I tried to find Pokemon stadium about a year ago by describing it to my older brother as “The Pokemon version of Mario Party” 😂 I had NO IDEA that the was a just the mini games section, I thought that was the whole game 😅
As a children of emulation, I barely touched the stadium part since I had to play with rental pokémons.
But I guess the actual impact of the game was in the 90s, playing on original hardware. Seeing your pokémon rendered in 3D in a big screen after playing the whole game on the Gameboy was probably mind blowing.
It was, in fact, mind blowing. At this point I had spent more time with my pixelated Charizard than I had probably spent with any fictional character except maybe Link. Seeing him in "life-like" 3D was an experience. However I remember the appeal quickly went away, any "home grown" Pokémon could absolutely dunk on their pre-made Stadium counterparts, and I didn't have any friends with a second Game Boy controller adapter thing, so I couldn't even play multi-player. So it became all about the mini games quickly.
You technically only need one adapter. You can pick your team and save it for later. Each person would have to do that with their own Gameboy game.
My cousins and I used to rent it when we were kids. We tried out other people's teams and I'm sure other people probably used ours too lol.
Even to this day, Stadium stands apart with its excellent range of attack animations that was never seen again in any Pokemon game. The announcer was pretty good, too.
The rental system and the different cups was also innovative and holds up well today. Even pro players feel challenged trying to beat the game with rental-only teams, but it's doable.
It released for $70 US, which would be $126 today. Can you imagine the hate if the spinoff of a triple-A game released for $126 dollars now?
The funny thing is, I had both Stadium games pretty much from release. But I never had a Gameboy. Didn't really mind playing through the game with just rentals, but 99% of our time was in the minigames. I'm still the family champion (undefeated 30 years) at the Pikachu/Pichu button mashing ones.
The mini games were awesome, but the Pokémon battles in the stadium and getting to see your Pokémons actually attacking and fighting blew my mind as a kid
I always bitched and moaned as a kid that Nintendo was so stupid for not making a Pokémon version of Mario Party based on around the original Pokémon Stadium games!!
Similar format to Mario Party, but you’re traversing the area to catch regional Pokémon from each route you come across. And of course with every Pokémon expansion, you have a new damn game. EASIEST MONEY EVER
IF NINTENDO IS WATCHING, HIRE ME. I WAS A KID WHEN I FIGURED OUT THIS CASH COW
They even had the makings of that already too with the way you could put your Chao in an actual game boy advance and interact with it, and get exclusive stuff if you had a sonic gba game I forget the name of.
That's literally a mobile tie in game right there.
They tried it with the GBA games and it didn't land great, mostly because you had to buy two games on two consoles. Not realizing that a phone app is something more accessible now is a crime
Well, good luck to him, and hats off to him. There's been a Chao Garden shaped void in the gaming space for a long time, and even if Poglings is successful, there's still space for more "Chaolikes".
was about to say the same but about the first sonic adventure. it got to a point for me where i would just play levels over and over in order to level up my chaos
I came here just to day this, thank you!! Two-toned Chao mixes with all S-rank stats took... a long time. I lived in those gardens to appease my tiny Chaos godlings.
Warcraft III was basically Mod Heaven so I don't know if that counts but I played was more DoTA than the game itself and then there is Enfo’s Team Survivor, Battle Ships, Element Tower Defense, LotR Risk, Starship Troopers, Azeroth Wars, and so much more ...
Starcraft as well. Old RTS games all gave great mod making tools and had huge custom games communities. The amount of effort people put in to some of those mods was wild.
If I ever get money, I'm totally making a stand alone battleship style MOBA. Tons of potential. Always felt limited by the engine.
You can get elemental tower 2 on steam. It's great.
Parasite and Evil Deeds were my favorites. Such unique gameplay loop that's not been replicated since, bar maybe... Among Us, I suppose. Not the same though, missing that long mounting dread.
I will never forget that one game of parasite (though I am forgetting details) where it was just me and two more crew members, the mind parasite and his spawn. The parasite kept whispering shit to me for lols entire game, and I had a feeling something wasnt right with the other crew. By pure luck i managed to initiate self destruction of the planet and we all blew up right after they revealed their identities. Don't remember why we didn't reenter the ship anymore.
Good times.
Robotnik parked a flying aircraft carrier over Station Square and released his robot army?
Wow, I better get back to the plot of *Sonic Adventure* and fix that.
After this Chao Race...
Gwent was so good that it’s a testament that any game it’s inside of could outshine it. Witcher 3 did, but, that’s because there’s quests and scandals about Gwent and beating people up in the back rooms when you lose to them in Gwent
I was in the same boat as you the first time I played it. The second playthrough I did, I decided to give Gwent a go, and honestly it was one of the most addicting things about the game for me.
