Okay, so Defender of the Crown on GBA is basically medieval chess with swords and sieges. You start off picking a knight—I always go for the one with the best stats for jousting because, let’s be real, that’s the fun part. Then it’s this weird mix of turn-based strategy and quick action minigames where you’re either storming castles or dueling some smug lord in single combat.

The map’s split into territories, and you’ve gotta take them over one by one, but here’s the thing: you can’t just brute-force it. Sometimes you’ll send raiding parties to weaken a castle first, other times you’ll challenge the enemy leader to a one-on-one fight. The graphics are old-school, but there’s charm in those pixelated banners and the way your knight dramatically falls off his horse when you botch a joust.

It’s not super deep, but there’s something satisfying about slowly turning the whole map your color. Just don’t get too cocky—lose a big battle, and suddenly you’re back to scrambling for resources. A solid pick if you want strategy without spreadsheets.