The Easter long weekend is coming up fast. It’s the perfect time to dive back into that game you’ve been meaning to pick back up, or finally sink some solid hours into your latest pickup. It is also a great excuse to pick up something short that you’ll be able to knock over before the weekend is over.
We’ve put together a list of some of our favourite short games that you’ll be able to pick up on Friday morning and easily finish by Monday evening.
This article has been updated since publication.
Going Under
Length: 9 hours
In Going Under, you play an unpaid intern going about her usual day. You fetch coffees, complete mind-numbing admin work, and explore the ruins of failed tech startups.
As you search these dungeons searching for valuables you can use to bolster your business, you’ll face various monsters and creatures – previous employees who have become twisted by their failure.
Going Under is one-half dungeon crawler and one-half fun satire of start-up and corporate culture, right down to its visuals taking cues from the flat illustration style every tech company seems to use today.
Hotline Miami
Length: 5 hours
Set in the neon-soaked 1980s, Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter where you play an animal mask-wearing assassin, taking on the Russian mafia. It’s loud, it’s violent, it’s so very, very good.
While the tactics of Hotline Miami might seem shallow on the surface – enter room, kill people – this game becomes more fun when you change up your tactics. Each of your character’s animal masks comes with its own unique buff, which can totally change how to approach every level. Do you play it stealthily, or is it a run-and-gun massacre?
Also, Hotline Miami has one of the best videogame soundtracks of all time and is worth the price of admission for that alone.
Inside
Length: 3.5 hours
Look, you just really need to play Inside. It’s one of those games that makes you remember just how good video games can be.
You play as a nameless young boy as he navigates his way through an eerie dystopia, sometimes using a special ability to take control of others’ bodies. The cleverly designed puzzles perfectly combine with a sparse aesthetic that really emphasises Inside‘s creepy atmosphere.
If you really enjoyed Inside and want something similar, check out its spiritual predecessor Limbo. It’s another puzzle-based platformer, that was created by the same developer.
Pikuniku
Length: 3 hours
If it isn’t apparent right way, Pikuniku is weird. It’s a platformer where you play as a red dot with legs that you can use to lasso objects and hooks.
As you play through Pikuniku, you’ll solve various puzzles while encountering even more strange blob creatures. But underneath this goofy art style and odd sense of humour is actually a dystopian tale about the failings of capitalism.
Resident Evil 3
Length: 8 hours
A modern remake of the classic 1999 survival horror game, Resident Evil 3 is an action-horror game that manages to find a good balance between being exhilarating fun and on-the-edge-of-your-seat intense.
In it, you play as Jill Valentine, a former member of S.T.A.R.S., and Carlos Oliveira, an Umbrella mercenary, as you attempt to escape Raccoon City, which has been overrun with bloodthirsty zombies. To make things even more difficult, you’re also being constantly hunted by Nemesis, a leather-coat-wearing monstrosity that will suddenly appear to ruin your day.
I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for it because of that fairly short playtime. However, it’s not too hard to find cheap copies floating around.
Sonic Mania Plus
Length: 5 hours
Remember that brief moment a few years back when everyone thought Sonic the Hedgehog games might be good again because of how great Sonic Mania was?
This game didn’t try to reinvent Sonic, but rather, went back to the source and compiled everything that made the character iconic and great in the first place. Sonic Mania is a fast-paced, side-scrolling platformer that recreates parts of the original trilogy of Sonic games while giving it a modern-day overhaul in terms of music, sprite art and controls.
If you grew up playing the classic Sonic games, Sonic Mania feels like an idealised version of them.
Superhot
Length: 2.5 hours
Superhot isn’t just one of the best short games you can play, it’s one of the best games of the last decade. It’s a first-person shooter, but with a twist – time only moves when you’re moving. So if you stay still, everything will slow down to an almost standstill, including bullets.
It’s an FPS where every single move you make needs to be considered first, where even the slightest movement can determine the outcome of a firefight. There’s limited ammo and weapons, so you every choice you make in Superhot needs to be tactical.
If you happen to have an Oculus rig set up, the VR version of Superhot is an absolute must-play – more so than the original.
Superliminal
Length: 2.5 hours
Superliminal is a puzzle game that’s built around using optical illusions and forced perspective. For example, if you bring an object really close to you, you’ll increase its size. Hold it further away and now it’s tiny. It’s a wonderfully idiosyncratic game.
Playing through it for the first time reminded me a lot of the original Portal. It’s tricky and some puzzles might take you a bit longer to complete than others, but it’s never frustrating. No matter how big or small the puzzle, solving it always feels rewarding.
Journey
Length: 2 hours
Hey, you can’t knock a classic, am I right?
Journey is arguably one of the best games ever made, it’s almost hard to believe that it really only takes a couple of hours to beat! In it, you’re taken on a completely dialogue-less adventure through a beautiful-yet-barren desert, with only sweet sweet music and magical light to get you by.
If you haven’t played Journey, all I can say is you should. It’ll change you. Make you appreciate how beautiful life is.
Tinykin
Length: 6 hours
Tinykin is one of the best little guy games I’ve ever played.
If you’re looking for an experience that mixes Paper Mario with Pikmin and even a hint of It Takes Two, you will find it in Tinykin. You’re tasked with building a spaceship out of giant household objects, meeting a cast of funny bugs on the way. Oh, and you’re aided in your travels by the Tinykin, all of whom have different abilities and are also your little friends.
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