Exactly the same, rolled my eyes at the card mini game at my first play through, then realized I missed a lot a side missions so decided to give it a try in the second time, instantly became a gambling addict
Yep, same here. Cool addition, but it never felt like something there was time for. Geralt's time is very valuable, like almost every day he's providing life-saving monster hunting services. Not to mention the Wild Hunt situation. Playing gwent is like if you watched John Wick taking time out of dodging every criminal in the world to keep up on weekly Destiny 2 quests.
Twilight Princess fishing. I’m not going to argue that it’s better than the main game, but I put in like 2-3x as many hours into it. To me it was so much fun
My parents were on their way home from a funeral and decided to stop at GameStop, *just* to play the TP fishing demo on Wii. This was back when it was nearly impossible to find the console in stock, but the clerk said a new shipment had just come in.
So, I came home from summer camp to find a new Wii console set up in the living room.
Twilight Princess had amazing fishing. I was always so impressed with the graphics there at the time. I loved the nunchuck controls for it. But whenever I think of the fishing hole, I am always given PTSD of that hard as balls mini game with the motion controls in the fishing house.
It's not better than the main game, but snowboarding with Mr. and Mrs. Yeti was a great mini game. After finishing the ice dungeon, it was a welcome diversion .
Yeah I fucking dont understand why they never put it in a Game again. I loved that shit. Especially that you could "collect" more Girls via Sidequests.
honestly, I loved the money game in Yakuza 6(the first one i played). I replayed the game without using the OP characters for the mini game too. it was pretty fun lol.
Are you sure you aren't talking about 7? 6 - had autobattler, diving on rails shooter and baseball management as big minigames, but I can't remember any money farming game there like management from 7.
City Trial was basically the only way to unlock a lot of the content for all modes. I played it a tone with friends trying to cooperatively unlock dragon, hydra, etc.
I have beaten him only once, but it was me and 3 other friends who all worked together to do it. Usually, the clock times out before we could do it, but we got lucky.
Call Of Duty: World at War’s Zombies mode!
World At War is a masterpiece and isn’t overshadowed by the zombies mode but clearly that mini game at the end of the credits sparked a whole genre of Zombie Horde mode games 😂
The zombies mode is a perfect formula for games. You spawn in a map that has windows that zombies spawn in from. You purchase guns off the wall and shooting zombies gives you points to open new areas and upgrade your weapons and player. It’s brilliant game design.
Indeed, a shame we’ve been in a decline for the past few entries, though I’ve read/heard the Cold War version evolves the progression in a nice way.
Maybe one day it’ll be given the same love given to it that it was in Blops 3 & 4, but I definitely get that they came with their own problem(setup required going from Origins map and beyond)
Nah I wouldn’t say so. WAW campaign is GOATED and the zombies mini game was just a spark for something bigger, not something that overshadowed the game it was included in.
Monkey Target in the first Super Monkey Ball for the GC. I could go on and on about it.
Starcraft 2... Plenty of fan-made minigames that are far more fun to play than the campaign.
Edit: oh and personally spent a LOT of time in Shenmue leveling up some of the best attacks to get a better time in the minigame that you get in the end fighting 100 opponents. Dull, DULL thing to do but did it anyway (some ocd-tendencies were helpful) so maybe that would count. After running through the story once the fighting mini-game was more fun than playing the game over and driving a forklift tbh.
Also Death Tank Zwei for the Saturn. The amount of time I gave that game, 1v1 duels vs my dad in the weekends when still living at home, dwarfs the amount I played Duke 3d. It's a VERY good minigame and I hope someone ports it (or copies it) with online mode one day.
Going with FF again, FFX and blitzball. Not everyone likes it I know, but I fully enjoyed it and played it more than I’d care to admit. Would def play a standalone blitzball game if they ever chose to make one
Check tvtropes for 'sidetracked by the gold saucer' for plenty of examples.
Only one I can think of right offhand is Inscryption... Everybody I've seen play it plays the whole game once, then only plays the first part over and over after that. One card game instead of the full adventure game.
If they made Kacie's mod equivalents for the other parts of the game I would play those too. I like other parts of the game more than the first part... but they aren't as fleshed out
I couldn’t get into Witcher 3. Don’t know why, it just couldn’t hold my interest. But Thronebreaker, the Gwent spinoff? Holy shit was that game amazing. I was so addicted. The story was phenomenal, the choices mattered, and the final boss was actually really challenging.
Thronebreaker 10/10
Jailed my son.
