Time in video games is a valuable thing. Unlike in the real world where it proceeds in a linear fashion, in a game it may speed up, slow down or even go backwards. There are some games where controlling time becomes a crucial and fascinating game mechanic. The best of these integrate your time travelling powers with both characters and narrative to create a compelling experience.
This list includes 29 games from the last 25 years, with 185 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to manipulate time to win.
We have other digital stories lists of games:
Penrose
Rating: PEGI 12+, ESRB EVERYONE 10+
Release Date: 01/09/2020
Price: Free
Platforms: Android, Web Browser and iOS
Genres: Adventure, Creative and Narrative
Developer: @DoubleSpeakGame
Players: This is a single player game
Penrose is a text adventure, where you don't only read the story and choose its next step, but can go back into the text to change it in all sorts of mind-bending ways. As the develop describes it, "Penrose is a non-linear narrative adventure game about...
Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia
Rating: PEGI 7+, ESRB EVERYONE 10+
Release Date: 24/09/2020
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Action, Platform and Puzzle
Developer: @Outright_Games
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room
Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia is a running and jumping game in the world of Trollhunters. You play Jim Lake Jr. and work to stop Porgon the Trickster Troll and his sneaky plans. With the help of other characters and their abilities you solve...
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Release Date: 09/11/1996, updated in 2020
Platforms: GameCube, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and iOS
Genres: Action, Adventure and Platform
Developer: @ToysForBob
Players: You can play with 4 players in the same room
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is the latest game in the Crash Bandicoot series, where you play a genetically enhanced bandicoot called Crash and run, jump and bash your way through levels while avoiding hazards.
To The Moon
Release Date: 10/11/2011, updated in 2020
Platforms: Android, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC and iOS
Genres: Adventure, Narrative and Puzzle
Developer: @Reives_FreeBird
To the Moon is a story-adventure following two doctors trying to fulfil a dying man's last wish to go to the moon. With only a few ways to interact with the game, you control the doctors, exploring and solving puzzles to reconstruct the dying man's...
The Solitaire Conspiracy
Expected Rating: PEGI 7+, ESRB EVERYONE 10+
Release Date: 06/10/2020
Platforms: Mac and PC
Genres: Narrative and Strategy
Developer: @MikeBithell
The Solitaire Conspiracy takes the well known Solitaire card game and integrates it into a neon drenched cyberpunk spy story to create a fresh take.
Mini Metro
Rating: PEGI 3+, ESRB EVERYONE
Release Date: 06/01/2015
Platforms: Android, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and iOS
Genres: Simulation and Strategy
Developer: @Dinopoloclub
Create an ordered, efficient underground train system. It sounds like hard work, but the simple Tube-map visuals, calm music, and streamlined interactions make this relaxing, like sudoku. Dip your toe in this strategy challenge and keep the system...
Forza Motorsport 7
Release Date: 03/10/2017
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One
Genres: Racing
Developer: @Turn10Studios
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room and up to 24 players online
Forza Motorsport 7 immerses players in the exhilarating thrill of competitive racing. From mastering the new motorsport-inspired campaign to collecting a wide range of cars to experiencing the excitement of driving at the limit, this is Forza reimagined.
Everything
Release Date: 21/03/2017, updated in 2019
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4
Genres: Adventure, Narrative, Open World and Simulation
Developer: @DavidOreilly
This is an unusual game that simulates a world where you can become any object. It sounds strange and not much fun, but the enjoyment is in discovering how small or how big a thing you can become. From tiny atoms to whole planets and everything in between.
Dreamscaper
Release Date: 08/04/2020, updated in 2020
Platforms: Nintendo Switch and PC
Genres: Action, Adventure and Fighting
Developer: @DreamscaperGame
Dreamscaper is an adventure where you control a woman's subconscious whilst she dreams. In the dreams you battle enemies with different surrealist abilities and weapons: finger guns, move the earth, control time, warp landscapes, many melee weapons and...
All Of You
Expected Rating: PEGI 7+, ESRB EVERYONE
Platforms: Mac and iOS
Genres: Platform and Puzzle
Developer: @AlikeStudio
All of You is a platform game where you can pause time and control the levels rather than the character. By rearranging the timing, order and orientation of the world you play in you can help the mother hen get her chicks back.
Burnout Paradise
Release Date: 16/03/2018, updated in 2018
Platforms: GameCube, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Genres: Open World, Racing and Simulation
Developer: @CriterionGames
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room and up to 4 players online
The Burnout series is an over-the-top racing game where you’re encouraged to crash, bash and ram other cars. Throughout the series the bravado and crashing increases, but they all have the same novel core gameplay.
Minit
Release Date: 28/08/2018
Platforms: Android, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Adventure, Fighting and Puzzle
Developer: @DevolverDigital
Minit is retro puzzle game where you complete small tasks in within a 60 second time frame. You must dodge or fight foes, cut through the undergrowth, explore your world and find keys and swords. You start from the same place for each of your 60 second...
Dordogne
Expected Rating: PEGI 3+, ESRB EVERYONE
Release Date: Coming soon
Platforms: PC
Genres: Creative, Narrative and Puzzle
Developer: @Cedric_Babouche
Dordogne is a narrative adventure where you play as Mimi, a 32-year-old woman who returns to the house of her recently deceased grandmother. You explore the house and area to find letters and puzzles that bring back memories of the past.
