In praise of the short mobile game

Somewhere along the way, mobile games got obsessed with keeping you forever. Daily logins, endless progression, energy meters, the works. It's refreshing when a game just tells a story, lets you finish it, and lets you go.

Hollow Lantern is about four hours long and I wouldn't change a thing. It says what it wants to say, the puzzles are fair, the ending lands, and then it's over. I thought about it for days afterward, which is more than I can say for most games that I've sunk fifty hours into.

Short games are also kinder to your phone and your evening. No guilt about a broken streak, no pressure to log in. You play when you want and stop when you're done.

There's a place for sprawling games, of course. But the next time a game respects your time by simply ending, don't hold it against them. That's a feature, not a flaw.

We'll always cover the big grinders, but we'll keep championing the small, finished ones too. They deserve the shelf space.