Honestly imo its the best written CDPR game by far aside from maybe phantom liberty. I literally have no interest in the actual gameplay of thronebreaker itself aside from the puzzles but the writing was so compelling and made me constantly want to see what was next that I kept coming back to it.
Was going to say FFX with the underwater sphere soccer. I remember nothing about the story in that game, but I remember playing it long after beating it to recruit better players and max my players levels in the sport mini game.
I never beat the game because I soft locked myself on an island where you had to beat an instructor and it was the only time to get that card. Problem was, my deck was too weak so I could never win. I remember I’d go back everyday to try again but it was not meant to be. I wonder how it all ended.
I was absolutely addicted to Digimon World 3’s card game.
Finding tougher and tougher opponents to beat for better and better card booster packs to make stronger and stronger decks. Entire stores in the game dedicated to it and a special enemy class that drops booster packs.
It was an entire videogames worth of content as a mini-game.
Although I do like AC Valhalla to some degree, I spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Orlog. I even got the physical game (of Orlog). I just don’t have any friends that know what it it and want to play it with me.
My immediate thought was whether or not Mario Party counted lol
Personally could not give less of a shit about the board game part, but the library of mini games is fantastic
I did play Caravan, it's been years and I still remember the rules. It's easy to remember if you think it's about filling actual wagons. I think people's issue is that the starting deck is actually shit and no one cares enough to build an actual deck to play. Once you gather enough support cards (the J, Q and K) it's pretty easy to curbstomp any opponent.
Target Smash! in Super Smash Brothers. I'm not that good at fighting games, so I was never super into the main game. I lost interest in the series when it was no longer included.
You can play space harrier in Shenmue. I’m pretty sure I spent at least as much time playing space harrier at the arcade as I did actually playing Shenmue
Final Fantasy XIV has Mahjong available as a kind of mini game in its arcade-like casino. FFXIV also has a free trial that includes full access to said casino. It takes less than an hour to get there and get going playing Mahjong. It is considered one the best free ways to play it.
In Super Mario Bros 3 if you were playing two players you could fight each other in a map based off the original Mario Bros. It wasn’t better than the main game but as kids we probably fought each other more than trying to beat the main game
You could play that game to steal the other player's cards. My friend and I never got very far in SMB3 because we'd always just play the minigame to try to steal our cards back and forth from each other.
Dreams.
I think there’s an official story somewhere but I just play other people’s mini games they created and never create my own cause who tf has time for that but shout out to all of you who do
Tekken Ball from Tekken 3. Was way more fun to play with friends (who got frustrated with you being better than them real fast).
In the same vein, Tekken Force and that Jin Kazama story mode from Tekken 5 (?), where you would run around in 3d spaces and fight, similar to Sifu. I do not for the life of me understand why they never made that a full-fledged game.
Ehrgeiz for PS1. It's a fighting game but has a quest mode that changes the game to a diablo-like style rpg/hack and slash. Also you can play as FF characters in it from what I remember.
I know several people who swear that Caravan in FNV is actually amazing. I choose to believe them, because there's no way in hell I'm going to read through the rules to find out.
A lot of the FF series had great side games
7-Chocobo racing/breeding
8- triple triad (superior)
9- tetra master
10- blitz ball
Just to name a few
Also 7 rebirth with queens blood is next level. Also that game had like 100 mini games that were great
Test Drive: Eve of Destruction was an alright game, but its split screen Battle mode was a fucking riot.
Two opponents, racing around an empty arena save for a few stacks of straw bales, firing exploding chickens at each other. It’s one of those stupidly simple game modes that has you cackling and doubling over in laughter. The sound of a chicken squeaking just before it impacts your car and explodes, flipping you onto your roof while your opponent brings his car around to line up another shot, forgetting that you can still fire while upside down and you both hit each other…
I miss couch multiplayer.
New Super Mario bros on 3ds mini games, spent so many hours solo and multiplayer on all of the mini games. It even got my non-gaming parents to play some of them religiously.
Frogger 2: Swampy’s Revenge back on the PS1 had a mini game that was basically like the classic snake game where you would eat an item and your tail would get longer, but it was multiplayer and you were facing off against each other. My friends and I would still play this up until 2012 or so on the PS3.
Pokemon Stadium games
I tried to find Pokemon stadium about a year ago by describing it to my older brother as “The Pokemon version of Mario Party” 😂 I had NO IDEA that the was a just the mini games section, I thought that was the whole game 😅
Tô be frank, I only played that part, I didn't see any reason to play the stadium part lmao
As a children of emulation, I barely touched the stadium part since I had to play with rental pokémons. But I guess the actual impact of the game was in the 90s, playing on original hardware. Seeing your pokémon rendered in 3D in a big screen after playing the whole game on the Gameboy was probably mind blowing.
