Part of 9 Kings' charm is that it does not have an obvious twin. It borrows the compounding card economy of a deckbuilder, the hands-off combat of an auto-battler, and the grow-a-city satisfaction of a builder, then ships the mixture in runs short enough to say "one more". The five games below each take one of those ingredients further.
The picks
Slice & Dice is the closest thing to a sibling: a premium auto-battler where heroes roll dice-shaped abilities each turn, and the run structure, the compounding upgrades and the "one more battle" pull all rhyme with 9 Kings. If the auto-battle side of the game hooked you, start here.
Luck be a Landlord scratches the build-a-machine fantasy. Instead of a kingdom you assemble a slot machine, and the joy is the same: watching a deck you engineered resolve itself into absurd numbers. It is spikier and more gambling-flavored, but the compounding is pure.
Backpack Battles takes the placement puzzle literally: your inventory is the battlefield, and how you arrange items decides fights that resolve on their own. It is the closest match for players who loved the nine-plot spatial puzzle of 9 Kings more than the cards themselves.
Against the Storm is the city-builder side of the family. It is a roguelike settlement builder: storms end your towns, meta-progression carries forward, and the loop of "build fast, get out, go again" shares 9 Kings' rhythm of doomed runs that still feel like progress.
Brotato is the purest auto-battler of the five: twenty waves, a blob of weapons orbiting a potato, and a shop between waves that plays like a deckbuilder's draft. It is faster and twitchier than 9 Kings but hits the same "the build is playing itself now" payoff.
How to choose
Match the ingredient you liked most. Loved stealing cards from defeated kings? Deckbuilder territory: Slice & Dice and Luck be a Landlord. Loved the nine-plot geometry? Backpack Battles. Loved watching a kingdom out-scale a hopeless curve? Against the Storm. Just loved the loop? Brotato, and then come back for the gameplay loop, the nine kings and the October 8 mobile launch.
FAQ
What genre is 9 Kings?
A hybrid: roguelike deckbuilder plus auto-battler plus kingdom builder, sold as a run-based strategy game. Steam tags it Strategy, RPG, Roguelike and Deckbuilding.
Is there an official list of similar games?
No. The picks above are editorial, informed by how the community compares the game in forums and reviews.