Favorite mini game within a game?

[Beyondthegrave07]

I was thinking about how terrible some mini games are in games, but it also made me realize that there are a lot of well-made, fun mini games in games. What are some of the mini games you enjoyed?

 

Before you answer it though, let's just give a loose definition of mini game, so people don't get confused. A minigame is "a short video game often contained within another video game." 

 

I have a few favorites that I've played over the years.

 

1. Blitzball -FFX: OMG, anyone who has played Final Fantasy X and dove into this minigame will understand why this is one of my favorites. The game is pretty much a strategy game within a strategy game where you have the freedom to recruit and sign players to your team. The system is simple and well-thought out that you could win with a lesser team or dominate with the best. I've never been a fan of sports games, but I could play Blitzball all day.

 

2. Monkey Soccer - Ape Escape 2: I don't know how many hours I have put into monkey Soccer as a kid, but I can tell you that it's probably more time than what it takes to beat the game as both Jimmy and Spike. It's pretty much the insane version of Soccer where the goal is to score and to wear down your opponent by to make it easier to score... By kicking the soccer ball at the opponent to knock them out. It's hilarious to play and fun to play with friends. It gets better when you add in the fact that the soccer ball can turn into a bomb, beach ball, or a spiked ball to up the craziness to 11.

 

3. Tetra Master - FFIX: Not everyone probably enjoyed this game as much as me, but I wasted so much time as a kid trying to get 1 card of each and got pretty close too. I loved collecting the cards and trying them out. I think at 1 point, I would just use Summons to win which was very fulfilling knowing that I started the game with a bunch of flan cards!

 

 There are several others that I've enjoyed over the years, but I would like to hear what some of your favorites are.

 

[Redgrave]

Gwent from The Witcher 3. I found it to be a pretty fun card game since it was pretty simple but not boring simple since the games could still go one way or the other.

 

I also liked the Skirmishes and the Clan Battles from Ni no Kuni II and Yakuza 6 respectively. Although with Yakuza 6's Clan Battles once you did the story events for them there wasn't really much reason to play them after that. Still, I liked the real-time strategy aspect to them.

 

Generally I also like bowling, baseball, or golf mini-games as long as they are done right, and I don't feel like I've come across one that wasn't done right since it's kind of hard to mess those up. I really wanted to like the baseball mini-game in Yakuza 6 but it wasn't as interactive as it could have been. I do remember actually liking to do the bowling and pool games in GTA IV though, when I played those so I was one of the few that would take up Roman's offer willingly

 

If there's any mini-game from a game I played from an old game before the PS3 era that I really liked it probably would have been Pazaak from KOTOR I and II. It's something similar to Blackjack only there are a few extra rules thrown in but I remember liking it when I played them. It was also a good way to pass the time while waiting for your Force meter to recharge 

[Dead_By_Noon]

First of all, I would have to agree with Tetra Master in FF IX, since it's my favourite game in the series ever and I also enjoyed collecting those cards.

 

I would also add playing golf in Gta V. I've spend probably about 10-20 hours just playing golf instead of all of those other awesome content in the game

[Phlegeth]

Golf in Dark Cloud 2.  Probably the most random mini-game too.  I wasn't expecting golf in a dungeon crawler.  And I loved it.  I remember the music being relaxing too.

 

Blitzball in X was great fun.  The coin game in X-2 was a giant time sink for me too.

 

 

[eigen-space]

Does the full version of Maniac Mansion within Day of the Tentacle count?

 

There's a card game in Tales of Berseria that I really like. Sometimes I'll load up the game just to play it.

 

1 hour ago, Redgrave said:

 

I also liked the Skirmishes and the Clan Battles from Ni no Kuni II 

 

Thought I was the only one!

Edited September 9, 2018 by eigen-space

[Deceptrox]

Almost all mini-games from The Hungry Horde, specially Cryo Crisis, Conga Zombies and Zombat.

[Mesopithecus]

Triple Triad in FFVIII - I absolutely loved this game and spent hours on it, trying to spread my favorite card rules to all the regions.  I really want this to get a PS4 port like FFVII and FFIX so I can immerse myself in the game again, but with trophies.

 

 

[RadiantFlamberge]

Blade in Trails of Cold Steel series.  Blade II (ToCS II) adds the Force card that doubles everything you set it on top of, & the Blast card that lets you discard something from the other player's hand.  Blade 1 is also in Brandish: The Dark Revenant for PSP/Vita if you find the casino, except in that version you lose a tie game.

 

I also like the Demon Destruction mini-game that you can find in Doom's Lazarus Labs- a Candy Crush style "match 3" game with enemies & exploding barrels on the board.  It's the one that gets you a Time Well Spent trophy.  Olivia Pierce is in 2nd place on the game's leaderboard. LOL.

[Lava_Yuki]

I'm not a huge fan of mini games, but I quite enjoyed Sphere Break in FFX-2 and farming Bikinal desert for rare coins (I also managed to beat shinra with a 100 quota), the Waiter mini game in Tales of Vesperia, the book stacking mini game in Amnesia World and Slash Beat in Tales of Berseria. I don't like it when mini games have trophies though.... 

[ReverzerO-]

-- All Chocobo Race In FFX

-- Chess like game in Castlevania Lord of Shadows

-- Some races in GTA San Andreas

Argg I can't remember the other". 

[FilmFanatic]

Gwent from The Witcher 3 was a heap of fun. Unless you came up against someone using the Northern Realms deck in which case it was annoying as Northern Realms is hard to beat which is why I always played with that deck .

 

At first I didn’t like Hypernatural in Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunter as it took a while to learn how to play it properly but once I had the hang of it grinding out 50 wins was a lot of fun.

 

I have no interest in tennis in real life (playing or watching) but for some reason I loved playing it in Grand Theft Auto 5.

 

Never been much of a card player but I spent a lot of hours playing poker in Red Dead Redemption.

[Rafinha_Mikinha]

Gwent in Witcher 3, and Singing / dancing in Yakuza series.

[Feral]

Gwent in The Witcher III and bowling in GTA IV, just not during a mission like bloody Roman wanted.

[MidnightDragon]

Enjoy the gambling in RDR. Also, fishing in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask (3DS version). More fun than actual fishing games!

Edited September 14, 2018 by Spyro

[SvV_Ying]

Gwent and Blitzball.

 

The LaBlanc massage mini game in Final Fantasy X was a strange one?