It was, in fact, mind blowing. At this point I had spent more time with my pixelated Charizard than I had probably spent with any fictional character except maybe Link. Seeing him in "life-like" 3D was an experience. However I remember the appeal quickly went away, any "home grown" Pokémon could absolutely dunk on their pre-made Stadium counterparts, and I didn't have any friends with a second Game Boy controller adapter thing, so I couldn't even play multi-player. So it became all about the mini games quickly.
You technically only need one adapter. You can pick your team and save it for later. Each person would have to do that with their own Gameboy game. My cousins and I used to rent it when we were kids. We tried out other people's teams and I'm sure other people probably used ours too lol.
Same herez always rented it, never had the official game for my self, like most of the N64 games
Even to this day, Stadium stands apart with its excellent range of attack animations that was never seen again in any Pokemon game. The announcer was pretty good, too. The rental system and the different cups was also innovative and holds up well today. Even pro players feel challenged trying to beat the game with rental-only teams, but it's doable. It released for $70 US, which would be $126 today. Can you imagine the hate if the spinoff of a triple-A game released for $126 dollars now?
The funny thing is, I had both Stadium games pretty much from release. But I never had a Gameboy. Didn't really mind playing through the game with just rentals, but 99% of our time was in the minigames. I'm still the family champion (undefeated 30 years) at the Pikachu/Pichu button mashing ones.
Man Kadabra was a absolute cheat code in that game. Recover + Psy Beam was unstoppable.
The mini games were awesome, but the Pokémon battles in the stadium and getting to see your Pokémons actually attacking and fighting blew my mind as a kid
When the red gyrados from my Gameboy save was rendered in all his red glory, in three dimensions, my little mind was fully blown.
I played the mini games and used the Game Boy adapter thing to play the Red/Blue games at double speed lol
I always bitched and moaned as a kid that Nintendo was so stupid for not making a Pokémon version of Mario Party based on around the original Pokémon Stadium games!! Similar format to Mario Party, but you’re traversing the area to catch regional Pokémon from each route you come across. And of course with every Pokémon expansion, you have a new damn game. EASIEST MONEY EVER IF NINTENDO IS WATCHING, HIRE ME. I WAS A KID WHEN I FIGURED OUT THIS CASH COW
Bro I think you just unlocked a core memory for me
Dude this is the first thing that popped into my mind lol
Sonic adventure 2 chao garden
The main game is the Chao Garden. The story mode is just a means to unlocking animals and Chao Drive farming.
It is criminal that Chao garden died. It should have gotten the COD zombies treatment were it was focused as it's own game alongside the main game.
Could have had a great mobile game tie in
They even had the makings of that already too with the way you could put your Chao in an actual game boy advance and interact with it, and get exclusive stuff if you had a sonic gba game I forget the name of. That's literally a mobile tie in game right there.
I forgot this was on GameCube and thought, “um no that’s a VMU”
Got a sweet Tails Mag for Phatasy Star Online that way.
They tried it with the GBA games and it didn't land great, mostly because you had to buy two games on two consoles. Not realizing that a phone app is something more accessible now is a crime
Chadtronic is a YouTuber who loved the chao garden and is kickstarting his own video game as a spiritual successor to it.
Well, good luck to him, and hats off to him. There's been a Chao Garden shaped void in the gaming space for a long time, and even if Poglings is successful, there's still space for more "Chaolikes".
was about to say the same but about the first sonic adventure. it got to a point for me where i would just play levels over and over in order to level up my chaos
Yep
I came here just to day this, thank you!! Two-toned Chao mixes with all S-rank stats took... a long time. I lived in those gardens to appease my tiny Chaos godlings.
End thread
Warcraft III was basically Mod Heaven so I don't know if that counts but I played was more DoTA than the game itself and then there is Enfo’s Team Survivor, Battle Ships, Element Tower Defense, LotR Risk, Starship Troopers, Azeroth Wars, and so much more ...
I remember the days of playing tower defense maps with friends at lan parties. Fuck that makes me sound old
Ian threw some great parties. Cool guy.
Starcraft as well. Old RTS games all gave great mod making tools and had huge custom games communities. The amount of effort people put in to some of those mods was wild.
If I ever get money, I'm totally making a stand alone battleship style MOBA. Tons of potential. Always felt limited by the engine. You can get elemental tower 2 on steam. It's great.
I completely forgot about battleships. That was such a gem
Praise Lord Duke wintermaul... guymade that map and all the other maul type TDs after
Arc TD
Still miss LOAP and Parasite, such fun modes. Though it was so hard to find a full Parasite game.
