Five minutes to spare: games built for tiny sessions

Not everyone has a free hour for mobile games. A lot of us play in the gaps — a bus ride, a queue, the few minutes before a meeting. Some games are built for exactly that, and some absolutely aren't.

The good short-session games load fast, save your progress instantly, and give you a complete little moment before you lock the phone. Arcade racers and casual tappers nail this. You start, you get something done, you leave satisfied.

Where it goes wrong is when a game punishes you for stopping. Long unskippable intros, energy timers that shame you back in, matches that can't be paused — those are the ones I quietly delete.

If your play time is fragmented, be picky. A game that respects a five-minute window is worth more to you than a deep one you never actually finish a session of.