It can take a long time to complete a video game. The average video game can take you anywhere between 10 to 20 hours to beat and there are plenty that can take even longer! While many video games are undoubtedly fun, doing the same thing for hours upon hours can potentially exhaust you. You might be tempted to take a break and do something different, perhaps play another video game of a different genre or watch a film or a TV series. The game developers, of course, don’t want you to do this and many choose to include minigames to keep you from these other temptations.
Minigames, in the context of video games, are “games within games”, usually optional and usually featuring gameplay that contrasts greatly to the main game. These attempt to provide variety to the gameplay, allowing a player to take a break from the regular gameplay and can often provide rewards that are otherwise unattainable.
One of my fondest memories from childhood is playing Chocobo Hot and Cold in Final Fantasy IX. While a seemingly simplistic game where you use a chocobo to dig for treasure with initially basic rewards, you can begin a questline to find Chocographs which can lead you to powerful equipment, upgrades for your chocobo and, eventually, the discovery of the superboss of the game.
Sometimes these minigames prove to be so popular that they end up getting rereleased as full games! One of the most famous examples of late would be Gwent which initially started as a collectable card game within the Witcher 3. It proved to be so popular that it has since become a full-fledged game! Pretty impressive for a minigame that was a late addition to the Witcher 3.
Of course, not every minigame is made equally. The Yakuza series is known for having a large variety of minigames and, while I have enjoyed the series and some of their minigames (I really enjoyed the Pocket Circuit and Real Estate minigames), there are plenty of minigames within the series that I found either lacking or frustrating (Disco, Batting and the Telephone Club very much fit these categories).
A minigame can also be frustrating if it occurs too frequently and becomes repetitive. The example I would point to is the first Bioshock game (which I strongly recommend BTW) and its hacking minigame. While initially a nice change of pace from the action, there are too many machines to hack and the frequency with which this minigame appears damages a lot of the momentum in the game.
When a minigame is done well, it can be a refreshing change of pace and add some much needed variety. However, they should not become too frequent and disrupt the main game. They should also serve to supplement the main gameplay and not detract from it. All too often, minigames can feel like filler, only there to extend the game. Let me know what some of your favourite and least favourite minigames are.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.