Video games can allow players to explore a vast array of worlds. Often, players expect games with bigger worlds to be the more impressive experiences, with a lot of titles putting emphasis on their huge open worlds. Some stories, however, prove that a smaller scale can be just as impactful.

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The following games all demonstrate stories set in worlds that are tiny in comparison to our normal point of view. Whether these include protagonists who have been physically shrunk in order to see the world in a new way or those who are native to their tiny world, all of these games shift a player's perspective of the world towards the microscopic.

10 Grounded

Described as a combination of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, and a survival game, Grounded is an example of a narrative where the protagonists are shrunk down and must explore a once familiar world through a microscopic lens. In this case, it is their own backyard.

This environment proves to be quite hostile when its inhabitants become the size of the insects that reside there. Grounded puts the survival genre in a unique microscopic environment and, especially since it is available on Xbox Game Pass and can be played multiplayer, it is worth giving a try.

9 Spore

Spore is a wacky life simulation strategy game that starts on a literally microscopic level. Players create their own microscopic creatures, helping them to navigate their miniature world.

As the game progresses, the player must help their strange life form grow, develop, and evolve until they finally become their own advanced culture. Although the world doesn't stay miniature forever, with emphasis on growth and evolution, players must start from the smallest microscopic view of the world.

8 The Pedestrian

The Pedestrian is a unique puzzle platformer. Exploring the world from a perspective that is almost as miniature as it can be, players progress through the world by navigating through and around 2D signs.

Essentially, players take on the role of the little person in road signs and are confined to exploring the world via these and other signs. It is such a unique take on puzzle platforming and a tiny perspective on a well-known but often overlooked aspect of our real world.

7 Katamari Damacy

Like with Spore, the Katamari series typically sees players start from a microscopic scale, exploring a miniature world, and gradually building up to huge scales. The aim of the player character is to roll their magical katamari around, picking up various objects, until it is large enough to become a star.

While this eventually involves players collecting huge objects with their katamari, such as buildings or mountains, the world is initially seen from a very small scale. When the game begins, players can expect to be collecting thumbtacks and ants, which their character is also about the same size as.

6 Pikmin

The Pikmin series is well-loved for its bright, colorful, and cheery strategy games. The player controls a notable character (exactly who is dependent on the Pikmin game in question), who leads a group of the titular Pikmin. These are little plant-like creatures, and the player character is just as miniature.

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Given the tiny characters, it is no surprise that they navigate the world on a microscopic scale compared to our usual point of view. Environmental sights like watering cans, rocks, and even blades of grass tower over the player character and their Pikmin buddies.

5 Cocoon

The latest indie puzzler by the developers of the acclaimed games Inside and Limbo, Cocoon takes the exploration of microscopic worlds to a whole new confounding level. Far less terrifying than its predecessors, Cocoon sees the players control a little insect as they explore microscopic and bug-inhabited worlds.

The primary puzzle element is that players navigate different worlds that they visit by entering specific colored orbs. In this instance, the gorgeous insectoid worlds of Cocoon are so microscopic that they are contained within single pearls.

4 It Takes Two

It would be impossible to write an article about shrunken protagonists exploring a miniature world without including the co-op puzzle game, It Takes Two. The game's plot explores the relationship of a married couple with a young daughter who are seeking a divorce.

The girl, distressed by her parents' arguments, makes a wish that shrinks her parents down to a microscopic scale. Throughout the rest of the game, the pair must navigate their familiar family house from a tiny perspective. Perhaps their new perspective on the world will also grant the pair a new perspective on their relationship.

3 LittleBigPlanet

Even the name of this beloved puzzle platformer series suggests that players will be exploring a microscopic world. Throughout the game, players typically control a character called Sackboy, who has become a widely recognized mascot.

Sackboy is a tiny character, meaning that everyday objects, such as film reels or stacks of books, dwarf the adorable character. The worlds that players can explore in the Little Big Planet series are striking and visually appealing, and emphasize the microscopic parts of our big world, as seen from the perspective of a tiny little Sackboy.

2 Hollow Knight

While most of these games feature small characters in a familiar world, the wonderful metroidvania, Hollow Knight, features a small character in proportion with their own equally microscopic world. The inhabitants of Hollow Knight's world are all insects in some form, including the player's knight character. The world is similarly thematic, allowing players to explore a microscopic world that may be unfamiliar to them.

Most of the gameplay sees the player descending into the deep cavern systems that the bugs reside in, with players traversing through beehives and spiderwebs as if they are cathedrals. While the world of Hollow Knight is naturally microscopic, players are made to feel even smaller, as a lot of the architecture and, indeed, bosses that they come across will completely dwarf their little knight.

1 Unravel

Unravel and its co-op sequel, Unravel Two, are visually stunning and emotive games that put a new perspective on the real world. That perspective, as to be expected for this article, is from a microscopic point of view.

Players control little characters made of yarn as they navigate platforming puzzles, set in the real world but from the enchanting point of view of a tiny character. While this follows a similar trend to a lot of the entries on this list, the Unravel games stand out thanks to the magical beauty that they are able to draw from the real world simply by changing the perspective to a microscopic point of view.

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