Time Trials, Time Attacks, individual level runs, whatever you want to call them, all incentivize you togo fast through a particular part of a game, most often in racing games, for every individual track.
But it’s not just racing games; plenty of other games that want you to go fast and have fun will track your level times and put them up either against the devs' best efforts, or online against all your friends.
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It’s usually platformers that do this, and it is especially more common in the indie game space, where speedrunning is actively encouraged, and competitive running is considered a very fun activity.
I wanted to take a look at a bunch of games that track your level times and rank them based on how good they feel to go fast in and how well they make me shave more milliseconds off my level time.
10Super Mario Odyssey
Freerunning Forever
Super Mario Odyssey
While I wishSuper Mario Odyssey— the Mario game with the best movement in the series — had more tests of your skill with controlling Mario,the Koopa Freerunning challenges are a great time.
It’s usually a big race from one end of the country to another, while you race a few koopas of various skill levels, and they aren’t too hard to clear if you aren’t fumbling the bag.
I enjoy these so much due to the online leaderboards, letting me compare times to friends, and this mode is so well-done that it’s a genuine speedrunning category.
On top of these, Luigi’s Balloon World is a “make your own speedrun challenge” mode, letting you find balloons placed by other players in a limited time, and I love that, when I don’t need to go out of bounds.
9Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
Crazy Fast
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
It feels almost like cheating to put a full collection of three different games here, but the Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy has a time trial for every level in the game, and it’s a different style from most of these entries.
It has you running through the level with a timer going, but you’re able to pause that timer by breaking boxes, killing stuff, and grabbing timers that you find along the way, making it far more important to route things out.
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It means running through every level at a consistent pace, trucking on and hitting everything that isn’t too far out of the way, which feels quite fitting for Crash’s often non-stop style of gameplay.
I find this style of time trial fine, but I do think it’d be nice to have platinum times that are balanced around your real-time score, rather than just the in-game timer. Either way, still fun to optimize with a ton of content to boot.
8Spark the Electric Jester 3
A Medal A Minute
LikeMeat Boy, Spark the Electric Jester 3 has a rank system for each level, but the medals you get granted are a bit more satisfying, sinceit has rather long and execution-heavy levelsin comparison.
On top of that, given it’s a 3Dhigh-speed momentum-based platformer, it’s really easy to screw up. To be clear, I think Spark also just expects you to take a decent route and not die, but that can be pretty damn difficult.
The medals don’t give you anything tangible aside from an achievement, but they do feel excellent to collect and watch as the number goes up, plus being asked to use all your abilities is really satisfying.
It’s a game where skilled players can always run at Mach 10, fly across rooftops, and bounce on trains, and that game design philosophy of nonstop momentum makes grabbing these medals even more engaging.
7A Hat in Time
Speedrun Mode Engaged
A Hat in Time
Though I wishA Hat in Timehad par times for every level, it does havean excellent speedrun timer and a Death Wish modewith quite a few speedrun challenges that force you to go fast or die.
These challenges give you three par times, and you need to beat the quickest one to unlock more collectibles and cosmetics, which is always a nice reward and something I wish more games granted for going fast.
That said, a majority of Death Wishes aren’t these specific challenges, and even though the timer can show you your times on each individual level, you need to go to seperate websites to compare them with other people.
I’m not a huge fan of that, but at least the Online Party mode is essentially time trial racing against a ton of other people, so that’s a great little addition and is something I’ve not really seen in any other game.
6Antonblast
Sling Shot
ANTONBLAST
For once, Antonblast has a mode that is genuinely called “Time Trials” rather than simply being Time Trials by definition, and this one isjust for the love of the game, instead of giving you much of a reward.
That said, these par times are insane work. They expect you toplay optimally, scour the level for time boxesthat give you just a bit more headroom in completing the level, and want perfect execution.
On top of that, not everything in this game will be predictable, meaning you need to have great reaction times and improvise your route if enemies don’t feel like cooperating on any given run.
