Using time travel in anꦏy media is rough. Most of the time, the act of traveling through time does nothing but make things confusing and/or remove all sense of urgency or consequence from any narrative. But, out of everything, time travel tends to work best in video games, primarily because it's a fun mechanic to use.

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These mechanics are the gamechangers of gaming.

And no, we don't mean games where you can change the in-game "time" for secrets, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:like the Animal Crossing games; we're talking about IPs where time manipulation is a core part of the game and/or story. Think of classic𒀰s likeไ Legacy of Kain or modern takes like Titanfall 2's Effect and Cause mission. Here are 11 time travel games you have to play.

Updated on October 4, 2024, by Aydan Sattler: Time travel in video games is a fascinating mechanic, but one that requires careful design to pull off effectively. When done well, it adds a layer of complexity and intrigue to the narrative, whether you're hunting down antagonists across different eras or struggling to escape from the wrong time period. This list explores a variety of games across multiple genres that allow players to dive into the intricacies of time manipulation, including the classic point-and-click adventure Day of the Tentacle.

11 Blinx: The Time Sweeper ജ

Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Platformer

Released
🔯 October 7, 2002 🦋
ESRB
E For Everyone Due To Mild Violence ꦏ
Developer(s)
Artoon
Publisher(s)
🌠 𓆉 Microsoft Game Studios
How Long To Beat
10 Hours

🦂First up is a real oddball game: Blinx: The Time Sweeper. Blinx came out in 2002 and is an action platform much in the same way a lot of the games from that age were. But, rather than just focusing on jumping, you can mess around with time in a variety of ways, thanks to Blinx being a Time Sweeper with a magical vacuum called the TS-1000.

They're honestly all pretty stereotypical time-based abilities, such as freezing time, slowing it down, speeding it up, or "recording" a moment in time. ♊So, it’s not the best game, but if you want something that’s heavily focused on messing around with time, Blinx might work for you.

10 🎃 Maniac Mansion 2: Day Of The Tentacle Remastered

  • Platforms: PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Windows, Linux, iOS, OS X
  • Released: March 22, 2016
  • Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure

Day of the Tentacle is a quirky point-and-click adventure game that rivals the eccentricity of Blinx: The Time Sweeper in the odd-ball category. The story follows three teenagers, Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne, as they attempt to stop an evil, sentient tentacle from ta𒐪king over the world. However, things quickly go awry when their outhouse-turned-time machines malfunction, leaving Hoagie stranded in colonial America and Laverne trapped in a distant, dystopian future.

To progress, you’ll need to switch between the characters, using time travel to solve bizarre puzzles that affect the past, present, and future. The game’s offbeat humor, zany characters, and inventive mechanics make Day of th𓄧e Tentacle a wild aඣnd unforgettable adventure.

9 ﷺ Life Is Strange ꦑ

Released
🦩 January 30, 2015
ESRB
♒ M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong🍸 Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
Developer(s)
🐓 Dontnod Entertainment ✱
How Long To Beat
15 Hours

The standout game from Dontnod Studios and published by Square Enix, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange was pretty huge for a while, thanks to its well-received LGBTQ+ representation, unique hipster atmosphere, and creative method of storytellinဣg. In it, Max Caulfield, an 18-year-old with a real eye for photography, suddenly discꦫovers she has a time travel ability, and a mysterious plot starts to unravel from there.

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The Life is Strange series is known for blending real-life drama with the world of superheroes, but which game is the bes🐈t?

7

Your goal in this game is to just experience Max's story, rewinding time to solve the scenario in the best way possible. Sometimes it’s something more serious, like fixing Chloe and Max’s relationship, and other times it's using your supernatural abilities to enjoy 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:some oddly beautiful mundane moments. Life is Strange is incredibly neat and very time travel-focused, but in teꦡrms of gameplay, it falls short compared to almost everything else on this list.

8 Braid

Braid
Puzzle
Platformer

Released
꧃ August 6, 2008
ESRB
🎃 E10+ For Everyone 10+ due to Language, Mild Cartoon Violence
Developer(s)
🍒 💟 Number None Inc
Publisher(s)
Number N🎀one Inc
Platform(s)
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
How Long To Beat
5 Hours

Then there's Braid - a game from the mind of Jonathan Blow who is known in the industr♋y as a bit of a genius, as he was also behind The Witnesꦉs. Braid is a 2D puzzle-platformer, but that's far too simple a label for what Braid actually manages to accomplish.

In this game, you’ll be treated to a wide variety of puzzles - all of which are designed to manipulate time in some way, as well as challenge your current preconceptions about video game puzzles. It might look simplistic at first, but Braid has so many different ways of m𓆉essing with time in inventive ways.

7 ♛ Z😼ero Time Dilemma

Zero Time Dilemma
Adventure
Puzzle
Visual Novel

Released
♕ June 28, ⛄2016
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
🐭 Spike Chunsoft
Publisher(s)
Aksys꧙ Games
Platform(s)
3DS, PC, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One
How Long To Beat
20 Hours

The Zero Escape series is an incredibly interesting set of games. There’s the first game 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, then Virtue’s Last Reward, and now: Zero Time Dilemma. In these games, you'll be puzzle-solving, picking who lives or who dies, aไnd attempting to solve a mind-bogglingly complex mystery. But, where does time-travel come in?

