These days, it feels like video games are long-term commitments. Games-as-service titles like Destiny 2 and MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XIV release new content at a steady clip, and keeping up with the latest storylines or limited-time events can feel more like a part-time job than a game. Even single-player games trend towards giant open worlds, like Elden Ring and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, that could take dozens or even hundreds of hours to beat. Getting lost in massive games like these can be fun, but they also crowd out other games you might want to play—especially if you only have a couple of hours to play during the week.
Luckily there are thousands of games out there you can beat in just one or two short sessions, but still feel like a complete experience. Whether you want a break from those big AAA time sinks, or to expand your library and try some shorter games, here is a list of 23 games you can beat in a few hours.
Everything on this list clocks in at under seven hours for a standard playthrough, and most are just two to three hours at most. Obviously, that time can vary due to differences in player skill, and completionists may find some of these titles can take two or three times as long to 100%—but that’s still much shorter than most games.
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider
How long to beat: 2.5 hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4.
This retro-style side-scroller casts you as a robotic samurai on a mission to free the world from a totalitarian regime. The game features a handful of levels and bosses you can blast through in just a few hours. A single run through the game’s eight stages is worth the price of admission, but there are extra modes and bonus objectives to complete that extend the playtime by several hours if you want to keep playing.
A Short Hike
How long to beat: 1.5 hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
You know a game can be beaten quickly when the word “short” is in the title. In A Short Hike, players, well, take a short hike through the low-poly landscapes of Hawk Peak Provincial Park. Your little bird character can also climb surfaces and glide through the air, which you’ll need to explore every inch of the park. Your stroll will only take a couple of hours at most, but there are optional secrets to collect, hikers to befriend, and even hidden areas to uncover if you want to prolong the adventure.
Lil Gator Game
How long to beat: About four hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC.
True to its name, Lil Gator Game is a quick adventure where you play as a young gator playing make-believe with his friends. Your three to five hour quest takes you across a tiny open world filled with puzzles and tasks to complete. The gameplay mixes collect-a-thon 3D platforming with action-adventure combat and side-questing. It’s a bit like The Legend of Zelda, but you battle cardboard cutouts instead of actual monsters.
Portal
How long to beat: Three to five hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC.
Valve’s Portal is one of the most important video games of the past 20 years. Its revolutionary presentation and gameplay design ushered in a new wave of first-person puzzle games, and the game’s robotic overlord GlaDOS—voiced by Ellen McLain—remains one of the most iconic video game villains. The first game only takes a few hours to beat, but there are plenty of secrets and optional achievements to seek out. And if you fall in love and want to experience more of the story, Portal 2 is also available, and offers a meatier 10-14 hour campaign.
Firewatch
How long to beat: About four hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
In the summer of 1988, Henry M. (Rich Sommer) decides to get away from his challenging life and spend a summer working as a fire lookout deep in the Wyoming wilderness. Players control Henry as he explores the woods one day when the fire risk is high, and stumbles into a strange mystery where his only help is his Partner Delilah at the other end of his walkie-talkie line. This short, narrative-driven exploration game only takes about four hours to complete.
Inside
How long to beat: Four hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
If you’re a fan of weird fiction and sci-fi horror, take a few hours and playthrough this eerie, atmospheric puzzle-platformer. You play as a child slinking their way through an abandoned town and, later, a nearby facility running strange experiments. Inside’s story is a mind-bending tale told subtly through the level design and puzzles you complete rather than dialog and cutscenes.
Abzu
How long to beat: About two hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
Abzu is a scuba-diving adventure game where players swim through numerous aquatic realms teeming with undersea life. You’ll encounter vibrant seaweed forests, coral reefs, and even mysterious ancient ruins over the two hours it takes to beat. If you want to spend more time under the waves, you can eke out another couple of hours chasing trophies and side missions.
Sin & Punishment
How long to beat: Two hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch (via Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack).
There are many retro games in the Nintendo Switch Online service you can beat in just a few hours—such was the case with older video games. But if there’s one game we think everyone should play, it’s Sin & Punishment. This on-rails shoot ’em up was only released in Japan on the N64, but garnered a cult following in the US and Europe. And now that it’s part of the NSO Expansion Pack for Nintendo Switch, players can finally check out one of the best games from the N64.
Panzer Dragoon: Remake
How long to beat: One hour.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
This remake of the beloved Sega Saturn shooter isn’t a perfect recreation, but it’s a solid way to experience one of the best—and woefully overlooked—games in Sega’s catalog. At just an hour long with slim bonus content, Panzer Dragoon: Remake’s standard $20 price tag is steep, but it’s worth grabbing if you find it on sale, especially if you don’t have a Sega Saturn lying around to play the original on.
Mega Man 11
How long to beat: About five hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
After years without a new traditional Mega Man game, Capcom finally gave fans Mega Man 11 in 2018. The gameplay hews close to the old-school side-scrolling action of classic Mega Man games, but with 2.5D graphics instead of 2D pixel sprites. While the game offers the challenging platforming most Mega Man fans prefer, there are multiple difficulty levels tuned for new and casual players as well.
Iron Lung
How long to beat: About one hour.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC.
