The Best Short Games From All in! Games
The school year, the work day, doing your homework, doing the chores. Nearly everything nowadays is a long, drawn-out affair. Except for summer unfortunately. In the small fistfuls of free time you actually do have, you’d love to relax with a great game, but they also all take days (or eons in the case of Skyrim) to finish. Video games are simply too long. Or are they?
We’ve compiled a list of great games that don’t take entire months to finish. Some are quick finishes, some are ideal to pick up and put down according to your schedule without having a negative impact on your gameplay. In short, we’ve got you covered with the best short games.
8 of the best short games from All in! Games
Tools Up!
If you’re looking for fun, short games to play with friends, this local co-op game will hit the spot. Challenge your inner renovator by painting walls, moving couches, and putting down tiles in timed challenges and according to supplied blueprints. Join up to three players and watch everything go hilariously wrong in the blink of an eye. Level-based gameplay makes it a great short game to play with friends. When you’re done in the house, take your tools and friends to the garden in the Tools Up! Garden Party DLC.
Approximate time to finish: 6.5 hours
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Paradise Lost
What better way to spend a little free time than to travel to an alternate time! Play as Szymon, a young boy who finds an old, World War II bunker that houses more than just military secrets. What makes this title one of the best short games is the ability to stop and start the game nearly anywhere you want without losing your place in the story. Careful though, Paradise Lost has everything needed to pull you in and make you forget about the ticking clock all together!
Approximate time to finish: 4 hours
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Lumberhill
Lumberhill is a ridiculously hilarious and chaotic multiplayer party game that is perfect when you only have a bit of time on your hands. Though you can play solo, it’s a totally different experience when you gather up to three friends and play in multiplayer. Play in co-op mode as lumberjacks and chop down trees or gather sheep (or dinosaur eggs) together before time runs out. Or go into versus mode where some play as lumberjacks and some play as nature and both teams get in each other’s way. In short, Lumberhill is one of the best short video games you’ll find.
Approximate time to finish: 3 hours
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Little Racer
This dynamic racing game is perfect when you want to relax after a hard day at school or work or if you’ve got a boring weekend on your hands. Speed your colorful race car solo or with up to 4 people over 130 different levels that include the desert, hot lava, and the sky. The simple controls don’t take precious hours to master. The level editor lets you make your own, unique racing tracks, which makes the time to finish this game almost infinite. Thankfully, since this is a racing game, you can pick it up and play whenever and wherever you want, making it one of the best short games for Switch as well as a great Switch game for travelling this summer.
Approximate time to finish: ∞
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Red Wings: Aces of the Sky
Why spend time daydreaming when you can actually have your head in the clouds! Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is an arcade action game that puts you in the cockpit of a WWI fighter plane. Launch local co-op mode and have some flying fun with friends or join versus mode and try to knock each other out of the sky. With short levels and quick flying sessions, this is one of the best games to play in short sessions.
Approximate time to finish: 5 hours
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Metamorphosis
In Metamorphosis, you play as Gregor who’s been turned into a tiny bug and needs to take an extraordinary journey through a surrealist world to unravel the mystery of who turned him into a bug in the first place. Simple mechanics make it super easy to learn and play so that you can spend your precious minutes crawling up furniture and meeting interesting characters along the way. Don’t feel like playing? Just listening to Garry Schyman and Mikołaj Stroiński’s haunting, award-winning soundtrack, available on Spotify, is a great way to take five. One way or another, Metamorphosis definitely ranks high on the list of great, short video games.
Approximate time to finish: 3 hours
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Of Bird and Cage
If little time-outs filled with music keep you sane throughout the day (and, let’s be honest, life), then Of Bird and Cage is right up your alley. Play as a young, 25-year-old drug addict and watch your decisions influence this metal-music-driven narrative. The whole playthrough only lasts a couple of hours, but you can also pause and pick up the game if you have very limited playing time, earning it a place on the list of the best short games.
Approximate time to finish: 2.5 hours
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Deadlings
Death had way too much free time and began “Project Deadlings”—training a massive army of cute little zombies. And now Death is super overworked and needs your help to lead the horde through a lab filled with traps and puzzles. Though Deadlings is one of the longer titles on this list, needing a whole work day to complete (this is not a suggestion), it has over 100 bite-size, short levels that actually make it a fun, short game to play.
Approximate time to finish: 8 hours
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So there you have it. Whether you’re waiting at the doctor, taking a taxi to a party, wondering what to do with a free Saturday afternoon, or just frantically clutching on to the last days of summer vacation, All in! Games’ best short games will definitely level up the fun.
Do you have a favorite short game? Is there a short video game on the list that you want to try? Let us know on Discord.
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