All that said, these are some of the most satisfying time trials in the game, mostly because they are brutally difficult. If you like the rush of Wario Land’s escape sequence, this gives you that and more.
Incredible Optimization
The only game on this list that isn’t really a platformer,Portal 2lets youplay individual levels of the game and records your time, putting you up on a leaderboard with a bunch of people who are way too good at mouse flicks.
Instead of methodically figuring out puzzle solutions, this mode transforms the game entirely, turning it into an execution and routing heavy bit of running where you portal across the room in just a few seconds.
It’s not really the game’s fault, but this is the most glitch-heavy leaderboard in this entire list. If you want to compete, you need to learn out of bounds, reportaling, and a few other tricks that look way too cool.
I can’t lie, even though I’d never have the dedication to actually top any of these incredibly optimized leaderboards, watching the top spots compete by flicking and portaling within a few frames of each other is intense.
4Penny’s Big Breakaway
Roll The Tape
Penny’s Big Breakaway
I think if you have a high-speed momentum-based platformer, you have an obligation to create a fun time trial mode with online leaderboards, and Penny’s Big Breakaway smashes all those requirements with flying colors.
It’s one of the most enjoyable time trial experiences, with routing being the best part. Flinging yourself across rooftops you didn’t even know had collision and landing on your yo-yo to roll toward the goal is incredible.
I will say, the lack of any par times or acknowledgment of playing the levels well is a bit frustrating, asthis game would absolutely be #1 if it encouraged speed as much as the others on this list.
Throw some arbitrary medals for clearing a par time on every level, and I’m absolutely sinking another 10 hours into this game at the minimum. I already got the record on Wall Kick Wallop a year ago. I’ll do it again.
3Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble
As one of SEGA’s speediest franchises, only playing second banana to another,Super Monkey Ballhas levels that are meant to be played extraordinarily fast, and Banana Rumble is great at rewarding speed.
It does just about everything right, with par times for every level that grant you points for every clear, andan extra Time Attack mode focused on grabbing collectibles for a better clear time, if that’s what you’d prefer.
I love this dichotomy, since a lot of games have time attacks where the result can be determined by what you’re grabbing in the level, and while that makes for more interesting routing, it feels less honest.
While I love flicking the board and sending everyone from Hatsune Miku to a SEGA Dreamcast flying, this game doesn’t have online leaderboards, so like Hat in Time, you’re forced into external sources to compare times.
2Sonic X Shadow Generations
Another Side, Another Story
Sonic X Shadow Generations
For some reason,Sonic Generationswas one of the only games in the series to have a time trial mode with an online leaderboard, and I’m so happy that Shadow Generations followed suit 13 years after the original.
Outside of the strange decision to only make time trials accessible from the title screen instead of letting you run them whenever,they simply track your time and post it to the leaderboardof everyone else on the same console as you.
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That’s on top of ranks granted for going fast through the level, and the fact that these two games represent the two types of time trials. Sonic’s is pure speed, but Shadow incentivizes item collection.
Given both games play pretty differently and are accessible in the same package, it makes for choose your own adventure style of time trials. That meansyou’re going to love eitherChaos Island Act 1 or Seaside Hill Act 2.
1Neon White
Neon White
If you’ve heard ofNeon White, you’re probably aware that it’s one of the best speedrunning games ever made, and the best part of that is the fact thatevery single level is a time trial by nature, and all of them are great.
Never in my life have I played a game with level ranks for the first time, then started replaying the level I’m on instead of moving on, until I played Neon White. It’s so satisfying and addicting to optimize your time, and I love it.
The movement is slick, and the action is non-stop.Every card gives you some combothat feels incredible to pull off, and the devs encourage speedrunning so much that they make all the dialogue terrible, so you want to skip every cutscene.
You get medals for each level depending on your rank, and while Diamond is all that matters in terms of completion, you could go for a Ruby rank, which officially makes you better at the game than the developers.
