Mini-games included in other games tend to fall into one of two categories – endlessly annoying or utterly forgettable. Often the ability to just skip them is the best thing about them – needless to say, that isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
Luckily there are a few that put those to shame and let us experience the fun that they can be. In fact, there are some that are so fun they’d probably deserve their own proper game. This has already happened to some of them – Gwent from the Witcher to name just one. Here are some we’re hoping will get their own games in the future.
1. Resident Evil 7 – Escape Rooms
Everybody loves escape rooms, and in RS 7 we actually get several of them. If you want to take part in one of them in real life you can expect to pay a couple hundred quid for a group of five…but you have to put on pants and go outside.
A stand-alone Escape Room game with the horror setting of RS7 would be pretty epic. We love the running theme of the other RS games, but the feel and playing style of the different escape scenarios in the game and DLC make it seem like most of the work for a stand-alone game is actually already done – all we need is a flimsy background story and a few extra jump scares.
2. Super Mario Odyssey – Bound Bowl Grand Prix
This game is pretty much as good as it gets on the Switch. It effortlessly succeeds at so many different mini-games we could have probably filled this list with just this one game. Sure, there was also that one terrible one where you had to walk in a line, but we don’t talk about that.
Bound Bowl is definitely our favourite though, as it is a fun take on racing games. No actual cars or vehicles are required – instead we get one of the slightly podgy (erhem) locals. They are surprisingly bouncy and while it seems simple, the game actually picks up decent difficulty later. With how well Mario Kart did, this would be a sure-fire hit!
3. Danganronpa 3 – Ultimate Talent Development Plan
To be entirely fair to the game, it has several games that are essentially already full games contained within it. The second playthrough Love Across the Universe: Salmon Team is a small dating sim with the characters of the main game, and between the Talent Plan and Dungeon Runner, most of the fun actually doesn’t begin until you’ve beaten the main story.
In the mini-game you do something surprisingly unique – you guide your ultimate students through school to get them to graduate with the highest possible stats. You cant then take them into the dungeon to get loot and gold. The whole thing as it is right now could be made into it’s own game. We’d love every second, killing game or no!
4. Final Fantasy 8 – Triple Triad
This card game had it all – pretty artwork, surprisingly elaborate components and collectible cards. That alone would qualify it for its own game (see Pokemon Go) but the sheer fun we had playing the game in FF8 is enough for us to want it on its own.
Ideally, we’d love a graphics update on it, with maybe different versions for different games…the material for a proper game is there, it just needs to be made. Oh, and if you somehow played FF8 without needlessly reloading to replay this over and over, you did it wrong. Sorry.
5. Tales of Berseria – Character Cards
Berseria is probably one of the better games in the Tales series, and its mini-games are ignored far too often. They are completely optional – in fact you’ll be able to finish the entire game without ever playing unless you specifically seek out one of the vendors who offers them. One of them in particular is fun – Character Cards.
Like a weird mix between Mahjong and Poker, the goal is to match certain cards. If you have enough of a certain set their value is added to your points. There are tons of different sets with different amounts of points for it – much like the hands in poker. When either side gets points they can choose to end or continue the round until all cards are used or the other person ends it by gaining points. All in all it’s a fun one, and if there was a stand-alone (mobile) game, it’d definitely be a huge success.
6. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – Fight clubs
Syndicate had plenty of good stuff – the moustaches alone are worth it – but we really loved the fight club bits. Not only does the fact that we have two characters to choose from add a little more variety to it, the close-quarters fisticuffs were incredibly well-made.
Of course, we’re used to that sort of thing from the AC series now, but that doesn’t change the fact that a stand-alone ring fight with a few more AC protagonists could be incredibly fun. Wouldn’t you like to see Ezio, Desmond, Altair or even Lucy battle it out for a little bit of extra cash? Topless? No? Ok, you’re lying to yourself.