What are some of the best, short, games? (under 10 hours)

Toast, Crackers, or Limp Biscuit. You get good at them, and they all can be finished in under 10 seconds. Also, they all have really robust multiplayer modes (although you could play it single player, I guess), so there's a high re-playability value. The controls are pretty waggle heavy, so if you're not a Wii guy, then it might not be for you. But if you're a fan of shooting stuff and you either really hate or really love baked goods, check these out.
 
Oh, and portal.

Well of course Portal and Braid, but I'd also throw in Viewtiful Joe, Katamari Damacy, Earthworm Jim (in their original version, though), and Contra 4, and LocoRoco (though you'd see everything if you rent it). Those are some of my favorites. Also, even though I haven't played this game yet, Half-Minute Hero would seem like it's a fairly short game, and that's a game I've been wanting to try out for a while. Such a cool idea.

Contra 4 on the DS
 
First time through on normal took me about 45 minutes

" gravitybone, less than half an hour to beat and free. "

Uncharted Drakes Fortune is one of the highlights that go below the 10 hour mark.

Both Max Payne games.

Ratchet & Clank, any

The new Tales of Monkey Island games are pretty good. Each one is about 5-6 hours long.

Max Payne 1 and 2.

I liked Final Fantasy: Dirge of Cerberus.
 
Although, it was extremely short, I enjoyed it immensely. 
 
Same goes for Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3. They were both beaten in just under 6 hours, on my first go, and that was with me looking for the extra things.

There's a lot of old point & click adventure games like Monkey Island that I'd highly recommend.  Of course, they could end up lasting you a lot longer.

Infamous and Brutal Legends are the first that come to my mind.

god of war collection it's for ps3. they upgraded the graphics a bit.

Portal, Super Paper Mario.

10-12 hours?! Either that is a 'replay time' with the military suite you can get after the first completion, or you absolutely sped through it on Easy difficulty. I think most people use Medium, at least PC users over a certain age anyway.

I found Dead Space to be one of the longer games out there in recent times (though I agree many are getting shorter). By other accounts of playing it I've found, on 'Easy' it is 12 hours long *at very least* - around 24 or more on 'Medium', and 'Hard' is very hard indeed! (I always try hard, but gave up quite quickly and went for Medium). I clocked over 30 on medium, but I do have to get off it for periods, so it's hard to wrok out exactly what I spent.

I was looking for a short FPS-style game, and in the end I went for Dead Space based on this and a similar comment over on Steam - I'm posting this other's don't fall into the same trap! It's got 12 decently long levels, it has significant backtracking to develop a Deus-ex RPG style 'rig' where you figure-fiddle - buy/sell parts, store weapons etc. It is in no way a short game. OK, the Shop/Bench part is not Diablo, bit it all takes times quite a lot of time on top of the standard game time. It's easy to make mistakes at a few points and have to re-load or backtrack and adjust the guns/rig. I was surprised how long the whole game was (it's even got a game within a game, that gets you valuable credits) - but constantly frustrated with it too as I needed a short one! The final hurdle is real bad ass too, and like other parts of the game as a cut scene you cannot avoid each time you try it. You have to buy/sell, work out how to do it. I just not a 'short' game.

.Seriously, some people need to embark on 'shorter games' for a good reason, but that doesn't mean we want to play it on easy, or ever play want to run through it again for that matter. Replays have never interested me that much.

Super 1 post necro Metroid

You could play "Passage". That game is about five minutes long.

To the Moon? How 'bout that shit?

@passedit: I don't know how you managed to clock in over 20 hours for Dead Space, but it took an hour per chapter for me, so about 12 hours total. I just checked if I'm in the minority, but even the general consensus on How Long to Beat says its around 12 hours long. You are definitely the odd one out in this case.

Going with this 4 year old thread title, may I recommend GOD HAND?

Since it's been four years since most of the topic took place, I'll recommend something that came after: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is just the greatest.

Papers, Please! Is pretty good. Also Ironclad Tactics. I loved that game! Let's also not forget Thomas was Alone, Bastion, Dust: an Elysian Tale, and The Banner Saga!

10 hours seems really long to say Short Games, considering how many are in the 1-5 hour range these days.

Anyways...

Do you like games that can be played in short bursts but are longer? Like someone said up there Wipeout is amazing for that. A race is only 10 mins but it'll take you ages to beat the game entirely.

Or do you prefer narrative games that are shorter?

If so, try Spec Ops: The Line, any Resident Evil, any Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted series, Guacamelee!... there's so many...

@sofakng - any genres you are into or do you have a few franchises in mind you were thinking of?

God Of War 1-3, fantastic presentation, story, and gameplay.

Gone Home (PC), it doesn't take long at all, but still a great experience.

ASURA'S WRATH! One of the best 8 hour experiences you'll ever have.

chronicles of riddick escape from butcher bay, I pretty much play that game once a year for fun

Before I became a full on X-Box gamer, I used to own a lot of PC games. One game I love is Star Wars: Republic Commando. It's probably the shortest action game I've ever played, due to 3 story-driven levels, that take a fair amount of time to complete, but they aren't very long either. The pacing on each levels is perfect, and the voice acting's great.

Another short game I really like is Mirror's Edge. It takes at least 5-6 hours to play.

Journey. It takes about 5 hours-ish. I had a shitty few days the other week so I sat down and played through it again. That game is beautiful.

Yep, times have changed since this thread started; 10 hours definitely isn't something I'd call short now...

They really just need to write a script so that users with 0 posts can't post in threads that haven't had a reply in over 2 years.

Apart from the games already mentioned, Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light can both be completed in around 10h.

Spec Ops: The Line is pretty short...

Shadow Complex. If you like Metroidvania's...

Bastion / Braid / Super Meat Boy

Home is a really neat horror game that you can finish in about 40 minutes. I'd recommend that.

Ha, man. Remember when 10 hour games were considered short? The times certainly have changed.

I will maintain that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon lasts exactly as long as it needs to, which is to say around the 6 hour range if you do everything.

Rez, though it doesn't really come into its own until the final level (maybe 2 hours in). The final boss encounter is incredible.

Portal.

Year Walk.

Super Metroid is really good. I'ld probably go with that.

I've always remembered Metroid Fusion fondly. A lot of people didn't enjoy it because of it's linearity but I really enjoyed it.

That new Strider game is pretty fantastic.

The Walking Dead - Season 1 is rather short, you could beat all five episodes in just under 10 hours.

Brothers is a great short game - amazing story and really nice art design!

best is subjective but here are some shorter games i enjoyed (under 10 hours) :]
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, New Super Mario Bros. Wii

"Glow Ball" - The billiard puzzle game.

Really fun, but hard game with awesome soundtrack.

Pokemon Snap is perhaps the greatest short in my humble opinion.

Probably mentioned by many, but if you're into it, games like Journey/Flower/Proteus and so on are wonderful. EVERYONE should play journey, it is just the pinnacle of games as art right now as I see it. It'll be as beautiful in 20 years as it is today.

The syndicate reboot is pretty cool. It would probably last someone 6-10 hours depending on how fast they are or if they died a lot. Its a good well paced fps.

Also, if you like rpgs then bastion might be worth a shot. The game length is probably 8-15 hours.

@passedit: Ignoring the fact that you replied to a post I made over four years ago, I do not understand why you are confused.

My first run was eight hours on medium. I didn't really skip anything; did all of the mini-games and so on. I have a tendency to play through games more quickly, but I don't know who told you 30 hours was average.