David Szymanski’s Iron Lung is one of the most claustrophobic video games ever made. You pilot a tiny submarine exploring an ocean of blood on a remote moon entirely by yourself. But you’re not alone. As you navigate your creaking watercraft, you’ll catch glimpses of anomalous objects and even strange creatures living deep beneath the sanguine seas.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
How long to beat: Two hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is one of those games where the less you know about it, the better your experience is. In short, this is a first-person exploration game where you walk through an office building. There’s also a narrator that explains everything you do in the game. That might sound like a simple premise, but one that has won numerous awards and widespread critical acclaim.
Superhot
How long to beat: 2.5 hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Meta Quest.
Superhot is a first-person shooter with a novel gameplay hook: time only moves when you move or attack. Oh, and you also die in one hit. This turns each shootout into a mini puzzle where you must plan your movements, gunshots, and other actions while your enemies close the gap. Superhot’s novel encounter design is a great way for veteran FPS players and puzzle game fans to challenge their problem-solving skills.
Stray
How long to beat: Five hours.
Available on: PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4.
If you’re curious about that adorable cat game that captured the internet’s imagination last year, I have good news: You can beat it in just five hours. That happens to be the perfect playtime for this fun, albeit simple, 3D platformer where you play as a cat living in a cyberpunk dystopia.
Untitled Goose Game
How long to beat: Three hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
This quirky avian sandbox game was like the Stray of 2020: a novel indie game featuring a lovable animal protagonist that the internet obsessed over for a few weeks. But unlike the wholesome platforming of Stray, Untitled Goose Game is all about causing mischief. Your goose character is a total jerk, and that’s the point of the game. You wander around a cute town, full of people and animals minding their own business, until you come around and prank them—though it’s never mean-spirited, and always played for laughs.
Minit
How long to beat: One to two hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
As the name of this game implies, Minit is a tiny action-adventure game where players have just one minute to explore as much of the world as possible before a curse sends them back to the beginning of the day, or they’re killed by a monster—whichever comes first. You’ll learn more about the world each time-loop, unlocking new locations and solutions to side-quests you can quickly access in subsequent attempts until you can finally beat the game and lift the curse within the short time frame.
Unpacking
How long to beat: Three to four hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
Unpacking your boxes is one of the worst parts of the moving process, yet Unpacking turns it into a compelling puzzle game. Each level tasks players with unpacking and fiting all their belongings within limited spaces. It’s kinda like a Tetris-ified version of home decoration in The Sims or Animal Crossing, and it only takes three to four hours to beat. If only unpacking in real life could be completed that quickly.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
How long to beat: Two to three hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
Shredder’s Revenge was released in 2022, but playing it will send you back to a time when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dominated TV and arcades in the ‘80s and ‘90s. While Shredder’s Revenge plays like an old-school co-op brawler, it also features welcome modern touches—including online multiplayer—and a lush pixel art graphical style more detailed than what was possible on home consoles 30 years ago.
Gato Roboto
How long to beat: About four hours.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One.
There are few things cuter than kittens, and few things cooler than giant mech suits. So, naturally, a cat piloting a mech is the perfect premise for a video game. Gato Roboto’s “metroidvania” level design means there’s plenty to explore and tons of secrets to uncover in its monochromatic levels, making for a rewarding four hour experience.
Quake
How long to beat: Five to six hours (main campaign).
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Game Pass.
Quake is a classic first-person shooter from storied development studio id Software. Originally marketed as the follow-up to id’s wildly successful DOOM*, and one of the first-ever fully 3D shooters, Quake’s snappy gunplay and mind-bending level design still hold up today. Plus, the game’s availability on just about every console out there makes it a great pick for shooter fans. Players can beat the original campaign in a few hours, but the recent rerelease includes bonus mission packs that add a substantial chunk of extra playtime.
*DOOM is also a short game, and worth playing if you like old-school shooters like Quake.
Journey
How long to beat: Two hours.
Available on: PC, PlayStation 4.
This atmospheric adventure takes players on a short-but-moving trek across a mysterious desert, through crumbling ruins, and, eventually, to the summit of a far-off mountain. Journey features a minimalist story, presentation, and user interface. Instead of objective markers and a minimap, players orient themselves by the position of the mountain’s peak, which is almost always visible on the horizon. This game is best with online co-op—which happens seamlessly as you play—but is totally playable and still a powerful experience solo.
Metal Hellsinger
How long to beat: Four to six hours.
Available on: PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One.
Metal Hellsinger takes the hellish aesthetics and fast-paced gunplay of retro-shooters like Doom and Quake and sets it to a beat. Players must time their gunshots to the beat, and, by staying on tempo, you do more damage to your demonic enemies (and the game’s heavy meal soundtrack intensifies).
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
How long to beat: Two hours (main missions).
Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is a standalone release that serves as a narrative and gameplay prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The entire game is set in a single military base that serves as a giant sandbox with multiple objectives to complete. In the main mission, players sneak into the facility as Big Boss to save several members of his militia being held as POWs. There are additional challenges and objectives to complete as well.
We should mention that Ground Zeroes deals with some heavy themes, including torture, child soldiers, and sexual abuse. None of it is shown in overt detail, but it’s worth noting the content warnings for this one.