Bad North

Bad North is a real-time strategy video game developed by Plausible Concept (a game studio in Malmö, Sweden, founded by Oskar Stålberg and Richard Meredith) and published by Raw Fury. The game was released on August 20, 2018, for the Nintendo Switch, then for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on August 28. A Microsoft Windows version was released on October 16, 2018. Versions for Android and iOS followed on October 16, 2019.^[1]

Bad North
Developer(s)	Plausible Concept
Publisher(s)	Raw Fury
Platform(s)	Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, Android
Release	August 20, 2018 Switch WW: August 20, 2018 PS4, Xbox One WW: August 28, 2018 Windows WW: October 16, 2018 Android, iOS WW: October 16, 2019
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy

Bad North focuses on real-time tactics gameplay. The main goals are to defend the player's kingdom from the attacking Viking invaders who killed the king and to guide the island's people to evacuate.^[2][3][4][5] The procedurally generated islands are divided into multiple tiles and have houses with Vikings attacking from any corner, so the player's strategy must be well planned to get the opportunity to save the people from the enemy by protecting the houses. The Viking invaders will chuck torches into the houses, and if they burn completely the player will not earn coins for those houses. Coins are needed to get upgrades for units and level up commanders' defenses. The player can also pick up items (represented as question marks in the map) and add new commanders to the army.^[6][7]

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	NS: 72/100^[8] PC: 74/100^[9] XONE: 65/100^[10]

Review scores

Publication	Score
Destructoid	5.5/10^[13]
Nintendo Life	9/10^[11]
Nintendo World Report	7/10^[12]
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	7/10
PC Gamer (US)	78/100^[14]

The game offers easy, normal, and hard difficulty options. A "Very Hard" option can be unlocked by completing the game on Hard.^[15] A free expansion for Bad North called "Jotunn Edition" was released in July 2019.^[16] Bad North received "mixed or average reviews" according to Metacritic.^[17] The game was nominated for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year" at the 22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.^[18]

References

1. "Bad North - A Minimalistic, Real-Time Tactics Roguelite with Vikings". Bad North. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
2. "Bad North: Jotunn Edition - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
3. "Bad North: Jotunn Edition". App Store. December 17, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
4. "Bad North - A Minimalistic, Real-Time Tactics Roguelite with Vikings". Bad North. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
5. "Save 75% on Bad North: Jotunn Edition on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
6. "Bad North Review (Switch eShop)". NintendoLife. August 22, 2018.
7. Gideon, Gaming (October 23, 2019). "Bad North: Jotunn Edition Review". Gideon's Gaming. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
8. "Bad North for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
9. "Bad North for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
10. "Bad North for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
11. Reseigh-Lincoln, Dom (August 22, 2018). "Bad North Review (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
12. Ronaghan, Neal (August 23, 2018). "Bad North (Switch) Review". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
13. Mersereau, Kevin (September 2, 2018). "Review: Bad North". Destructoid. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
14. Greer, Sam (August 23, 2018). "BAD NORTH REVIEW". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
15. Lauren Morton (July 24, 2019). "Bad North's free expansion comes with a 'very hard' difficulty level and hero traits". PC Gamer. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
16. Chalk, Andy (November 21, 2019). "Bad North: Jotunn Edition is this week's Epic Games Store freebie". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
17. "Bad North". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
18. "God of War, Spider-Man Lead DICE Awards; Here's All the Nominees".

Further reading

• Castelli, Stefano (September 11, 2018). "Bad North - La recensione". IGN Italia. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
• Donlan, Christian (August 23, 2018). "Bad North review - doom-laden strategy delivered in tiny, terrifying chunks". Eurogamer. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
• Reseigh-Lincoln, Dom (August 22, 2018). "Review: Bad North (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
• Smith, Adam (March 22, 2018). "Bad North and the golden age of micro-tactics". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
• Webster, Andrew (September 16, 2018). "Bad North is a scaled-down RTS that's perfect for the Switch". The Verge. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
• Wood, Austin (March 26, 2018). "Bad North is easy to pick up, but it's a fiendish strategy game". PC Gamer. Retrieved September 16, 2018.