During a dry spell of games, I found/rediscovered these.

I would name the game genre "slow puzzle side scroller", with dark "story" elements. The story is told purely by the environment, relying on the graphics artists and art direction. No dialogue happens.

The games are fairly short each, so I would not (and did not) buy them at full price. They are on sale for below 10€ , which is a. OK price for each. Little Nightmares III comes out in October 2025, and will start at a price of €30 . I think this is a bit much for expected 20 hours of entertainment.

Little Nightmares

You move a fellow in a raincoat through parts of a ship, with monstrous sailors and passengers on it. Mostly the gameplay is jump-and-run.

Little Nightmares 2

You move another fellow through the country and through a city, and at the end fight a big bad end boss in three rounds. The gameplay is a bit more varied, with some lightbeam action to stop monsters from attacking you. I recommend playing the game with a controller, since I found it frustrating in parts with keyboard+mouse.

Limbo

Size-wise, the game is very small ( 300 MB ), but it is the first game of this kind that caught my eye. It follows a young person in their travel through a black and white wasteland/city/jump-and-run-scape with various puzzles and time challenges.

The last level is a jump and run level, while the levels before that are more like a walking game with some light jump and run parts.

The end (well, the two endings) is a bit unsatisfying as it shows no resolution to the story, but that doesn't detract from the game.

Inside

The game is by the same studio as Limbo. You control a young boy on his way from a forest through a city, undersea and other scenes.

The gameplay is very varied, ranging from simple puzzles over interesting crowd mechanics to even complete changes in protagonists. The build-up for mechanics is more refined than in Limbo, which to me shows the experience gathered from the previous game.

The end is again without real resolution to the story, but that doesn't detract from the game.