Braid
Release Date: 06/08/2008
Platforms: Mac, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One
Genres: Narrative and Platform
Developer: @Jonathan_Blow
Braid is a platform game, not dissimilar to Mario World, that appears simple but has a twist. The movement of your character is connected to the progression of time in a mind-bending manner. The resulting puzzles are fascinating and connected to a story...
Outer Wilds
Release Date: 11/12/2018, updated in 2018
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Open World and Simulation
Developer: @Mobius_Games
Outer Wilds is an exploration space mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time-loop. After 20 minutes of game time, you must start again – but each time brings a new opportunity to learn how you ended up on the planet and solve the...
Subdefuge
Release Date: 07/03/2017
Price: Free-to-start
Platforms: Android and iOS
Genres: Open World, Puzzle, Simulation, Strategy and Turn-Based
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room and up to 10 players online
Subterfuge is a strategy game played with human opponents. The game is designed to be played over a week or so, to give players time to talk between goes. This encourages players to team up, trick or double-cross other players to get them to make the...
The Gardens Between
Release Date: 20/09/2018
Platforms: Android, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and iOS
Genres: Adventure and Puzzle
Developer: @TheVoxelAgents
The Gardens Between is a puzzle game set in dreamlike island gardens where you play as best friends Arina and Frendt. You work around the island levels collecting balls of light in your lantern, manipulating time to solve puzzles and removing obstacles....
YesterMorrow
Rating: PEGI 7+, ESRB EVERYONE
Release Date: 05/11/2020
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Narrative, Platform and Puzzle
Developer: @BitmapGalaxy
YesterMorrow is running, jumping, climbing and collecting game where you play Yui, whose world has been destroyed and family kidnapped. To save them you journey through the four islands, forest, desert, ice, and clockwork, to collect "everlight" and...
The Longing
Release Date: 05/03/2020
Genres: Adventure, Narrative and Simulation
Developer: @StudioSeufz
The Longing is a point-and-click adventure about waiting and loneliness. It's an intentionally slow game that takes 400 elapsed days to finish. It draws on the Idle Game genre, where you use minor interactions to incrementally advance. Here though, the...
Last Day of June
Release Date: 31/08/2017
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4
Developer: @Ovosonico
Last Day of June is a game about a couple called Carl and June, who suffer a tragedy when a car accident takes June's life and leaves Carl in a wheelchair. You control Carl, remembering life with June and discover that you can interact with her...
The Swapper
Release Date: 30/05/2013, updated in 2019
Platforms: Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Xbox One
Genres: Adventure, Narrative and Platform
Developer: @FacePalmGames
The Swapper is a platform-adventure where you explore a damaged space station to collect orbs that open doors into other areas. Unusually, you can clone your character multiple times and then control it to help you solve puzzles and progress in various...
Creature in the Well
Release Date: 06/09/2019
Genres: Fighting and Puzzle
Developer: @FlightSchoolHQ
Creature in the Well is a pinball-inspired fighting game that reimagines the ball bouncing fun of Arkanoid. You play the last remaining robot who ventures deep into a desert mountain to restore power to an ancient facility and save the village that...
Degrees of Separation
Release Date: 14/02/2019
Developer: @DofsGame
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room and up to 2 players online
Degrees of Separation is a running and jumping game where you control two characters from different seasons, Ember and Rime. Each has different abilities to change the environment and help you to progress: freezing water, melting ice and the like.
Bring You Home
Release Date: 29/10/2018
Platforms: Android, Mac, PC and iOS
Genres: Puzzle
Bring You Home is a running and jumping game with a difference. You play a doddery Polo trying to get your pet back by completing various platform levels. Unusually, though, when you die the game rewinds so you can change the level by swiping the panels...
Proteus
Release Date: 30/01/2013
Platforms: Mac, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita
This game takes you to a pixelated island. As you explore you discover that your presence changes the seasons and time of day. Delving deeper, there are rudimentary interactions with the creatures that inhabit the land, and rain clouds that blow in from...
HyperDot
Release Date: 31/01/2020
Platforms: PC and Xbox One
Genres: Action, Creative and Puzzle
Developer: @TribeGames
HyperDot is a dodging game, where you control a small circle and must move to avoid collisions with other shapes. It sounds too simple to be fun, but the cover design and variation in challenge make it a really enjoyable game.
Arise: A Simple Story
Release Date: 03/12/2019
Developer: @Piccolo_Studio
Arise: A Simple Story is a narrative game about an old man living in a pre-agricultural tribe. He has just been cremated and as get travels to the next life, begins a pilgrimage of revisiting memories of his life.
Extreme Exorcism
Release Date: 12/10/2015
Platforms: Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Action and Platform
Developer: @RipstoneGames
Extreme Exorcism is a running, jumping and fighting game set in a series of haunted locations. The graphics are retro but the gameplay has a novel twist. Each enemy ghost you hunt mimics your moves on previous lives.
The Messenger
Release Date: 30/08/2019, updated in 2020
Genres: Action, Fighting and Platform
Developer: @SabotageQc
The Messenger is a platform game where you play as a young ninja after his village is attacked by a demon army. You must deliver a scroll, fighting enemies and pulling off complex acrobatic manoeuvres along the way. The game is inspired by the classic...
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