Whether he is called "the Grey," "the White," or simply, "a disturber of the peace," Gandalf stands as one of the most popular characters in both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. As such, he manages to appear in nearly every video game title related to Lord of the Rings and is playable in the majority of the games he appears in.
Oddly enough, even in titles where players don't start the game as Gandalf, gamers often assume his role during crucial events of the books and movies like the fight with the Balrog or for the defense of Minas Tirith. Despite the majority of titles appearing around the time that the Lord of the Rings trilogy was released, Gandalf has been appearing in games for nearly 40 years at this point.
Shadowfax (1982)
Much like Spider-Man's video game adaptations, Gandalf's begins humbly as a blob of pixels in a simplistic setting. The goal of Shadowfax is straightforward, ride through waves of Nazgul while blasting them with lightning. While it may be difficult for fans to distinguish Shadowfax's rider in the game, a quick glance at the description on the box reveals him as none other than Gandalf, making for his earliest playable appearance.
War in Middle Earth (1988)
Gandalf's next playable appearance is not for another few years following Shadowfax. Upon his return, Gandalf makes his debut as a unit in a real-time strategy game. As to be expected, Gandalf is extremely strong compared to other units in War in Middle Earth, more than capable of handling small armies on his own. War in Middle Earth manages to include a ton of elements from the books including most of the major characters such as Frodo, Sam, Boromir, Faramir, and the like.
Riders of Rohan (1991)
Riders of Rohan sees Gandalf return for another small role. While the game, like War in Middle Earth, primarily centers around real-time strategy, a brief tutorial puts the player in control of Gandalf as he battles against one of the Nazgul. He is also available as a special unit within the game, and, like before, he is an extremely powerful and useful character.
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1 (1994)
For better or worse, this is likely the first game that most gamers were exposed to with regards to Lord of the Rings. It achieved a bit of popularity just by virtue of being an RPG on the SNES but never received a sequel due to its relatively poor sales. Gandalf is not intended to be a playable character in the game, but players can take control of him by using cheat codes. Sadly, in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1, during his fight with the Balrog, Gandalf does not fall to an implied off-screen death like in the films but is instead reduced to a skeleton in front of the Fellowship.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring debuts the format in which subsequent titles molded themselves. It offers a playthrough of the entire first film with players assuming control of various characters for key events. For Gandalf's part, players assume control of the wizard during the adventure in Moria, following the battle with the Watcher in the Water and up until his "death" against the Balrog.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
As Lord of the Rings' popularity continued to grow following the release of The Two Towers, a whole slew of games were hastily produced and released. In the console release of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, players traverse through the events of the first two films as Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, but in the Game Boy Advance version, which looks and feels like an entirely different game, players are able to assume control of Gandalf during the events of the Fellowship of the Ring.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King actually covers the events of both the second and the third films. This time around, however, players were able to assume control of Gandalf in both the console and handheld versions of the game. It plays much like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, with classic hack-and-slash action and upgrades available at the end of each stage.
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (2004)
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age brings Gandalf in for yet another short appearance. He briefly joins the party for his most well-known scene in the Fellowship of the Ring, the fight against the Balrog. For the rest of the game, players assume control of a party that is comprised mostly of minor characters or characters that are inspired by the main cast.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth 1 & 2 (2004 & 2006)
Gandalf appears as a unit in the original game, the sequel, and the expansion. At this point, it's well established that Gandalf is a devastating unit in any real-time strategy game he appears in, and the Battle for Middle-earth franchise is no exception. In Battle for Middle-earth 2, Gandalf is equipped with an ability called Word of Power, which destroys weak units and sends any survivors flying a couple of hundred feet in the air.
The Lord of the Rings: Tactics (2006)
Unfortunately for Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: Tactics opens up in Moria with the battle against the Balrog, meaning that he is eliminated from the game before the party even passes their first level. But, luckily, he returns for the later events like the battle at Minas Tirith. While The Lord of the Rings: Tactics was an inventive new way to play through a familiar story, it performed poorly mostly due to being tied to the PSP.
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009)
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest harkened back to the earlier Electronic Arts games but brought a bit of extra chaos. It was inspired by and played like the Star Wars: Battlefront series, only set in Middle-earth. Of course, Gandalf is a featured character, and players could take to gigantic wars of up to 16 people while playing as him. While The Lord of the Rings: Conquest was an interesting concept, it ultimately failed in its shallow execution and the online servers were shut down less than two years after going up.
The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest (2010)
While The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest was already an odd game—a plot centered around Aragorn and paired with a quirky, Warner Bros. art style—it was an even odder outing for Gandalf. The only way that a player could take control of Gandalf was to play as the second player, and even then, they only got to play as Gandalf during the later stages of the game. During the sequences in The Shire, player two was stuck playing as Frodo's sister, Elanor.
LEGO The Lord of the Rings & Lego The Hobbit (2012 & 2014)
The LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit games feature the most playable characters out of any game in the series. Unsurprisingly, Gandalf, as one of the most popular characters, is one of the options. Just like LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Harry Potter, these games loosely follow the films while adding a bit of silly, light-hearted humor that has become a signature of the LEGO video games.
Guardians of Middle-earth (2012)
A MOBA in a similar vein to League of Legends or DOTA 2, Guardians of Middle-earth features Gandalf as one option in a sizeable roster. Gandalf comes with a whole host of magic that is either directly shown in or inspired by the movies including illuminating his staff to blind opponents, defending himself with a magical shield as he did against the Balrog, and setting off a giant fireworks display that stuns enemies like the one at Bilbo's birthday party.
The LEGO Movie Video Game (2014)
The LEGO Movie Video Game follows the plot of the film, and, since Gandalf is a character in said film, he features in the game. It plays in a similar fashion to all the other LEGO games, but the one thing that makes Gandalf stand out in The LEGO Movie Video Game is that his voice actor, Todd Hansen, was the only one to return to lend his voice to the game.
LEGO Dimensions (2015)
Following the success of Amiibo and other toys-to-life games, LEGO decided to make their own run at the format and developed LEGO Dimensions. The game featured real-life toys that doubled as in-game characters. The starter pack, of course, featured a familiar face in LEGO movies, Gandalf. Ultimately, however, the idea ran out of steam, and the planned future updates ceased only a few years after the game's creation.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War Mobile (2018)
With his latest appearance, Gandalf is in yet another real-time strategy game. Middle-earth: Shadow of War allows players to unlock various characters from the cast of the Lord of the Rings films including Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, and others. Ultimately, however, Gandalf represented one of the major problems with Shadow of War, as getting him and leveling him up quickly ended up turning the game into a pay-to-win experience that most players detested.