Hold My Hand or Throw Me to the Wolves? Ranking Video Game Tutorials From 'Chef's Kiss' to 'Uninstalled'
There is a sacred contract between a video game and its player. The game says, "Hey, here's how this works." The player says, "Cool, I'll try not to die immediately." Sometimes that contract is honored with elegance, creativity, and genuine respect for the player's intelligence. Other times, a game hands you a fifteen-minute unskippable cutscene explaining what a sword is.
We're ranking video game tutorials across the full spectrum — from the ones that made you feel like a genius to the ones that made you feel like the game actively hated you. Buckle up, and yes, we know you already know how to press A to confirm.
S Tier: These Tutorials Should Be Studied in Game Design School
Portal (2007)
Valve basically invented the gold standard for tutorial design with Portal, and nobody's really topped it since. The game teaches you everything you need to know — spatial reasoning, portal physics, momentum — without ever breaking the fourth wall to say "THIS IS A TUTORIAL." GLaDOS is your teacher, the test chambers are your classroom, and by the time you're solving complex puzzles, you don't even realize you've been in school the whole time. Sneaky. Brilliant. S Tier, no debate.
Celeste (2018)
Celeste drops you into a mountain climb and teaches you how to dash, climb, and wall-jump entirely through level design. No pop-up boxes. No condescending text prompts. Just a player character and a world that intuitively guides you toward mastering the mechanics. Madeline's journey is hard, but the game never makes you feel stupid for struggling. That's a flex.
A Tier: Genuinely Good, Maybe a Little Hand-Holdy, But We'll Allow It
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
The Great Plateau is basically a masterclass in open-world onboarding. Nintendo gives you a contained sandbox to learn climbing, cooking, rune abilities, and combat — and then it literally lifts the ceiling and says "go anywhere." It respects the player's curiosity while still making sure you're not completely helpless. A Tier, with full honors.
Elden Ring (2022)
FromSoftware looked at their own legacy of throwing players into the deep end and said, "What if we just... didn't?" Limgrave is enormous but gentle by Souls standards. There's an optional cave with a tutorial message wall if you actually want guidance. The Tree Sentinel is right there to humble you if you get cocky. It's the perfect balance of freedom and structure. FromSoft grew as a studio and we're all better for it.
Mega Man 11 (2018)
Sometimes a short, punchy tutorial that respects your time is all you need. Mega Man 11's opening stage teaches you the Double Gear system cleanly and quickly, then gets out of the way. No overstaying the welcome. No explaining that the blue guy is named Mega Man. Just mechanics, then game. Efficient king behavior.
B Tier: Fine, Whatever, We Learned the Thing
Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Okay, look. RDR2 is a masterpiece. The tutorial is also approximately forty-seven hours long. The opening chapter in the snowy mountains is gorgeous and atmospheric and also paces itself like it's being paid by the hour. You'll learn to craft, hunt, bond with your horse, manage Arthur's needs, and probably file your taxes before the game lets you off the leash. It all makes sense eventually, but in the moment? B Tier. You're not going anywhere fast.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022)
The Pokémon series has a complicated relationship with tutorials. Scarlet and Violet technically let you skip some of the early handholding, but the opening hours still feel like the game is explaining Pokémon to someone who has never heard of Pokémon. Which, in fairness, some players haven't. But for the rest of us who've been catching 'em all since 1998? B Tier. We know how to throw a Pokéball, Professor.
C Tier: Did You Even Test This With a Real Human?
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)
MGSV has one of the most cinematic and emotionally gripping openings in gaming history. It also dumps about six hundred mechanics on you across the first few hours with the organizational clarity of a junk drawer. Mother Base management, buddy systems, staff recruiting, mission planning — it all comes at you fast and without much structure. The game is incredible once it clicks. Getting it to click is a different story.
Final Fantasy XIII (2009)
Thirteen hours. That's roughly how long it takes Final Fantasy XIII to fully open up its combat system to you. Thirteen. Hours. The game is so committed to its narrative-first approach that it holds your gameplay hand well past the point where most players have already formed opinions about Lightning as a character. By the time the Crystarium fully unlocks, some people had already moved on with their lives.
D Tier: Congratulations, You Made It Worse
Dark Souls (2011)
Here's the thing about Dark Souls — the tutorial IS the game. The Undead Asylum is technically a tutorial area, but the game's actual philosophy is that dying repeatedly until you understand the rules is the tutorial. There's no shame in that design choice; it's intentional and iconic. But for a first-time player in 2011 who wandered into the Capra Demon room with no context and got two-shotted by a dog? D Tier experience, legendary reputation. The circle of life.
Battletoads (NES, 1991)
Battletoads doesn't have a tutorial. It has a first level that is effectively a war crime against newcomers. The Turbo Tunnel alone has ended friendships, broken controllers, and caused at least one documented diplomatic incident. There is no preparation. There is only suffering and eventual mastery or surrender. Respect, but also no.
F Tier: Unforgivable. Seek Counseling.
Superman 64 (1999)
The tutorial for Superman 64 teaches you to fly through rings. The actual game also makes you fly through rings. The tutorial is not preparing you for something better. It IS the game. This is not a tutorial. This is a hostage situation.
Final Verdict: What Makes a Tutorial Actually Work?
The best tutorials do one thing really well: they make you feel capable without making you feel babied. Portal trusts you to figure things out. Breath of the Wild gives you room to experiment. Celeste builds confidence through design rather than dialogue.
The worst tutorials either drown you in information before you're ready to use it, or they treat you like you've never held a controller in your life — and sometimes both at the same time, which is a special kind of chaos.
The skip button exists for a reason. If your tutorial makes players reach for it within the first five minutes, maybe it's time to rethink the onboarding. And if your game IS the tutorial with no payoff at the end, please see Superman 64 above and reflect on your choices.
Drop your hottest tutorial takes in the comments. We know someone out there is ready to defend FFXIII's thirteen-hour warm-up lap, and honestly? We want to hear it.
