rdrunner | 422 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Seeing the Elden Ring thread got me thinking: For those of us (like me) who have no realistic way of playing games that demand super-long playthroughs, what are some of your favorite games from recent years that can be finished within a reasonable amount of time? Obviously the word "reasonable" is subjective here, but for the purposes of this thread, let's say 20 total hours max for a first-time any% completion (including failed attempts). If the answer is "such games do not exist, stick with your silly NES and arcade games", that's fine too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Rothchild | 9,586 Editorials Team · Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 From the last 2-3 years? Cadence of Hyrule, Returnal, Astral Chain, Obra Dinn, among many others. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireHazard51 | 2,052 Social Team · Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 50 minutes ago, rdrunner said: Seeing the Elden Ring thread got me thinking: For those of us (like me) who have no realistic way of playing games that demand super-long playthroughs, what are some of your favorite games from recent years that can be finished within a reasonable amount of time? Obviously the word "reasonable" is subjective here, but for the purposes of this thread, let's say 20 total hours max for a first-time any% completion (including failed attempts). If the answer is "such games do not exist, stick with your silly NES and arcade games", that's fine too. A lot of PSVR games fit that play time. But if you are looking for flat screen games I would say the last good short games I played were Life is Strange: True Colors (good story) and Astro's Play Room (great platformer). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webhead123 | 687 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 I may not be the best sample in terms of super-recent stuff but some standouts for me over past few years that don't become too much of a time-sink have included: Super Mario Odyssey Doom Eternal Return to Monkey Island Spider-Man (Sony) Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle Streets of Rage 4TMNT: Shredder's Revenge Dusk Minit Darkest Dungeon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 988 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 SR definitely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,952 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Blaster Master Zero and Lodoss War Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is another, as is Metroid Dread all for switch. Homebrew side fairly recent is Kira Kira Star Night DX for Famicom which i got a complete boxed copy of, very short, but very fun, a good point racking title. TMNT Shredder's Revenge but also the collection of the oldies too is great, as is the other konami bundles for Castlevania, the misc arcade, and even Contra. Each have a number of short games, not too many that are long enough for passwords, just a few. Cat Quest 1+2 for mobile+switch is another pair of excellent shorter well made games with a nice story. My understanding that Super Lucky's Tale on Switch is one of the best platformers (3D) in years, isn't terribly long but super well done, had been considering grabbing this for myself or the kid too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,434 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Sayonara Wild Hearts is a 1-2 hour long "playable album" like a combination of an endless runner and Rez sort of. It's pretty great. It changes things up for every song and ends before ever getting repetitive. I wish games had the balls to be a tight hour-long experience more often. Everything has so much padding. Imagine if movies felt the need to be 6 hours long regardless of how much story there was to tell. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nesmaster14 | 436 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Squad 51 Vs The Flying Saucers (2022) - Horizontal shmup, the story/presentation is actually pretty fun/original and can be finished in a night maybe a few hours. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazball | 172 Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 Stray gets my vote, one of my favorite games this year! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDIRunner | 2,774 Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 I played the AVGN games for the first time this year. Both games were pretty short, but still a lot of fun, and the difficult level helped to keep me from playing through everything in a single night. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 2,994 Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 Pocky & Rocky Reshrined takes about 45 minutes to run through when you know what you are doing, much like an NES game. And it's a fantastic fun game, my favourite of 2022 if not for Elden Ring. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abelardo | 154 Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 Axiom Verge, it's a bit old now and has a retro aesthetic, but it's the best "modern" metroidvania I've played, the game is about 10 hours long. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaMan52 | 2,461 Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 (edited) Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, Mega Man 11, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered (I know this game was originally released in 2009, but I've got the Switch version), Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn, Yoshi's Crafted World, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, Axiom Verge, and Sonic Mania. Edited December 17, 2022 by MegaMan52 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,588 Graphics Team · Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 23 hours ago, nesmaster14 said: Squad 51 Vs The Flying Saucers (2022) - Horizontal shmup, the story/presentation is actually pretty fun/original and can be finished in a night maybe a few hours. I remember you mentioning Squad 51 Vs The Flying Saucers in another thread a while back, and as a big fan of campy 70s rubber-suit tokusatsu monster movies, I aaaaalmost dove into a modern game for the first time in ... like ... a decade haha. -CasualCart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireHazard51 | 2,052 Social Team · Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 15 hours ago, CasualCart said: I remember you mentioning Squad 51 Vs The Flying Saucers in another thread a while back, and as a big fan of campy 70s rubber-suit tokusatsu monster movies, I aaaaalmost dove into a modern game for the first time in ... like ... a decade haha. -CasualCart Do you even have the modern consoles to play the games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,588 Graphics Team · Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 3 hours ago, FireHazard51 said: Do you even have the modern consoles to play the games? Haha nope - but I've got a decent PC, so I could technically play some modern games if I really wanted to. -CasualCart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickman | 4,014 Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 There’s heaps of great modern games that are under 20 hours from the majors and indies and some even better than the games they were inspired from. Celeste Supet Meat Boy Guacamelee Shovel Knight Cuphead Shantae games River City Girls Streets of Rage 4 Momodora That should keep you busy for a bit 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 2,994 Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Man I feel I'm getting old when a 10-20 hour game is "reasonably short" 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PekoponTAS | 171 Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Once you're good at it, Sonic Lost World is two hours and forty minutes, and that's only if you watch the cutscenes. A first playthrough will take a long while though. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is a fun three hour game too. I'm 32, so those games are still pretty recent to me at least. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captmorgandrinker | 1,650 Administrator · Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 On 12/16/2022 at 3:08 PM, rdrunner said: Seeing the Elden Ring thread got me thinking: For those of us (like me) who have no realistic way of playing games that demand super-long playthroughs, what are some of your favorite games from recent years that can be finished within a reasonable amount of time? Obviously the word "reasonable" is subjective here, but for the purposes of this thread, let's say 20 total hours max for a first-time any% completion (including failed attempts). If the answer is "such games do not exist, stick with your silly NES and arcade games", that's fine too. What types of games do you normally like? Lost Judgment was good and clocks in around 20ish hours even with doing some of the random side quests. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strange | 1,701 Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Demon’s Souls is a very quickly-beatable game once you know it. Even if you don’t it’s the quickest (and probably easiest) Souls game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strange | 1,701 Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 On 12/16/2022 at 4:27 PM, DefaultGen said: Imagine if movies felt the need to be 6 hours long regardless of how much story there was to tell. I feel this way already with 3 hour movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireHazard51 | 2,052 Social Team · Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 9 hours ago, CasualCart said: Haha nope - but I've got a decent PC, so I could technically play some modern games if I really wanted to. -CasualCart I can see that, VR takes a lot of PC power. Speaking of that, when we getting our first VR Casual Cart drawing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,588 Graphics Team · Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 10 hours ago, FireHazard51 said: I can see that, VR takes a lot of PC power. Speaking of that, when we getting our first VR Casual Cart drawing? Probably never haha. No offense to the VR enthusiasts out there, but there aren't many platforms that interest me less... -CasualCart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireHazard51 | 2,052 Social Team · Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 16 minutes ago, CasualCart said: Probably never haha. No offense to the VR enthusiasts out there, but there aren't many platforms that interest me less... -CasualCart I figured you wouldn't be caught dead with a VR headset on but I had high hopes you'd take inspiration and draw something 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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