Well, there are a variety of endings depending on who you pick to perജish, since the story goes on without them afterward. But, canonically, all of these alternate endings are canon as the in-game codex refers to them as alternate timelines. And, in Virtue’s Last Reward, there are even certain characters who are able to mess with time more directly, so it's an integral part of the series.

6 🎉 Quantum Break

Released
𝓰 April 5, 2016 🐼
ESRB
🦹 M for Mature: Blood, In💫tense Violence, Strong Language
Platform(s)
PC, Xbox One
How Long To Beat
12 Hours

Quantum Break comes from Remedy Studios who are most known for creating Control, Alan Wake, and all the Max Payne games before that. In ༒it, you control Jack Joyce, a man out to stop the end of time (which technically has already passed) with the time-based powers he was granted. It's a game that also doubles as a TV show, which is pretty creative but is also a huge turnoff for some people.

And, because Quantum Break leans so heavily into the mechanics of time travel, many players found the plot absurdly confusing. That said, the graphical fidelity, gameplay loop, 𝔍and design of Quantum Break are all very well done, and the game itself is a blast 🃏to play.

5 Superhot

4.0/5

Released
🅷 February 25, 2016 🅰
ESRB
T For Teen Due To Drug Reference, Vio🐻lence ♏
Developer(s)
🤡 SUPERHOT Team
Publisher(s)
🎶SUPERHOT Team
Platform(s)
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
How Long To Beat
3 Hours

We were going to put Timeshift on here, but quite frankly, Superhot does a better job as a time-manipulation shooter than Timeshift 🎃does. And it does so with arguably fewer mechanics overall. The stylistic game is centered around players solving combat “puzzles” where time only moves when you do.

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And if you fail, ꦿdie and diওe again. That's the core of the whole thing.

The game first came out in 2016, but the movement in it was something people desperately wanted to see adapted for VR-play, so the deღ🌌velopers (Superhot Team) managed to pull that off by the end of the year and even made a sequel not long after called Superhot: Mind, Control, Delete. Whether you play Superhot with mouse + keyboard, controller, or a VR headset, you're guaranteed to have a blast.

4 🐼 Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

Released
♛ October 28, 2003
ESRB
Teen // Blood, Sug🐭gestive Themes, Violence 🅰
Developer(s)
Ubisoft Montrꦦeal
Publisher(s)
Ubisoft
How Long To Beat
9 Hours

Other than Blinx, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is the other game that immediately comes to mind when time travel is ment🐲ioned. In it, you take control of the Prince as he runs through India trying to reverse his own horrible mistake of releasing the Sands of Ti🦹me that warped both the people and the landscape.

To do this, the Prince must use a variety of time-changing abilities, such as reversing time, freezing it for a single opponent, or stopping time altogether for everyth๊ing but himself. These mechanics, paired with the immensely satisfying platforming and the relatively complex com꧅bat, create a game so iconic, that it sort of represents the time-manipulation genre of video games.

3 ไ Timesplitters 2 🐷

TimeSplitters 2

Released
🌱 October 8, 2002 ꦛ
ESRB
T For Teen // Blood, Language, Violence 🌼🐠
Developer(s)
Free Radical Design 🐼 🔜
Publisher(s)
👍 ⛎ Eidos Interactive
How Long To Beat
9 Hours

Timesplitters 2 is a beloved classic that everyone remembers fondly. In fact, t🌺here was a fake teased remake for the second game not too long ago that caused such backlash from the fan base THQ Nordic had to come out and apologize. Timesplitters 2 was the multiplaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚyer shooter that fans of the N64 Goldeneye had been awaiting🐭 for five long years.

It had fantastic multipဣlayer maps, 50+ unlockable characters, a level editor, a hilarious campaign, and so much more. But, what about the time travel aspects? Well, that's the whole concept of the game, since you play as a Space Marine named Cortez who travels through time collecting "time crystals" to stop an alien race called the Timesplitters from destroying humanity.

2 The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, Oracle Of Ages, Seasons, And Majora's Mask

Ocarina of Time

Oracle of Ages

Oracle of Seasons

Majora's Mask

Platforms

Nintendo 64, GameCube, iQue Player

Game Boy Color

Game Boy Color

Nintendo 64, GameCube

Released

November 21, 1998

February 27, 2001

February 27, 2001

April 27, 2000

Genre

RPG

RPG

RPG

RPG

How could we talk about time travel without mentioning the Legend of Zelda games? The series just recently had its 35th anniversary, after all, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the "Zelda Timeline" is something any video game fan knows about. In particular, there are four that really focus on time-travel, those being 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Oracle of Seaꩲsons, and Oracle of Ages. All four of these games handle the concept of time-travel differently.

Oꦏcarina of Time basically has two time periods you hop back and forth from with Young Link and Adult Link. Majora’s Mask takes place over the same period of three days, experienced over and over as Link learns to “master” the time loop. Oracle ൲of Seasons and Oracle of Ages might seem like two versions of the same game, like Pokemon Red and Blue, but there are actually a variety of big gameplay differences. All four of these games handle time-travel in inventive ways without over complicating the plot or gameplay itself.