History Main / AbsurdlyShortLevel

*** The level The Great Goal Pole is a subversion. When you start the level, you'll see the Goal Pole right away, but approaching it will make it grow some wings and flee, forcing you to chase it. Even if you manage to catch it, it's not recommended to do so until you've gotten all Green Stars and the Stamp along the way. It is rather short given the 100-second time limit, but it's not nearly as short as you might anticipate.

** The sequel, ''cr2.wad'', starts with the map "Froad & Tog" which is solely an aesthetic introduction: you go down a short path, enter a teleporter, go down an equally short path, and that's it.

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin4'':
** The Burrow of Beginnings consists of a linear path leading up to Captain Shepherd, hiding from three Bulborb Larvae, the weakest hostile enemy in the game. It has nothing else of note except some pots to smash through with Oatchi, and serves mainly to be a tutorial on how caves work.
** Last-Frost Cavern is the first "proper" cave, but only has one sublevel unlike every other cave in its area. Unlike later one-sublevel caves, its floor is hardly much longer than the average sublevel of larger dungeons. It is effectively a tutorial for Ice Pikmin and not too much more.

* ''Videogame/ShogoMobileArmorDivision'' has the level [[spoiler:"Baku"]] which is just a short elevator ride where, after a few seconds, a really easy boss shows up, and, as soon as you kill him, the level just ends (the cutscene at the start is probably longer than the level itself!.)

** After the penultimate chapter, a long winding path full of [[DemonicSpiders War Dragons]], the final chapter of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' is a very small map with only the FinalBoss and a couple of other dragons as enemies. Said boss isn't very statistically-imposing and is weak to all legendary weapons, especially [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement the titular Binding Blade]]. It typically only lasts a few turns, and infamously even an untrained Roy is capable of defeating her.
** "Battle Preparations" in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' is simply a 5-turn shopping trip before the final battles, with no enemies to fight outside of an arena (and one optional battle to recruit Karla, though that's a GuideDangIt). The map consists of just the arena, some shops, and the streets between.

* In ''VideoGame/FZero AX'' (and ''GX''), Mute City - Sonic Oval is the shortest track by far compared to the other tracks, with each lap of the track can be possibly done in sub-20 seconds, meaning that three laps won't even take a minute to complete. It also happens to be the simplest track and is designed for beginners.

** While some ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' Gyms can be fairly quick, this generation’s version of the Cinnabar Gym stands out, being around the same size as the Game Boy screen, and [[BossOnlyLevel Blaine being the only Trainer to fight]]. The remake subverts this, by expanding on the Gym, with a maze and some actual Gym Trainers to fight.

* ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'': Knuckles' version of Hidden Palace Zone is around 13 seconds long, and consists of him running to the teleporter that takes him to his version of Sky Sanctuary Zone (a BossOnlyLevel against a surviving Mecha Sonic).

* ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'''s final escape room sequence. [[spoiler:It's just the first escape room again, after you've [[MentalTimeTravel mentally time travelled]] back to just slightly before you woke up in it at the beginning of the game. To get out, you just have to input the safe combination you learned the first time. If you actually try to solve the puzzles legitimately, Phi just yells at you for wasting time, since your objective in coming back here is to save the old woman before she's killed, so every second counts]].

** The FinalBoss battle of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'' is also infamous for this. The Demon King is reachable by most fast-moving units from the first turn and is [[KryptoniteFactor extremely weak to the Sacred Twin weapons]], which most of your army is likely to possess by this point. (And you're guaranteed to have [[CantDropTheHero Eirika and Epriam's]]) This battle usually ends in one or two turns, with the Demon King barely getting a chance to fight.

A video game level which takes a ridiculously short time to complete when compared to others in the game. In most cases, it will take no more than a few seconds. May often apply to [[VideoGameTutorial tutorial levels]] if they are supposed to teach you just a single mechanic of the game. A BossOnlyLevel featuring a ZeroEffortBoss may be this.

Compare RushBoss. Contrast MarathonLevel. See also PressStartToGameOver for a different kind of absurdly short gameplay. A BossOnlyLevel counts as this if the boss is especially short. For the music equivalent, see MinisculeRocking.

** A few games in the series have testimonies or arguments consisting of a single statement that contains an obvious contradiction. (Such as "Their Connection" in ''Investigations 2'' Case 3) There are often in-universe SchmuckBait by the trials' prosecutors designed to lure the protagonist into a trap, but they still fall into this trope regardless.

*** Nature Notch Stage 4 is just two rooms involving dodging some rolling rocks, which is beatable in about 40 seconds.
*** Jam Jungle Stage 5 is only two rooms, with the first being a short path containing a few abilities accessable in bubbles. The second room is a race against a Treasure Chest to the bottom of the level, so that you can collect it before it falls into a pit. Even if you aren't a speedrunner, you can easily finish this one in 30 seconds or less.
*** Jam Jungle's EX Stage is an EmptyRoomPsych one; the majority of the level is accessed through a door hidden off of the top of the second room. However, there's no hazards before you fly up to that door, and the big door that marks the end of the level is visible right in front of you in the same room as soon as you enter, so if you ignore the hidden door, this level can be done in around 10 seconds by just walking right for a bit and entering two doors.
*** Secret Sea Stage 5 is another standard short level. It's one room of decent length that you're intended to use the fast-moving Wheel ability to zoom through, while racing a Treasure Chest to the end of the level. It's okay if you lose the race, because the level is about 20 seconds, so hopping back in is quick.

** Delfino Airstrip in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is an offshoot area of Delfino Plaza (it shares the same 100-coin Shine). It has two Shine Sprites, one for the game's intro level and another for collecting eight red coins, and only one Blue Coin to find (even Corona Mountain, a lava-filled corridor, has ten Blue Coins).

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'' has Delta Labs Level 4, which only has a short hallway with two zombie enemies before a fight with two Hell Knights, after which the level immediately ends with you being teleported to Hell.

** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' has the Buzz Buzz spirit fought in "World of Light". You fight a tiny Mr. Game & Watch (a light character made even lighter) who begins the fight with 300% damage, making it easy to end the battle in less than 5 seconds (the difficulty being actually ''finding'' him, since G&W is so ridiculously tiny, he's almost invisible). Similarly, the Sandbag spirit match, where you're given 10 seconds to knock a white, motionless Samus, off the map (like how you have 10 seconds in the Home-Run Contest mode to rack up damage before sending Sandbag flying).

* Chapter 4 of ''VideoGame/StarTropics'' is the only chapter without any dungeon segments, and the only overworld navigation is going through a maze inside of a whale, so it doesn't take very long. However, it's still an infamous roadblock because finishing the chapter requires a code hidden on one of the game's {{feelies}}.

** The first stage of "Election Day" can be finished in under a minute, complete with an achievement for doing so. Doing so, however, turns completing the heist "properly" into a LuckBasedMission[[note]]the goal of the stage is to tag the right transport truck with a tracking device in order to find a warehouse where voting machines are being stored so the crew can tamper with them on the second and final stage of the heist, and determining the right truck to tag requires a combination of context clues sprinkled around the map and hacking into a computer. or failing that blind luck. Picking the wrong truck instead sends the crew to a significantly less rewarding "Plan C" route.[[/note]].