goes to more surprising places. For starters, the game opens by (mild spoiler) the gang killing Thanos dead, with a gun. And so, having established that this is a different story from what you’ve seen in the movies, the game is free to move on and get weird. 9 'Sam & Max Save the World' (2006) Image via Telltale Games Many of the entries on this list are what’s known as interactive narrative games. You control characters’ actions, through dialogue and other choices, but there’s rarely any puzzle or any difficulty figuring out what to do next. However, Telltale’s episodic games also include several excellent adventure games, in which gameplay is all about solving puzzles using inventory items. These are callbacks to an earlier genre that peaked in the early 1990s. Sam & Max Hit the Road released in 1993, and in 2006, Telltale released a long-delayed follow-up. You play as a pair of detectives solving bizarre mysteries in strange settings. This turned out to be a great premise for episodic games (Telltale also released games based on CSI, which are by all accounts not nearly as funny as Sam & Max). In fact, Sam & Max Save the World uses the episodic format better than any game since. Here, the episodes aren’t merely chapters of a longer story but also really are episodes, each with their own conclusion, and with a series of running gags that each play out once an episode. At the time. this game was seen as a modern revival of the genre. Today, it’s so old that it’s been remastered, complete with some changed voice acting and with old jokes censored, because audiences in 2020 had different sensibilities from in 2006. 8 'Tales from the Borderlands' (2014) Image via Telltale Games You needn’t have played the Borderlands games to enjoy Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands. In fact, it might help if you haven’t. If you have, you’re a fan of looting and shooting, and there’s not a whole lot of that here. If you haven’t, you’ll come knowing nothing about the setting, which means you’ll find its story all the more interesting. One highlight of the game actually is a scene of shooting, except everyone is merely pretending to shoot and there are no stakes whatsoever. Another highlight is a conversation where two guys say “bro” a lot, a conversation that it turns out never actually happened. If those summaries sound completely incomprehensible and not especially fun, we’ve done a good job at conveying how these games can only really be experienced by really playing them. 7 'Game of Thrones' (2014) Image via Telltale Games Telltale’s Thrones game is quite different from its Borderlands one in that this one squarely targets existing fans of the series. The appeal is that you travel to settings you know from the show and interact with characters you’re a fan of. And unlike any other video game you’ve ever played of Game of Thrones (probably by modding some existing game), this game is played chiefly by beating opponents through conversation, not combat, just like the best parts of the series. The game features the voice talents of several cast members from the show, including Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Kit Harington, and Natalie Dormer. You play as a family who conveniently have members scattered all over the Westeros map in every major location from the show, and talking to the show’s characters does feel a bit like self-insert fan fiction. That’s not such a bad thing. If you don’t like fan fiction, well, that means you don’t like the vast majority of the show Game of Thrones. 6 'Tales of Monkey Island' (2009) Image via Telltale Games A warning before you play Telltale’s Monkey Island game: It does not start off strong. Much like the previous few installments in the series, this is a game by people who did not make the originals, so this is another game that we could call fan fiction. When Episode One begins, it struggles, dredging up a bunch of icons you might recognize from older games while never managing to be as funny or clever. But then, as you play the next episodes, you’ll notice something strange, which almost never happens with games. The opening was the weakest part, and the game continuously gets better, right till the end. A couple years ago, Monkey Island got a new game made by original writer Ron Gilbert, arguably the first canon sequel in 30 years. Return to Monkey Island may have some interesting stuff that reflects the true creative intent of the author, but Tales of Monkey Island actually makes for the more fun and entertaining conclusion. 5 'The Wolf Among Us' (2013) Image via Telltale Games Every game on this list adapts an existing work. The Wolf Among Us is based on a comic series named Fables, which is obscure enough that Telltale did not stick it in the title of the game. This game, unlike all these others, wasn’t banking on name recognition at all. You just had to like the story for what it was. You play as a detective, in a setting where fairy tales are real and storybook characters hide in the regular world. If that sounds as wacky as something from Sam & Max, know that the game plays this as dead serious. When you talk to a toad who has trouble paying rent, that’s not a joke. When you argue with a real-life Beauty and the Beast, that’s not parody. When bodies start piling up, that’s a real mystery for you to solve. In 2018, a new company bought the rights to the Telltale name, along with most of the studio’s catalog. They haven’t put out many games, and Telltale fans have reason to be skeptical of any they do. But when they announced this year renewed plans to release The Wolf Among Us 2, fans cheered. 