What makes a game easy to come back to
Some games make me pay for a break. I forget the controls, the plan and the thread of the story, and the first evening back is spent relearning. Going back through the games I've reviewed, four things decide whether one welcomes me back.
There's nothing to remember. The controls are simple, and the game doesn't rely on a build, a recipe or a map I made in my head. On every review there's a note on how easy it is to come back to, and I use it for this list.
Each session stands alone. A stage, a race or a puzzle begins and ends in one sitting. I don't need to know what happened last time.
The next step is obvious. I open the game and I know what to do. A clear quest, a menu with one button or a game that simply starts.
A long absence costs me nothing. Nothing decays and nothing is lost, and the game doesn't make me feel bad for leaving.
How I pick the games for this list
A game is on this page when it's among the easiest I've reviewed to come back to and its Effort is 2 or lower (how I score explains the scales). Games that rely on remembering builds or tricks, like the bigger adventures, are in the close calls below. The list is 5 games right now, best first, and it changes by itself when I review a game that fits.
Getting back in
The reviews have the details, and a few things are worth knowing before I start again:
- Air Traffic Controller can be paused at any moment, and nothing carries over between stages, so a finished stage is the cleanest place to stop.
- Limbo has no text and no tutorial. After a death I come back just before the trap.
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe autosaves between races but not during one, so the best moment to close it is on a menu screen.
- NES Nintendo Classics saves, and holding ZL and ZR rewinds a few seconds after a mistake. It needs a Nintendo Switch Online membership.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons saves often, and pressing minus lets me save and end the game myself.
Close calls: lovely, but they take a minute to remember
These are easy to come back to, though not as easy as the games above. Here's what I said about coming back to each one:
- No Man's Sky: Every session is different, so you just pick what you feel like.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Open the map, pick a spot, go. You rarely feel lost.
- Palia: Daily routines make it easy to slot back in.
- Road 96: Each trip is a short chapter, so it's easy to pick the thread back up.
- Balatro: Each run starts fresh, so a month away costs you nothing.
- Aerofly FS Flight Simulator: The copilot and the tutorial make it easy to get back into it.
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: After a week away you pick up a favorite and go.
Other kinds of evening
For evenings when I'm too tired for anything with rules, there are the easy games for tired evenings. For games where a mistake costs almost nothing, there's relaxing games with no harsh game overs, and for a quick session the short breaks and commutes list. The best games to play after work page ranks the ten that suit a work night best, and the Tonight finder narrows it down by time and energy.
Questions
What's the best Switch 2 game to come back to after a break? Right now my top pick is I am an Air Traffic Controller: Airport Hero Haneda. Each session stands alone, so I can start without remembering anything. On another night the right pick depends on how long I've been away.
How long can I be away before it gets hard? For the games on this list, a week or a month makes little difference. The close calls are the ones where a long break means a few minutes of remembering.
Do these games lose progress while I'm away? Not the ones here. Nothing decays, and the game doesn't make me feel behind.
Where can I stop in each game? Every review has a note on good places to stop, and a note on saving.
Do these games work on a Switch 2? I review everything on a Switch 2. Each review says whether there's a Switch 2 Edition or whether the game runs through backward compatibility.
How often is this list updated? Whenever I publish a review or change a rating, the page is rebuilt. The date at the top shows when something last changed.
