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

[Red | 449]

I thought of another one, Monkey Fight in the original Super Monkey Ball.  I never got into the main game, but playing this (along with Monkey Race and Monkey Target) multiplayer was a lot of fun.  Pretty sure I spent more time playing them than the main game.

[bag | 59]

Jet Force Gemini had an arcade or 2 you could interact with and play. It's been a long time since I played the game, don't remember much. 

[T-Pac | 7,855]

I remember this section in Pokemon (Gold?) that was like a puzzle where you had to figure out how to slide across ice into stationary boulders in order to get to the other side of a cave.

It wasn't a separate "mini-game" or anything, but it was a really fun departure from the standard RPG gameplay everywhere else.

[T-Pac]

[Tanooki | 5,106]

The easy one came up for me, NES emulator TVs within the old GC(n64 JP?) Animal Crossing/Doubutsu no Mori.

Though I think one worth mentioning are the mini games hiding in the TV with Konami's Legend of the Mystical Ninja, it had a small piece of Gradius on that thing.

 

 

[G-type | 2,796]

[AirVillain | 533]

ALL YOUR FRIENDS WILL WANT IT!

[Andy_Bogomil | 861]

Although just a mini-game, I used to love doing the 'Test Your Might' feature for Mortal Kombat. I'd play just for that sometimes. It was so satisfying for some reason.

[Sumez | 3,152]

18 hours ago, AirVillain said:

ALL YOUR FRIENDS WILL WANT IT!

I'm not entirely convinced. Do you think it's possible to make the video a bit wider?

 

[AirVillain | 533]

On 4/12/2024 at 5:15 AM, Sumez said:

I'm not entirely convinced. Do you think it's possible to make the video a bit wider?

Wide screen Blades of Steel makes extra wide screen Gradius, apparently.

[Link | 2,878]

[CMR | 538]

Contra: Legacy of War has hidden mini games.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/196978-contra-legacy-of-war/cheats

 

It's weird, but I want to say I remember a hidden arcade in the first level.  Probably a false memory.  I could have sworn you got into it by blasting at a certain wall for little while.

[Tanooki | 5,106]

I'm not sure if this should fairly count but what about Wolfenstein 3D and Doom?

W3D on one of the chapters the hidden stage on that one is the map from Pac-Man redone in FPS style yet retains the ghost monsters in that form of 3D along with the pellets being replaced by in game items.

 

And then Doom had tne honor of adding 2 hidden stages within that were two full stages based on Wolfenstein 3D except you had Commander Keen strung up in a noose for decoration as another nod to an even earlier title.

[twiztor | 916]

On 4/6/2024 at 9:09 AM, bag said:

Jet Force Gemini had an arcade or 2 you could interact with and play. It's been a long time since I played the game, don't remember much. 

Rare also used this trick with Donkey Kong 64, although it was only to play the original DK. i remember thinking that was so awesome back in the day.

On 4/8/2024 at 9:57 AM, T-Pac said:

I remember this section in Pokemon (Gold?) that was like a puzzle where you had to figure out how to slide across ice into stationary boulders in order to get to the other side of a cave.

It wasn't a separate "mini-game" or anything, but it was a really fun departure from the standard RPG gameplay everywhere else.

 to me, that seemed like a throwback to Mole Mania, as a lot of those puzzles require similar boulder sliding. BTW, if you haven't played that GameBoy game, i highly recommend it.

[TDIRunner | 2,876]

I always enjoyed being able to play Galaga during the loading screen on some of the Namco games during the PS1 era.  I always wondered why other games didn't do something similar.  I didn't realize until almost 30 years later that Namco was able to get a patent on loading screen games.  I would never of thought of that as something that could be patented.  It's too bad, because it was a great way to pass the time during the loading screen, which was often times very long during that era.  

[NostalgicMachine | 324]

I'm fairly certain Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks contains the arcade version of Mortal Kombat 2.

[LostLevel83 | 87]

Not sure if it counts as it impacts the overall success in the game, but original Donkey Kong inside of DK64 was always fun.

[Kid Fenris | 5]

I always thought Lords of Lunar was a great bonus. It's just Warlords with Lunar: The Silver Star characters, but it's a lot of fun in multiplayer. 

Technically, it's hidden on the "Making Of" disc that comes with Lunar, so I guess it's not actually in the main game. 

Also: Tiny Phalanx was pretty cool. The original Zero Divide had so much neat stuff hidden in it. 

[Tanooki | 5,106]

You know I just thought of something that I guess may sort of count.  Ever try and fire up Dracula X (PCE CD) without the right system card?  If I remember right you get this wonky mini game of sorts instead.  Yup, googled it -- https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Akumajyo_Dracula_Peke
 

 

Edited May 3 by Tanooki

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,042]

Mortal Kombat deception had a puzzle fighter clone and it was glorious. 

[Makar | 2,062]

Easy - the card/tile gem game thing in shovel knight king of cards was actually really fun and could honestly be its own game with even more strategy involved. 

[DreamCuPS | 32]

There is this very old game, called Lazy Jones (among others, released for the Msx), where you are in this house (?) with multiple floors, each with doors that give access to  different games inside. It's like several games into one.

Very creative for its time!

 

 

Edited June 1 by DreamCuPS

[WhyNotZoidberg | 590]

The original NBA Jam cabinet had a Battlezone-ish game hidden in it. That really left an impression on me because it didn't require coins, so I managed to squeeze in a decent amount of play time before the operators caught on and locked it out.

 

Was Tekken Ball hidden in Tekken 3? I don't remember but I played tons of that, and not only to unlock Gon.

 

Also Animal Crossing have game consoles to play and I especially liked the ones in New Leaf.

 

[Link | 2,878]

On 6/1/2024 at 10:02 AM, DreamCuPS said:

Lazy Jones

like several games into one.

Along these lines, Alley Cat for DOS. 

 

Here is a great homebrew NES remake/upgrade with new content and features.

 

 

[ChTe | 6]

I feel like I'm crazy, but I don't think anyone's mentioned Day of the Tentacle. It has a fully playable version of its prequel, Maniac Mansion, and to my knowledge is the first game to do this.

(This is the 2016 remaster.)

 

[Sumez | 3,152]

5 minutes ago, ChTe said:

I feel like I'm crazy, but I don't think anyone's mentioned Day of the Tentacle. It has a fully playable version of its prequel, Maniac Mansion, and to my knowledge is the first game to do this.

I didn't really consider this, because starting up Maniac Mansion in DOTT literally exits the game to launch the other game as a separate process. If you have Day of the Tentacle installed, you can also manually launch Maniac Mansion from the game files.

Of course, in the context of playing the game, those technicalities really shouldn't matter. It's still presented like you sit down and play the game on the computer that you find. Seems like the transition is a bit smoother in the remaster. Would actually be fun if they'd kept the DOTT computer graphic around the embedded game.