The 10 Greatest Video Game Tutorials of All Time, Ranked

August 2, 2026 - 18:50

Nobody likes being pulled out of the action to read a wall of text about button mapping. But a great tutorial is invisible. It teaches you everything you need to know without ever feeling like a chore. Some games have mastered this art so well that the opening level is just as memorable as the final boss. Here are the ten best examples of how to teach players without boring them.

Cuphead earns a spot because its tutorial is a run-and-gun level in disguise. You learn to jump, dash, and shoot while dodging actual threats, and the cartoon aesthetic keeps the mood light even when you fail. Prey takes a different approach. It drops you into a simulated training course that slowly turns creepy, and by the end you are not just learning controls, you are learning to question everything. Portal is the obvious champion. The first few chambers are pure teaching tools, but they feel like puzzles, not lessons. You discover the portal gun's logic through trial and error, and the game never once stops to explain what you should already be figuring out on your own.

Other standouts include Super Mario Bros., which teaches you everything with a single goomba, and Half-Life, which uses scripted events to show you how to use the environment. Even Dark Souls, with its infamous graveyard, teaches you that not every path is meant for you right now. The best tutorials respect your intelligence. They show, not tell, and they make the learning process part of the fun. That is why these games are still talked about years later.