The best in-game games (or minigames, if you like)

[Alex79]

It's always fun when there are other games to play within larger games. Whether it's a digital recreation of a board game, or arcade cabinets found within the world - here are some of my own favourite 'in-game' games.

Fishing in Red Dead Redemption 2

More of an activity than a minigame, perhaps, but I do love fishing within larger games. Some games do it a lot better than others (fishing in Yakuza and Persona 4 is particularly dull in my opinion), but Red Dead Redemption does it the best of all of them. A wide range of bait, different environments with different fish to catch, a compendium to fill and even legendary fish to find and catch. I've written before about how I would just spent entire evenings wandering around forests and mountains in this game, but one of my favourite activities is finding a rowing boat or kayak and paddling out to the middle of a lake and just throwing a line in to the water. It's everything real fishing is supposed to be. Relaxing, peaceful, listening to the ambient sounds of the wildlife and the water lapping at the boat. When you get a fish on the line the battle then begins to reel it in. I've never been real fishing, I think it's a horrible practice, but I am imagining this is quite a realistic representation of the activity as the fish struggles on the line and you have to gradually pull it in. One of my favourite things to do in the game, for sure.


Gwent in The Witcher 3

Loads of games feature in-world card games, but Gwent is the king of them all. I spent hours challenging NPCs to games, finding rare cards and joining the tournament in that one quest-line. The game was surprisingly deep whilst remaining easy to get the hang of. I later tried to get in to the standalone game of Gwent as well as the Thronebreaker game, which is an RPG centered around the card game, but both of those introduced a lot of new rules and techniques that I just didn't get the hang of. I'm planning to replay The Witcher 3 soon and imagine I'll spend just as much time throwing cards again.


Nine Men's Morris in Assassin's Creed 3 & 4

I'd never heard of this game before playing AC3, but got really hooked on it to the point I even downloaded an app for my phone to play outside of the game. It's a really interesting board game, played with pieces that look like draughts, but it's a very different game. The basic object is to get three of your pieces in a row, and you can move them around the board and make things difficult for the other player. It's not an especially exciting game to write about so it's hard to make it sound interesting, but it would appeal to anyone who enjoys draughts or chess, that sort of thing.


Poker in Red Dead Redemption

Both this game and it's sequel (well, prequel) feature poker, but the first game is better just because you can play for much higher stakes. I enjoy poker in real life but it's extremely rare to get to actually play it because I'm so infrequently in a room with 3 or 4 other people who know how to or want to play it. I spent ages in the saloons and Blackwater hotel fleecing the locals of their hard earned money.


Pazaak in Knights Of The Old Republic

Another card game, but one that gets overlooked in favour of Gwent and Triple Triad most of the time. Pazaak is a really interesting game that seems to have its roots in Blackjack (or Pontoon, as we always called it). There is a surprising amount of depth to the play, especially once you've built up a decent deck with lots of different cards. I wonder how many people go through the entire game without even trying this? I know it wasn't overly popular on the recent CaR show - but if anyone plays through the game, give it a chance!


So, anyone else have any favourites?

[Kez86]

I remember being a fan of the Liar's Dice in Red Dead Redemption for the PS3. But it's been a while, and I'm looking forward to playing the game on Switch when it is discounted. Liar's Dice has a simplicity to a minigame that I like a lot. It even lead us to play actual Liar's Dice as a drinking game at University.

I also really really enjoy Blitzball in Final Fantasy X. I know it's not a popular minigame but it is deeply rooted in nostalgia for me, and I can still sink hours and hours into it.

[Truk_Kurt]

I always quite enjoyed the pool and darts in GTA IV. The mini games in Yakuza are usually good fun too, my favourite would be the test papers in Yakuza Like a Dragon where you had to answer multiple choice questions on a range of subjects. In Judgement there was a great zombie based light gun shooter arcade machine.
I also really liked the hacking minigame in Bioshock with the pipes you had to arrange to get the fluid to an exit point.

[Kez86]

I'm also a huge fan of the hidden mini-game within a game. You know the type, you're wandering about and then you see something in the corner of your eye that ends up being more than you expect. The "bad dream" level in Wolfenstein: The New Order where you play end up playing Wolfenstein 3D is a great moment.

But one that really stands out for me is from Blasphemous. As you explore the ruins you find a hidden room with an old arcade cabinet, and for a mere 2500 tears of atonement you can play an 8-bit version of the game with it's own levels, boss and unlockable which you get for completing it. Great moment!

[Truk_Kurt]

That's cool, I wonder if Blasphemous 2 (which I'm playing now) has something similar.
That reminds me of Celeste doing something similar where it had a version of the game in it which I think was the original itch.io version of the game, something like that.

[Alex79]

Oh yeah, it was the Pico-8 version of Celeste. I remember that.

[Jobobonobo]

Yakuza really is the series that excels in minigames for me. For me, the best games in the series are those that go above and beyond with the minigames.

Yakuza 0 had pocket car racing, real estate management (legit better than it sounds!) and the Cabaret Club hostess mini game. The last minigame occupied countless evenings of my time playing 0. Being the best club in Sotenbori was an awesome experience and was one of the reasons I became a Yakuza fan.

Kiwami 2 not only saw the return of the Cabaret Club but also the Majima construction company clan minigame which again was a huge time sink for me. Recruiting new members to your clan and taking on more powerful clans was yet another addictive and joyful experience to get involved with.

Yakuza 5 was the next one for me which had great minigames. Each character had their own job that they had to engage with to not only progress the story but you could really go into these separate jobs and fully immerse yourselves for countless evenings which I certainly did. Kiryu driving a taxi, Saejima hunting out in he mountainous wilderness, Haruka the pop idol and Shinada reliving his glory baseball days. All played completely differently but all were such great distractions with their own stories. Really enjoyed all of these. Oh I forgot, 5 also has chicken racing which is not as deep but still good for a laugh.

I am currently going through Yakuza 6 but I can say that I am already getting into a lot of the minigames here. Here is the first instance of the clan minigame which I am really enjoying going through that again and spearfishing is a great arcadey experience which really reminds me of a lot of SEGA at their best. There is more that I have not even begun (such as making friends at a bar which I am intrigued to say the least!) but I definitely already think 6 is great for the minigames it has contained within.

There are so much more minigames within this series but these are the ones which I think are the best and not coincidentally these games listed above are for me among the ones I rate really highly.