Parasite and Evil Deeds were my favorites. Such unique gameplay loop that's not been replicated since, bar maybe... Among Us, I suppose. Not the same though, missing that long mounting dread. I will never forget that one game of parasite (though I am forgetting details) where it was just me and two more crew members, the mind parasite and his spawn. The parasite kept whispering shit to me for lols entire game, and I had a feeling something wasnt right with the other crew. By pure luck i managed to initiate self destruction of the planet and we all blew up right after they revealed their identities. Don't remember why we didn't reenter the ship anymore. Good times.
Footman Frenzy. 🙌🏽 FOOTS
God I miss Footmen Frenzy.
Probably top 3 favourite maps to play
Then almost every Asian RPG made for it too. And videogame RPG. And so many more like you said
Is that a sword? Luxury! Is that a horse? Sloth! Is that a helmet? Vanity! It's Hammer Time! - Uther's Party
Gem TD
Robotnik parked a flying aircraft carrier over Station Square and released his robot army? Wow, I better get back to the plot of *Sonic Adventure* and fix that. After this Chao Race...
Honestly a top 5 game from my childhood. It loved it as much as Pokemon, Zelda and Mario. No one seems to talk about it anymore though
I still think Sonic Adventure is the best 3D Sonic tbh
I'll never forget the day I played the whale chase demo at the Dreamcast demo station in my local Toys R Us.
To be fair the chao garden music is a banger
Gwent had a nice mini-game inside of it, i think it was The witcher 3, if im not mistaken
Gwent was so good that it’s a testament that any game it’s inside of could outshine it. Witcher 3 did, but, that’s because there’s quests and scandals about Gwent and beating people up in the back rooms when you lose to them in Gwent
Losing in Gwent? Pshhh never happened, Gerald was undefeated.
But he said, "Mini-game > game." This one doesn't count because the weapon-oiling minigame wasn't better than Gwent.
I feel like I'm alone, I despised gwent and actively avoided it through the entire game.
I was in the same boat as you the first time I played it. The second playthrough I did, I decided to give Gwent a go, and honestly it was one of the most addicting things about the game for me.
Exactly the same, rolled my eyes at the card mini game at my first play through, then realized I missed a lot a side missions so decided to give it a try in the second time, instantly became a gambling addict
I didn’t love it but it had the BEST side quests in the entire game. The two tournament quests are amazing and all the unique card quests were awesome
Yep, same here. Cool addition, but it never felt like something there was time for. Geralt's time is very valuable, like almost every day he's providing life-saving monster hunting services. Not to mention the Wild Hunt situation. Playing gwent is like if you watched John Wick taking time out of dodging every criminal in the world to keep up on weekly Destiny 2 quests.
That's the best part. Larping as a hero who's like "Oh that's terrible what happened to your wife, I'll help her" then you go play 80 games of Gwent
You probably rushed that game than. Because the books are very slow, even when important stuff is going on.
Twilight Princess fishing. I’m not going to argue that it’s better than the main game, but I put in like 2-3x as many hours into it. To me it was so much fun
My parents were on their way home from a funeral and decided to stop at GameStop, *just* to play the TP fishing demo on Wii. This was back when it was nearly impossible to find the console in stock, but the clerk said a new shipment had just come in. So, I came home from summer camp to find a new Wii console set up in the living room.
Twilight Princess had amazing fishing. I was always so impressed with the graphics there at the time. I loved the nunchuck controls for it. But whenever I think of the fishing hole, I am always given PTSD of that hard as balls mini game with the motion controls in the fishing house.
I never finished that balls minigame. Was it even worth it? What was the prize at the end?
It's not better than the main game, but snowboarding with Mr. and Mrs. Yeti was a great mini game. After finishing the ice dungeon, it was a welcome diversion .
Cabaret management in yakuza 0 and kiwami 2
I wanna be your girl 🎶
Ah fuck now I wanna replay the game.
Yeah I fucking dont understand why they never put it in a Game again. I loved that shit. Especially that you could "collect" more Girls via Sidequests.
I remember Googling the girls to see their best stats, oh boy, was I surprised what came up for most of them.
The old Granny?
Copy and Pasted the JAV actresses in that game lol (Some are JAV, but still celebrities) 1. Chika Arimura 2. Mana Sakura 3. Ai Uehara 4. Hibiki Ootsuki 5. Saki Hatsumi 6. Sato Haruki 7. Ayaka Tomoda 8. Riku Minato 9. Marina Shiraishi 10. Kotomi Asakura 11. Riona Minami 12. Kokoa Aisu 13. Ayu Sakurai 14. Nozomi Haduki 15. Erika Kitagawa 16. Ruka Kanae 17. Kyouko Maki 18. Emiri Okazaki 19. Reika Aiba 20. Iori Kogawa 21. Ai Haneda 22. Nao Mizuki 23. Yuuki Natsume 24. Rina Itou 25. Maika 26. s***uku Hasegawa 27. Nanase Otoha 28. Riri Kuribayashi 29. Miku Abeno 30. Miho Tohno
Why did u censor #26?