4 'Batman: The Enemy Within' (2017) Image via Telltale Games With Batman, much like with the Guardians, fans might ask: Why play Telltale’s game, rather than one of the more action-filled choices out there? Why play this and not Arkham City? Here, the answer is: There’s no reason, Arkham City is better. But also, you can play both. That’s allowed. Telltale’s 2016 Batman game took the character to some interesting places that many people had never seen before. A few elements of the story won’t hit audiences as hard today, as they went on to appear in the widely seen movie The Batman. So, let’s instead highlight the sequel, Batman: The Enemy Within. The most surprising part of this game is the final episode’s almost entirely different depending on what choices you made up to this point. Multiple paths is not really the most important part of these types of games, but it’s something a lot of players have asked for, and this one actually delivered it. 3 'Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures' (2009) Image via Telltale Games Some games are exciting because they keep shifting you to new and novel settings. Others do something different, by teaching you to know one level well and then providing new and surprising twists in that familiar area. Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures does the latter. Every episode takes place in their village, and the bulk of every episode takes place in their home, which shifts to perform different functions as new adventures unfold. Every episode starts by introducing some terrifying threat, which is immediately revealed to be completely innocuous, so we can now move on to the real plot. These plots involve inventions, bees, balloons, and cheese. This is another Telltale adventure game, which means using inventory items to come up with ludicrous solutions for problems, so you may quickly get stuck if you’re not familiar with the genre. But if you’ve never played an adventure game before, this one might be an accessible introduction. That’s because 80 percent of people enjoy stories set in English villages, and 100 percent of people enjoy Wallace and Gromit. 2 'The Walking Dead Season One' (2012) Image via Telltale Games When Telltale went out of business, many commentators concluded that the problem was their games never innovated. But the games did: Each introduced new gimmicks in innovation, sometimes to a fault. No, the truth was Telltale failed because the public just really loved the story in Telltale’s one Walking Dead game, and there was never guarantee they’d like other games as much. The Walking Dead was a success unto itself, not a formula to be copied or iterated on. The game’s success didn’t mean Telltale was bound to win with later narrative games, no more than a bestselling novels means a publisher is guaranteed success selling other books. Data suggest Telltale’s Walking Dead games sold more than all their other games combined. Crazier still, the first Walking Dead game alone nearly sold more than all their other games combined, including all other Walking Dead games. Indeed, the first of these games was better than anything Telltale has released since and dramatically better than its own sequels. The immediate sequel, The Walking Dead: Season Two, made some attempt at following the original’s example and was about survival and journeying, but then came three more games that fell into a rut, each about some good settlement battling some evil settlement. It was the same rut, incidentally, that the Walking Dead TV show fell into for most of its run. 1 'Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse' (2010) Image via Telltale Games Sam and Max is the only franchise to get two games on this list, and it deserves it. (If we wanted to list ten different Telltale franchises, just for the hell of it, we could have stuck to one Sam and Max entry and squeezed in Minecraft: Story Mode, but that game does not deserve it.) After giving Sam & Max Save the World a sequel, which wasn’t as good, Telltale came up with a final game that was the weirdest of all. This adventure concerns the mysterious Toys of Power, a series of artifacts that each change gameplay in ways so strange that we can’t even summarize them here. Every episode ends with a sequel hook so insane that it presumably is some kind of spoof that the game can’t possibly follow up on, and then each time, that insane scene really does turn out to be the premise for the episode that follows. Telltale’s legacy mostly concerns its interactive narratives, not its puzzle adventure games. Its most successful imitator is Dispatch, which won gamers over by providing less gameplay than any Telltale game, instead essentially just letting you choose between pre-made video clips. But let’s give full credit to Telltale adventure games as well and hope that some other company will have the courage to pick up that mantle and make some more. Collider Exclusive · Game of Thrones Personality Quiz Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To? Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Baratheon · Tyrell Five great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties — and your nature — truly lie. 🐺Stark 🦁Lannister 🐉Targaryen 🦌Baratheon 🌹Tyrell FIND YOUR HOUSE → 01 Someone powerful is acting dishonourably and everyone knows it. What do you do? In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house. ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honour means anything, it has to mean something when it's costly. BUse it. Information about someone else's dishonour is leverage — and leverage is power. CAct decisively to correct it — with or without the approval of those around me. DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom manoeuvring. ENavigate carefully — build alliances, apply quiet pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is the source of your power? Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours? AThe loyalty of people who trust me — earned over generations, not bought with gold. BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to use both without sentiment. CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable. DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to fight. ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Who do you truly fight for? Strip away the banners and the words. The honest answer tells you everything. AMy family and my people — those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything. BMy family — the ones who share my blood, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me. CMy cause — a vision larger than any single person, including me. DMyself, and those few who've proven themselves worth fighting beside. EMy house — its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I'm gone. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with your enemies? A house's method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could. AHonestly — I face them directly, and I give quarter when it's warranted. BThoroughly — I don't leave loose ends, and I don't make the same enemy twice. CDecisively — fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays. DHead-on — I'd rather meet a threat on the battlefield than behind closed doors. EElegantly — I prefer to make former enemies into allies, or at least into people who owe me something. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What kind of ruler do you believe in? Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly. AA just one — someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear. BA capable one — someone smart enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs. CA transformative one — someone who doesn't just rule what exists but reshapes what's possible. DA strong one — someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse. EA wise one — someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a sharp sword. NEXT QUESTION → 06 You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond? How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory. AWe grieve, properly and together — and then we endure, because endurance is what we do. BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely. CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don't soften us — they clarify what needs to happen next. DWe hit back. Grief and revenge are the same motion in our house. EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we're ready — on our terms, not theirs. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe? Every house has a philosophy. This is yours. AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect. BA Lannister always pays their debts — in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency. CI am the blood of the dragon. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born. DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely — and we don't stop until it's done. EGrowing strong means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power. NEXT QUESTION → 08 The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do? The answer reveals not just your ambition — but your character. AClaim it only if the realm needs me to — and rule in a way that makes it worth having. BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself. CTake it. It was always meant to be mine — I feel that in my bones and in my blood. DSeize it — with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked. EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there — influence outlasts any single reign. REVEAL MY HOUSE → The Maester Has Spoken Your House Is…Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don't. That's very much up to you. 🐺 House StarkWinter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view. You lead with honour even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having. Your loyalty to family and people runs deep — not as sentiment but as a code that doesn't bend when things get difficult. The North endures because Starks endure — not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the cold. You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf dies. You already know which one you are. 🦁 House LannisterYou understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology. You are sharper than most people realise, and you have learned to use that gap to your advantage. A Lannister always pays their debts — and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order. You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway. The lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you. 🐉 House TargaryenYou carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it. You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most dangerous quality. Fire and blood are not just words to you — they are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs. The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible. At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them. 🦌 House BaratheonYou are a force — direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them. Ours is the fury — and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally fear from those who underestimate what's behind it. You value strength and straight dealing. You'd rather know where you stand in a fight than navigate a web of courtly whispers. The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history — and then struggled with what came after. The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too. 🌹 House TyrellYou understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn't quite reach the eyes. Growing strong is your house's motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts. You are charming by choice and calculating by nature — a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter. The Tyrells fed King's Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne — and they were arguably more powerful for it. You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