Games you can finish in five minutes: how to pick one on Ppooing

Five minutes is enough for a round or two, as long as the game needs no tutorial, no long story and no save file. Ppooing is a collection of free casual games you play in your browser with no install and no sign-up, and it gathers a few games for exactly that moment. This post shows where to find them, what to look for in a short game, and how to keep the ones you like within reach. For a full tour of the site, see How to use Ppooing.

🎮ZZXXCCVV sitePpooingFree casual games — nothing to installOpen ↗

1. Open the Just Five Minutes course

Ppooing sorts some of its games into courses by the time you have and the mood you are in. The one for short breaks is Just Five Minutes, which the site describes as "Quick rounds you can drop in and out of".

The same chips also sit under "What should I play?" on the front page. Press "Just Five Minutes" there and the list of games opens in place.

2. What makes a game quick

The course is a starting point, not a timer: how long a round lasts depends on how well you play. When you look for a short game on your own, these signs help.

Sign	Why it keeps things short	Example in the course
The run ends when you hit something	There is nothing to save; you start again in a second	Running T-Rex, Mint Choco: Love It or Hate It
One race down one slope	Each round has a finish line	Snow Sled Rush
Controls fit in one line	Tap to jump, hold left or right to steer, so there is nothing to learn first	Mint Choco: Love It or Hate It, Snow Sled Rush
One shot at a time	Each move is a small, separate decision	Swift Cats

Courses such as "Think Like a Commander", described as "Defend, deploy and out-plan the horde", lean towards planning and building. Keep those for when you have longer.

3. Read the game page before you press Play

A game page tells you most of what you need in a few seconds.

• Tags under the title show the genre and whether the game is played in Landscape or Portrait. Some games also list their controls, such as "Controls · Touch · Mouse · Keyboard", and an age.
• "How to play" explains the game in a few lines. Running T-Rex needs only two sentences: the T-Rex keeps running, and you get it past the obstacles. Snow Sled Rush has you hold the left or right side of the screen to steer and race three village kids down the hill, with five slopes and a new slope every day.

The game does not load until you press "▶ Play". Once it is running, the bar under the game has "↻ Restart", "⛶ Fullscreen" and "✕ Exit". When your five minutes are up, press Exit: the site asks you to confirm and says your progress will not be saved.

4. Playing on a phone

A five-minute break often happens on a phone, and a few details help there.

• On a phone, pressing "▶ Play" opens the game in full screen, as the line under the button says. A Play button also stays at the bottom of the screen while you read the page.
• Check the screen tag. Portrait games, such as Flappy Cat: Copters and Crunchy Cookie Match, fit a phone held upright. Landscape games, such as Snow Sled Rush and Running T-Rex, are easier with the phone turned sideways.
• The site's FAQ notes that some games are built around a keyboard or mouse and are awkward on a phone. A game page that lists Touch under its controls is a safer bet.

If you play often, the FAQ also says you can add Ppooing to your home screen from your browser menu, with "Add to Home Screen" or "Install".

5. Keep your quick games close

Once you find a few games that fit a short break, you do not have to look for them again.

• Favorites: press the heart on a game card, or the heart on the game page, to add the game to "Favorites" in the top menu. The front page then shows a "Your favorites" row.
• Recently played: the front page also lists the last six game pages you opened under "Recently played".

Both lists are stored only in the browser you are using. There is no account, so they do not appear on other devices or in other browsers.

Coming up

Next time: another way to put a spare few minutes to good use on the ZZXXCCVV sites.