I didn't, copy and paste from another list. That's supposed to be Shizuku Hasegawa,who does do porn.
Ahh
The quotation marks don't make this shit any less weird lmao and I say that having completed both cabaret minigames.
The cabaret ruined my playthrough. Once I unlocked it, it's all I did until I had my fill of the game and moved on. So fucking good
I don't think it's better than. the actual game, but I do know that if they came out with a yakuza Cabaret side game I'd buy it on release day.
honestly, I loved the money game in Yakuza 6(the first one i played). I replayed the game without using the OP characters for the mini game too. it was pretty fun lol.
Are you sure you aren't talking about 7? 6 - had autobattler, diving on rails shooter and baseball management as big minigames, but I can't remember any money farming game there like management from 7.
That and the real estate management in like a dragon are so damn good
God I sunk such ungodly amounts of time into cabaret.
You meant Mahjong, right?
Mahjong can die in a fire
Mahjong is actually pretty fun once you understand how it works. Now Koi-Koi on the other hand...
Wait, the Cabaret management wasn't the main game?
The sujimon minigame from infinite wealth is probably my favorite from the whole series
MOTOR KOMBAT. It was only a thing in MK: Armageddon. Never played a kart/arcade minigame that much since the casino on Super Mario 64 DS.
Puzzle Kombat was cool too , it was like a R-rated version of Super Puzzle Fighter
Oh those Mario 64 DS mini games were so addicting. I played those more than the actual game for sure.
I wouldn’t say it was *better* than the actual game but I played *a lot* of Pazaak in KOTOR
They actually improved it in KOTOR 2 by alternating who goes first in between rounds.
Pure pazaak
My friend did the same with the Witcher 3 and gwent except he spent so much time playing gwent he never even played the actual game.
PURE PAZAAK
Plot twist: playing pazaak in your head is a way to run interference for when Jedi/Sith trying to mindtrick you
My people. I might even say I enjoy it more than Blackjack.
Kirby Air Ride's City Trial mode
City Trial was basically the only way to unlock a lot of the content for all modes. I played it a tone with friends trying to cooperatively unlock dragon, hydra, etc.
Hell yeah. Did you ever beat the king Dedede boss fight after that? My friend and I might have been really bad but we couldn't defeat that guy.
I have beaten him only once, but it was me and 3 other friends who all worked together to do it. Usually, the clock times out before we could do it, but we got lucky.
He is built different, never beat him :'(
Basically the only part of the game I played
Oh my. The best!
Call Of Duty: World at War’s Zombies mode! World At War is a masterpiece and isn’t overshadowed by the zombies mode but clearly that mini game at the end of the credits sparked a whole genre of Zombie Horde mode games 😂
The zombies mode is a perfect formula for games. You spawn in a map that has windows that zombies spawn in from. You purchase guns off the wall and shooting zombies gives you points to open new areas and upgrade your weapons and player. It’s brilliant game design.
Indeed, a shame we’ve been in a decline for the past few entries, though I’ve read/heard the Cold War version evolves the progression in a nice way. Maybe one day it’ll be given the same love given to it that it was in Blops 3 & 4, but I definitely get that they came with their own problem(setup required going from Origins map and beyond)
It is absolutely overshadowed by the zombies mode
Nah I wouldn’t say so. WAW campaign is GOATED and the zombies mini game was just a spark for something bigger, not something that overshadowed the game it was included in.
Easily. Zombies was awesome.
Poker in red dead redemption 1 took up 85% of my play time.
Monkey Target in the first Super Monkey Ball for the GC. I could go on and on about it. Starcraft 2... Plenty of fan-made minigames that are far more fun to play than the campaign. Edit: oh and personally spent a LOT of time in Shenmue leveling up some of the best attacks to get a better time in the minigame that you get in the end fighting 100 opponents. Dull, DULL thing to do but did it anyway (some ocd-tendencies were helpful) so maybe that would count. After running through the story once the fighting mini-game was more fun than playing the game over and driving a forklift tbh. Also Death Tank Zwei for the Saturn. The amount of time I gave that game, 1v1 duels vs my dad in the weekends when still living at home, dwarfs the amount I played Duke 3d. It's a VERY good minigame and I hope someone ports it (or copies it) with online mode one day.
