Time Trial
When you've dug deep down into a game of the Racing Genre or something similar, you feel so almighty and professional that you just want a way to prove it, and what's a better way than to do a race as quickly as possible; though there is the problem at all those extra cars might prove to hinder that time a bit, and those power-ups won't help at all, so for your convenience, there is Time Trial, or alternatively, Time Attack.
This is a mode where most dangers and anything that may unfairly interact with your run are gone, giving you all the space to just wing it at your own accord, be it heading for the world record Lap, or Time of a full course.
Also for your convenience, there will be ghosts, see-through recordings of racers who have set quick times, further giving you the enthusiasm to beat them, or just to see how they did it, if you can keep up.
These days, getting a good time in time trial mode is worth that much more, and games usually just record it in laps, making mastering that run easier on the player, and since comparison of records is done on the fly online, you can bask in the glory so much more.
- Crash Bandicoot: Warped came with a mode which allowed you to replay any level you have completed with a timer, you were handed different coloured Time Relics depending on how quickly you finished. Thankfully, you get the ability to dash after beating the Final Boss.
- Donkey Kong Country 2 for the Game Boy Advance had a time trial where you could play all the levels you've beaten in the story.
- Donkey Kong Country Returns also features a Time Trial mode.
- Every stage in Mischief Makers is a Time Trial, complete with the S grade for completing it in minimum time. One of the stages is an Auto-Scrolling Level, and the highest rank is only by grabbing the star before it enters the screen.
- Portal has challenge mode which, in most cases, takes the form of a time trial.
- Super Mario Kart in all incarnations. Yes, you can play without having to worry about that bloody blue shell. However you were not entirely item less in this mode. You would be given three speed mushrooms, to be used at any point but never replenished, so that you could practise with the best point to use them.
- Mirrors Edge had a time trial mode - particularly appropriate, given the theme.
- Need for Speed series has these
- Hot Puruit 2 features "Deliverys" which you avoid the police and get to the finish line. Time trials in the championship string are the same, just without the police chases.
- Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken, a Fighting Game example, has an unlockable Time Attack Mode, in which you have to defeat all the game's opponents up to the Final Boss in a record time.
- And Yet It Moves has a "Speed run" mode where you try to get through the level as fast as you can. It shows the ghost of your previous best run as well. There's also a timed mode where the timer counts down and you have to get to the next checkpoint before it runs out.
- Yoshi's Island DS has a time trial/time attack mode, although you can count out the idea of 'harmful objects being removed', and even pausing the game doesn't stop the timer. It also gives bonuses for items collected.