What are some of the best mini-games youve played? (games inside games) - eviltoast

I recently played Alien Isolation, and I noticed all of the “hacking” she does on doors and computers are different types of games, like press the button at the right time, or match the images within a timer, etc.

A lot of games have these mini-games, and I was wondering which you think are the best? Or at least, didn’t get old fast?

    • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      It suffers the same problem every trading card game does: if you don’t have the best cards, you lose. Skill and strategy and even luck are nothing compared to just having better cards.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        IMO pay-to-win mechanics work really well for a game-within-a-game since rather than exploiting the player for money, they are exploiting the player character for effort, which can lead you to go on more epic quests

        • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Personally I found it really annoying that halfway through the game when I decided to give gwent a go, i got absolutely trashed and was basically tole to go back to the beginning of the game and redo a bunch of areas I’d already spent too much time in.

          Not to mention none of the gwent quests were epic in the slightest. They were literally “play these people, if you win you get a card”.

      • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        That’s a really superficial take. For instance in MTG every format has “must have” cards, like fetchlands or shock lands (or dual lands), but beyond that there’s no “best” cards. There are “meta” cards that go into a specific meta deck and when you have one meta deck playing against another that’s when skill and strategy come into play. And it’s not like you must build a meta deck to play, you can build anti-meta decks or lab out a completely new meta deck. The problem is that such a level of deck building skills go way beyond what 99% of players are capable of doing. Even some of the best players in the world suck at deck building, because is an entirely different skillset to playing the game.

        But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. The modern meta looks very different to when I got into MTG 10+ years ago. Some are still around in some form, like regular Tron turned into mono-g tron and burn turned into boros burn. But the bans on Twin and Pod have killed those decks while Jund and Affinity have dropped out of the meta. In those place we have brand new decks like amulet titan or 5c Omnath. Somewhere in that timeframe we also got Eggs that was literally jank cards thrown into a pile of meta-defining solitaire playing, and then it got banned for being too boring.

        You can get meta cards to build a meta deck but you can’t explicitly buy “best” cards because a new combination of “bad” cards can create a meta deck and then those become the new “best” cards.

        • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          What happens when a person without any good meta cards plays a person who has good meta cards?

          The one with the better cards wins.

          • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            The one with a better deck wins. If a homebrew deck goes against a meta deck then it’s likely the meta deck wins, but if you homebrew a deck with meta cards vs homebrewing without meta cards it comes down to how well the deck is built. A homebrew with all the meta cards but without any game plan or poor mana source distribution is going to do worse than a homebrew without meta cards, but with a clear plan and cards that support that plan.

            People not building their own decks and instead just copying meta decks is another discussion.

    • kratoz29@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      I disagree but I understand you… I don’t know why it didn’t click for me as an old Yu-Gi-Oh! Player (that is the only card game I have ever played… And several minutes of a “Duel Master” card game for GBA… Perhaps that one would trigger some old memories for some it was based on an anime too).

      • swolf@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It was my first foray into CCG type games. I did try the in game Gwent recently and did not enjoy it as much.

        I guess you may feel that way because mature CCG are far better than the Gwent mini game.

  • DrQuickbeam@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    All of the Yakuza games are basically, collections of well made mini games that turn each beat-em-up campaign into a hundred hours of fun. But among those, the Cabaret Club and Pocket Circuit RC race-car games from Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, are probably my favs.

    • whereBeWaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 months ago

      The photo minigame in Kiwami 2 makes me extremely uncomfortable, I guess it’s commendable that it can make the player feel so strongly about it

    • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.uk
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      10 months ago

      Cabaret club is great! I wish they’d put it out as it’s own little mini games for smartphones or something

    • zeroshift11@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I second this. Triple Triad is so much fun! Fun fact, they have it in Final Fantasy XIV and it’s so much fun to collect the cards and play other people. They even have tournaments.

      • rem26_art@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        Lol my friend sat down to play FFXIV once, but as soon as he was able to play Triple Triad, thats all he did for hours

    • Haru@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yes. Triple Triad is the only answer here.

      Not to be mistaken by the abomination that is Tetra Master.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I liked all the mini games in 7 and the card game in 8. However, due to nostalgia, my favorite is the sliding puzzle game in the first one.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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      10 months ago

      For some reason it just wouldn’t click with me, tried getting into it in multiple point of the game but no luck.

    • Kushan@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I love this right up until the random rule gets applied, then it’s just frustrating.

  • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I have a few.

    PGR3, a Xbox360 racing game, contains Geometry Wars 1 and 2 as mini games. YT Link

    Celeste contains the entirety of Celeste Classic (PICO-8) as an easter egg in one of its levels. YT Link

    Xenogears, a PS1 JRPG game, contains a battle arena minigame, and I spent a few hours on that as a kid. YT Link

    Machinarium’s Gomoku/5 in a row minigame is so much fun, I played it with my friends at school when we didn’t want to listen to our teacher :) By the way, I really recommend Machinarium to every fan of old school point-and-click games.

    • Thassodar@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Geometry Wars was the best! And in each Project Gotham the had a new version!

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Animal Crossing on the GameCube straight up let you buy little NES consoles with a small variety of titles.

  • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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    10 months ago

    I remember spending so much time playing Farkle in Kingdom Come Deliverance, betting my money on every game. I think Witcher 1 or 2 have similar dice game that i also very into it, played with every NPC possible whenever i have the chance.

  • Pheonixdown@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    FFX Blitzball is the mini-game that I sunk the most time into by far (100+ hours), and always had fun.

    Gwent from Witcher 3 kind of goes without saying, the framework is so good it’s spawned 3 full games that I can think of.

    Best Hacking mini-game goes to the newer Deux Ex games, quick, the right amount of challenge but if you didn’t like it you could basically never do it.

    Best lockpicking I’m going to give to Starfield. Literally the only part of the game I actually enjoyed, each is a great little puzzle.

    • undeffeined@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      OMG blitzball!! Initially thought it was stupid but once it clicked I was hooked !!!

    • Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      My roommate in college would play Qwent in Witcher 3 and I would find myself glued to the TV.

  • Timwi@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    As a fan of the LucasArts point-and-click adventure games of the 80s-90s, it would be remiss of me not to mention that Day of the Tentacle, the sequel to Maniac Mansion (their first adventure game ever), actually contains Maniac Mansion as a minigame.

  • talizorah@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    The door hacking in Deus Ex Human Revolution. Each one was unique, could be solved by skill (speed and precision) or with tools (consumable items found throughout the game). It was a mini puzzle game each time you tried to unlock something.

    At the time, I loved it so much I tried to build my own version but it never went anywhere.

  • yamanii@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    The host club manager minigame in Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2, I don’t even remember their rewards, just that they were very fun. Compared to the real state minigame in 0 that was so boring I only remember the prize at the end, at least it was worth it

    spoiler

    You got Kyriu’s original fighting style as a 4th one that breaks the game with a fanservice scene that references the cover art of the first game.

    • vickyW@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I loved that mini game , it had great gameplay and very short and sweet story . I would buy it in a heard beat if it was a standalone game with more in-depth mechanics.

  • OldManBOMBIN@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    In Super Pitfall for the SNES, there was an Easter egg hidden in a temple that would warp you into the original Atari version. If that counts, that’s my favorite “game inside a game.”