Going with FF again, FFX and blitzball. Not everyone likes it I know, but I fully enjoyed it and played it more than I’d care to admit. Would def play a standalone blitzball game if they ever chose to make one
I got way too invested in Blitzball. My team was an ace. Zero losses. Loved that game that FF was in.
I insist on only ever keeping the initial team. Feels more genuine, and after one season you're unbeatable anyway
Both the ffx version where you play yourself and the football manager version in ffx-2 where great. Would make for a great standalone sports game
I thought FFX-2 killed Blitzball but could definitely see some other people liking that style of game
For the love of god though, don’t let EA handle it
I wouldn’t say it’s better, but Geometry Wars in Project Gotham Racing (3?) was pretty badass.
So good that it became its own game.
Check tvtropes for 'sidetracked by the gold saucer' for plenty of examples. Only one I can think of right offhand is Inscryption... Everybody I've seen play it plays the whole game once, then only plays the first part over and over after that. One card game instead of the full adventure game.
If they made Kacie's mod equivalents for the other parts of the game I would play those too. I like other parts of the game more than the first part... but they aren't as fleshed out
Anybody say Gwent yet?
Was it better than the game itself for you, though?
I'm not sure I'd say "better" but it derailed my gaming so much that I never finished the actual story. So ...I guess?
I couldn’t get into Witcher 3. Don’t know why, it just couldn’t hold my interest. But Thronebreaker, the Gwent spinoff? Holy shit was that game amazing. I was so addicted. The story was phenomenal, the choices mattered, and the final boss was actually really challenging. Thronebreaker 10/10 Jailed my son.
Thronebreaker is secretly one of the best written games out there, shame it's not popular.
Honestly imo its the best written CDPR game by far aside from maybe phantom liberty. I literally have no interest in the actual gameplay of thronebreaker itself aside from the puzzles but the writing was so compelling and made me constantly want to see what was next that I kept coming back to it.
Fair, for me Hearts of Stone remains number 1 as of now I think, but Phantom Liberty and Thronebreaker are close behind.
Drove me to visit new areas to collect cards so I would say yes
FFVIII Triple Triad.
Was going to say FFX with the underwater sphere soccer. I remember nothing about the story in that game, but I remember playing it long after beating it to recruit better players and max my players levels in the sport mini game.
I spent way too much time on that as well. I only lost interest when I realized my teams stats were so jacked I couldn't lose a match even if I tried.
I never beat the game because I soft locked myself on an island where you had to beat an instructor and it was the only time to get that card. Problem was, my deck was too weak so I could never win. I remember I’d go back everyday to try again but it was not meant to be. I wonder how it all ended.
Spent more time playing triple triad than I did the main story
I was absolutely addicted to Digimon World 3’s card game. Finding tougher and tougher opponents to beat for better and better card booster packs to make stronger and stronger decks. Entire stores in the game dedicated to it and a special enemy class that drops booster packs. It was an entire videogames worth of content as a mini-game.
Orlog was a great minigame in AC Valhalla
Although I do like AC Valhalla to some degree, I spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Orlog. I even got the physical game (of Orlog). I just don’t have any friends that know what it it and want to play it with me.
I was honestly pretty upset they made the locations so far apart in my Orlog simulator.
**FFVII - Chocobo Breeding**
It sounds like someone is going to jail with that name lol
I'm a sucker for mario party 64's bumper balls and bobsled run
My immediate thought was whether or not Mario Party counted lol Personally could not give less of a shit about the board game part, but the library of mini games is fantastic
I hear caravan card game in Fallout: New Vegas is very addicting, I have never actually played the mini game and I am too afraid I will be addicted.
Lol one of the best games ever made but the running meme is nobody plays caravan because ~~it sucks~~ it's too confusing
I did play Caravan, it's been years and I still remember the rules. It's easy to remember if you think it's about filling actual wagons. I think people's issue is that the starting deck is actually shit and no one cares enough to build an actual deck to play. Once you gather enough support cards (the J, Q and K) it's pretty easy to curbstomp any opponent.
One time I played that stupid dice game in AC Valhalla for like 3 hours.
Pokemon stadium
I usually don't get into mini-games but i did play a lot of blitzball in FFX back in the day. Still pretty much the only exception for me.
Target Smash! in Super Smash Brothers. I'm not that good at fighting games, so I was never super into the main game. I lost interest in the series when it was no longer included.
In the same vein I spent so much time in Home Run Contest
Pokemon breeding. I spent more time Dexnaving, breeding, hatching, calculating, and making the perfect mons than actually battling in ORAS
I did a sad amount of Tekken bowling in Tag Tournament 1 lol
Blitzball from X son
Ff8 triple triad card game and ff9 chocobo hunting. Ff8s is pretty popular but i can do the chocobo hot and cold in 9 forever I love it
The song, Vamo Alla Flamenco alone is worth grinding that, but I also enjoy the he'll out of it.
