Games within Games | What are some of your favorite examples?

[nesmaster14 | 498]

Hey folks, what are some of your favorite examples of games within games?  They come in many sizes from tiny menu/loading games, to mini-games, and even full-fledged games, but all are alongside or hidden in a single game. The games within games!

A few memorable ones for me that come to mind:

• Ape Escape 3 (PS2) -
  • "Mesal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater" - The amount of effort they put into this parody is epic; I'd basically consider it canon to the MGS series, haha.  Yet, it's only accessible in as an unlockable mini-game.
    • 
• Beyond Good and Evil (PS2) -
  • Shufflepuck/air hockey/pallet game.  Fun little mini-game, I especially enjoyed the music/ambience of the whole scene.
    • 
• Flinstones: Rescue of Dino and Hoppy (NES)
  • Basketball - playing a full score basketball game in a platformer game was unexpected but a fun and creative use of the game engine.
    • 
• Dead Head Fred (PSP)
  • Pinball table - Dead Head Fred was a really cool game, and finding a decently simulated and fully-playable pinball machine within the game was a pleasant surprise.
    •  
• Super Spy Hunter (NES)
  • Pong - it's hidden away via a code, but it's Pong on NES which I thought was cool to see.
    • 

Mini-games can have a surprising amount of effort put into them, some may get overlooked and can be a welcome and enjoyable addition to the game. 

So what are some of your favorites?

 

[SilverspoonGaming | 375]

I used to love booting up the original Tekken around 1996 and getting to play the first level of Galaga before the start menu came up.

Edited April 1, 2024 by SilverspoonGaming
Added Image.

[The Count | 693]

Wasn't there Pong on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 or something similar? 

[SilverspoonGaming | 375]

10 minutes ago, The Count said:

Wasn't there Pong on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 or something similar? 

I believe it was MKII and you had to have like 200 consecutive wins to unlock it, or it may have just been a myth...

[GPX | 1,458]

Mystical Ninja on the SNES had some fun mini-games like whack-a-mole and snake. It also had a playable level of gradius in an arcade arena.

Shenmue had some Sega arcade games to play, in an arcade arena. I’ve never got to this point, but read about them on magazines.

 

[AverageOliver98 | 848]

2 hours ago, nesmaster14 said:

 

• Super Spy Hunter (NES)
  • Pong - it's hidden away via a code, but it's Pong on NES which I thought was cool to see.
    • 

 

Apparently if you win this, you get 20 extra lives when you continue the regular game... maybe I could beat it then.

[a3quit4s | 4,789]

Galf! Golf Story is a criminally underrated game. 

[Reed Rothchild | 10,320]

The Might and Magic VII thing @Gloves

 

[Gloves | 13,001]

5 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

The Might and Magic VII thing @Gloves

 

Acromage?

Cuz FYI: ArcoMage HD

[rdrunner | 480]

I like the Gradius intermission in Blades of Steel.  Thought it was really clever at the time.

[Hammerfestus | 4,294]

 

[Mega Tank | 1,294]

GTA V has a bunch of games

[Red | 519]

Triple Triad was my favorite part of Final Fantasy VIII.  I also got a kick out of the Speed card game in Xenogears.

4 hours ago, nesmaster14 said:

• Dead Head Fred (PSP)
  • Pinball table - Dead Head Fred was a really cool game, and finding a decently simulated and fully-playable pinball machine within the game was a pleasant surprise.
    •  

I did not know about this and now I suddenly want to buy it.  I'm a sucker for Pinball games.

[CMR | 569]

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure for the PS1.  It's loaded with insane mini games.

[SilverspoonGaming | 375]

1 hour ago, rdrunner said:

I like the Gradius intermission in Blades of Steel.  Thought it was really clever at the time.

This one really was ahead of its time.  I completely forgot about this.

[DarkTone | 1,072]

I loved finding geometry wars 

[fox | 2,011]

Triple Triad, all day e’ry day

[Rhuno | 255]

I liked the beach volleyball match in Castle Crashers, and also the one in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. 

[MegaMan52 | 2,853]

Edited April 3, 2024 by MegaMan52

[fox | 2,011]

2 minutes ago, MegaMan52 said:

How did you get a livefeed of my gameroom?

[guillavoie | 1,240]

On 4/1/2024 at 9:06 PM, a3quit4s said:

Galf! Golf Story is a criminally underrated game. 

Came here to post this, but saw you beat me to it, so I had to come up with something else good real quick...

 

On 4/1/2024 at 10:16 PM, rdrunner said:

I like the Gradius intermission in Blades of Steel.  Thought it was really clever at the time.

But got beat again with my second pick! So I'll have to go with Tyrants Fight Through Time (Genesis), if you enter JOOLS as your password, you get to play a ripoff Asteroids game using some sprites of Tyrants... but don't try it cause it sucks.

[Sumez | 3,296]

I remember people getting the Saturn port of Duke3D just to play this game:

IIRC a secret code on the title screen or some such thing

[NostalgicMachine | 436]

On 4/1/2024 at 6:25 PM, SilverspoonGaming said:

I believe it was MKII and you had to have like 200 consecutive wins to unlock it, or it may have just been a myth...

I believe Pong was MK2, and Galaga was MK3/UMK3.

[Gentlegamer | 266]

I found it amusing that to hack a turret in BioShock involved playing Pipe Dream.

[Kguillemette | 1,747]

The Monty whack a mole game in NSMB is wildly addicting. Imo it's the best use of the touch screen on the whole DS.