There’s something about a ticking clock that gets the blood pumping. Knowing that all your hard work will be wiped out if that timer gets down to zero makes reckless and sometimes, great video game players out of us all. But what were (or are) the best video games that put you up against the clock? Here are a few classics and one new game (hint: how’s your poker?) that test your speed as well as your skills.
Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The recent news that “Metal Gear Solid” director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is eager to make a “Zelda” movie got us all pining for the days of the N64 and Majora’s Mask. But did you know that this Zelda game had you up against the clock? What are we thinking? Of course, you did. The clock ran for 72 in-game hours, which you would think would be enough time to get everything done. But it’s only 54 real minutes, and when you’re spending forever trying to finish that pointless side quest, the timer runs out fast.
Worst of all was when you’d run out of time you’d play the old ocarina and be back to day one, having to do it all over again. To us, that sounds a lot like dying and starting over, but that’s how it was. Not quite the nail-biting game to start off, but we thought we’d start slow.
888Poker’s BLAST Game
We’ve had a classic, so now, let’s have a look at a relatively new title. BLAST by 888Poker is an Omaha Hi-Lo game that brings a timer into the popular variant. When the timer runs out, every player at the table who is still playing is all-in, adding a real sense of suspense to the game of poker.
Still unconvinced? Well, imagine that you’re playing a game and have a certain amount of money left. The time is ticking away, and you know that at some point soon, you’re going all-in. But what if you have the worst poker hand in the history of the game? Fail to pay attention to that timer and, well, you know what will happen. The timer feature does add an element of excitement to the game and encourages players to play fast, which makes poker interesting indeed.
Super Mario Bros.
Moving on from poker and back to retro, the all-time classic that had even the most hardened of gamers squirming as the in-game timer approached zero, Super Mario Bros. has made grown men weep in frustration. Avoid everything, get to the end as soon as you can and you’ll be good. Even without the timer, this is a cracking game, but Nintendo’s decision to set a limit on the game was a stroke of genius.
It meant that on the first few runs, players were desperate enough to avoid those power-ups and get to the end. But as they improved their skills, they would go back and repeat levels in the hopes of completing it before the time ran out. Easy to see how, for playability alone, this was and still is one of the greatest games of all-time.
Final Fantasy VIII
Thirty minutes might seem like a pretty good chunk of time to complete a task in any video game, but it never seemed enough to escape X-ATM092 in Final Fantasy VIII. This mechanical beast never lets up, and while yes, there are many videos online of gamers completing the task in a time measured in a single digit, it was maddeningly frustrating the first 20 times around.
As far as timed tasks in a video game go, this one was intense. Not only did you have to escape but when your nemesis caught up with you (which it always did), you had to fight it off all while watching that timer ticking away in the top left-hand corner. The intense music didn’t help the nerves much, either.
Portal
That voice. How could you ever forget it? We wouldn’t be surprised if a few of you intentionally lost the GLaDOS boss battle only to hear it again. It was an intense enough final scene without the timer, but it was an essential addition to the game nonetheless.
Figuring out how to finish it off wasn’t all that hard but doing it in the allotted time was. It always took at least a few tries before you’d manage it, and although the idea of a timer is an old one, it works in this instance.
Prince of Persia
And so, we come to the greatest timed video game of them all. Prince of Persia was the ultimate video game that put you up against the clock. You had one hour to complete the game, or the Princess died. You could die as many times as you had to in that hour, but each time you did, you went back again and again and again.
It made for compelling play, and it was one of the most popular games on the Apple II. It’s crazy to think how much Apple has moved on from those days, but that’s another story. Prince of Persia was the game of 1989, and for many years after, and if we’re honest, we kind of miss the days of simple graphics and easy-to-master controls. Perhaps it’s time for a spot of retro-gaming!
So, there you have it: some old, and one new timed game to get your heart rate going and put little nervy gameplay back into your gaming experience. So, whether you’re after a few hours of fast-paced poker hands or 60 minutes of retro clock-beating fun, you now know which ones to choose. Have we missed your favorite timed video game? Then let us know in the comments below. We don’t care how obscure or old the game is. If it’s a timed video game, then we want to hear about it.
