Using time travel in any 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.

And no, we don’t mean games where you can change the in-game “time” for secrets 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 classics like Legacy of Kain or modern takes like Titanfall 2’s Effect and Cause mission. Here are 10 time travel games you have to play.

10 Blinx: The Time Sweeper

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.

9 Life is Strange

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

Your goal in this game is to just experience Max’s story, rewinding time to solve scenario’s 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 some oddly beautiful mundane moments. Life is Strange is incredibly neat and very time travel-focused, but in terms of gameplay, it falls short compared to almost everything else on this list.

8 Braid

Then there’s Braid – a game from the mind of Jonathan Blow who is known in the industry as a bit of a genius as he was also behind The Witness. 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 messing with time in inventive ways.

7 Zero Time Dilemma

The Zero Escape series is an incredibly interesting set of games. There’s the first game 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, and 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 perish 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

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 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, and design of Quantum Break are all very well done, and the game itself is a blast to play.

5 Superhot

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.

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 developers (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

Other than Blinx, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is the other game that immediately comes to mind when time travel is mentioned. 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 Time that warped both the people and 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 everything but himself. These mechanics, paired with the immensely satisfying platforming and the relatively complex combat, create a game so iconic, that it sort of represents the time-manipulation genre of video games.

3 Timesplitters 2

Timesplitters 2 is a beloved classic that everyone remembers fondly. In fact, there was a fake teased remake for the second game not too long ago that caused such backlash from the fanbase THQ Nordic had to come out and apologize. Timesplitters 2 was the multiplayer shooter that fans of the N64 Goldeneye had been waiting 5 years for.

It had fantastic multiplayer 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 for 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 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, Oracle of Ages, Seasons, & Majora’s Mask

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 the “Zelda Timeline” is something any video game fan knows about. In particular, there are four that really focus on time-travel, those being Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Oracle of Seasons, and Oracle of Ages. All four of these games handle the concept of time-travel in a different way.

Ocarina 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 3 days, experienced over and over as Link learns to “master” the time loop. Oracle of 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 overcomplicating the plot or gameplay itself.

1 Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is probably one of the most enjoyable time-hopping stories of all time simply because the dev team at Square put an immeasurable amount of work into it without taking the game itself too seriously. This 90s masterpiece is focused on the story of Chrono as he gathers party members (like a giant robot or a frog knight) from different time periods to save the entire world.

It’s an RPG that still holds up insanely well thanks to the incredible character designs from Dragon Ball Z’s Akira Toriyama, as well as the inventive combat system. There’s just so much to love about Chrono Trigger, and we haven’t even mentioned its sequel Chrono Cross either.

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