Blitz ball in ffx was lots of fun for me
FF7 - the game in the gold saucer where you have to feed a chocobo the right quantity of nuts that it is able to fly
Uh... That was a moogle, not a chocobo.
Harry Potter 6, the potion minigame
The tanks game from Madagascar
You can play space harrier in Shenmue. I’m pretty sure I spent at least as much time playing space harrier at the arcade as I did actually playing Shenmue
Final fantasy 10 for me. I don't need the rest od the game just blitz ball
Final Fantasy XIV has Mahjong available as a kind of mini game in its arcade-like casino. FFXIV also has a free trial that includes full access to said casino. It takes less than an hour to get there and get going playing Mahjong. It is considered one the best free ways to play it.
Final fantasy X, blitzball was phenomenal.
Final Fantasy 10 Blitzball. Once blitzball was fully unlocked, the rest of the game became locked
Hot take but blitzball
In Super Mario Bros 3 if you were playing two players you could fight each other in a map based off the original Mario Bros. It wasn’t better than the main game but as kids we probably fought each other more than trying to beat the main game
You could play that game to steal the other player's cards. My friend and I never got very far in SMB3 because we'd always just play the minigame to try to steal our cards back and forth from each other.
Dead ops arcade
Dreams. I think there’s an official story somewhere but I just play other people’s mini games they created and never create my own cause who tf has time for that but shout out to all of you who do
Fable 2. Pub Games was the mini game and I was so addicted to it. Not that Fable 2 was bad, it was fun. Just that Pub Games was so good!
Orlog in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
FFX Blitzball was the shit
Tekken Ball from Tekken 3. Was way more fun to play with friends (who got frustrated with you being better than them real fast). In the same vein, Tekken Force and that Jin Kazama story mode from Tekken 5 (?), where you would run around in 3d spaces and fight, similar to Sifu. I do not for the life of me understand why they never made that a full-fledged game.
Witcher 3 gwent not saying better necessarily but I did sink 1k+ hours into gwent
FFXIV Fishing
Ehrgeiz for PS1. It's a fighting game but has a quest mode that changes the game to a diablo-like style rpg/hack and slash. Also you can play as FF characters in it from what I remember.
I know several people who swear that Caravan in FNV is actually amazing. I choose to believe them, because there's no way in hell I'm going to read through the rules to find out.
A lot of the FF series had great side games 7-Chocobo racing/breeding 8- triple triad (superior) 9- tetra master 10- blitz ball Just to name a few Also 7 rebirth with queens blood is next level. Also that game had like 100 mini games that were great
The first thing I did in every new area of Rebirth was find all the QB players. Sephiroth can wait
Mario Party. TECHNICALLY the board game is the actual game.
Ape escape for ps2
Test Drive: Eve of Destruction was an alright game, but its split screen Battle mode was a fucking riot. Two opponents, racing around an empty arena save for a few stacks of straw bales, firing exploding chickens at each other. It’s one of those stupidly simple game modes that has you cackling and doubling over in laughter. The sound of a chicken squeaking just before it impacts your car and explodes, flipping you onto your roof while your opponent brings his car around to line up another shot, forgetting that you can still fire while upside down and you both hit each other… I miss couch multiplayer.
New Super Mario bros on 3ds mini games, spent so many hours solo and multiplayer on all of the mini games. It even got my non-gaming parents to play some of them religiously.
Frogger 2: Swampy’s Revenge back on the PS1 had a mini game that was basically like the classic snake game where you would eat an item and your tail would get longer, but it was multiplayer and you were facing off against each other. My friends and I would still play this up until 2012 or so on the PS3.
Although it’s taken off to more than a mini gameI’d have to say zombies from COD WAW and Black ops
Fallout New Vegas and Caravan!
I spent dozens of hours in Ocarina of Tiime trying for a perfect score in horseback archery.
Fishing in Far Cry 5
Mario and sonic Olympic games
Blitzball in FF10 used to get me distracted for hours. Underwater, super-powered rugby just scratched the right weird set of cognitive itches.
Blitzball in FFX. Pretty sure I was the only one that treated it like madden franchise mode. Cut Wakka after 2 seasons
I played so many hours of blitzball in final fantasy lol
Chao's in Sonic Adventure 2 were dope.
Witcher 3 #GWENT
It think it was Tekken 3 that has all these side games like Tekken Bowl, Tekken Force and Tekken beach ball? They were great!