Mini-games can be so much more than mere distractions within a larger package. The best games integrate mini-games neatly into the main event, making them feel just as compelling as the story or core gameplay loop.
These side shows can come to define some of the best experiences in gaming, or at least give you reason to revisit your favorites in years to come. Here are a few great examples of this.
1 The Yakuza/Like a Dragon Series
SEGA’s Yakuza or Like a Dragon series is arguably the best example of a series that is filled to the brim with worthy distractions. While the story plays out like a straight-faced Japanese crime-themed TV show, the things you get up to when you’re not running the streets and keeping rivals in check range from harmless fun to outlandish side-hustles.
Most of the games are set in a relatively recent rendition of Japan (though there are some notable outliers), which means video arcades are a series mainstay. Classic SEGA arcade properties like Space Harrier, Virtua Fighter, Super Hang-On, and Puyo Puyo feature prominently. These arcades are also home to activities like UFO catchers (claw machines), while bars let you play pool and darts.
Some activities are found in specific locations, like slot car racing (with upgradeable parts), fruit machines, and fishing. You can hit the clubs and partake in karaoke or dancing, both of which take the form of rhythm-action games and show your characters in entirely new lights.
And then there are the more lucrative mini-games, such as running a business like a hostess bar where you have to keep customers happy while balancing the books, and a particularly lucrative real-estate mini-game in which you hire advisors to help you make sound investments (with many of the best advisors locked until you complete certain side-missions within the game).
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These Are My 8 Favorite Minigames in the Yakuza Franchise
Everything from Yakuza 0’s hostess clubs to Yakuza 6’s baseball.
Even the fights that you encounter while running between places can feel like frequent mini-games, as could many of the side-missions, which feature incredibly memorable stories and characters. The game is anything but short on variety, and you can engage with as much or as little as you want.
Yakuza developers Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have also brought their heady mixture of narrative and mini-games to other franchises, including Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise and Judgement (plus its sequel Lost Judgement) if you’re looking for even more.
2
Yakuza 0
- Released
- January 24, 2017
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
- Publisher(s)
- Sega
3 The Shenmue Series
Shenmue tells the unfinished tale of Ryo Hazuki who sets out on a journey to avenge his father’s murder at the hands of a shady figure called Lan Di. It is often said (by me) that Shenmue walked so that Yakuza could run, and that’s particularly true in the mini-games department. While both franchises are heavy on story and fighting, Shenmue laid much of the groundwork for future games to embrace “wasting” your time and money in a cozy Japanese life simulation.
The arcade is where much of the magic happens, which in the first game is located in the nearby town’s main street. There you’ll find Space Harrier and Hang-On available to play for ¥100 a game. The second, much larger adventure adds Outrun and After Burner to the mix (plus there’s a hidden Hang-On machine somewhere in the Yellow Head Building that you’ll stumble upon).
Arcades also feature a suite of other addictive pastimes, including Darts (which might just be the best implementation of a darts mini-game ever) and Neo Darts, two reflex-based games called Excite QTE and QTE Title, and the ever-present capsule toy dispensers (which are available at other locations, like outside of shops) to satisfy your collectable needs.
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A good mini-game can be just as engrossing as the main event.
The game is (in)famous for its inclusion of the Quick Time Event (QTE), which features heavily throughout and especially during chase sequences. There are other mini-games that piggyback this mechanic, including _Shenmue II_’s somewhat uneventful warehouse shifts in the opening area of Aberdeen and a mini-game where you have to air out books in a temple.
The first game even has a decent forklift driving mini-game, which includes a race at the beginning of each day and some detective work during your lunch break. A lot of these push the boundaries of what might be considered a mini-game on account of being unskippable story beats, but you have to appreciate how new much of this was in 1999.
The second game introduces a much larger world to explore, complete with more activities like Plinko-style street gambling, dice games, illegal street fights, arm wrestling, and unlockable duck racing.
Shenmue
- Released
- December 29, 1999
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- Sega
- Publisher(s)
- Sega
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
4 Bully
In Bully, you play as a boy called Jimmy who is sent away to boarding school. Bully is perhaps Rockstar’s most-neglected franchise, but it’s full of mini-games that break up the typical GTA-style roaming and brawling. Many of these mini-games are tied closely to the main plot in the form of lessons that you have to attend as part of the school curriculum.
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Outside of this, there’s a lot of extra fun to be had as you explore the surrounding area and stamp your own mark on it. This includes go-kart races and bike races, each of which is more fun than it sounds, considering Rockstar did a good job with the controls and handling. In Chapter 2, you even get to take on a lawn-mowing mini-game.
You’ll also find arcade games dotted around in-game locations like the comic book store and the traveling carnival. These include games like ConSumo where you guide a sumo wrestler to victory by eating, a side-scrolling shooter that speaks very much to the developer’s 2006 sense of humor called Nut Shots, and a 3D racing game called Future Street Racer.
You can break out and dance while wearing a mascot costume, play dodgeball against your fellow classmates, and take on a paper route which feels a lot like the sort of delivery mission you’d encounter in a PS2-era GTA title. The game can often feel like a rough assembly of mini-games, though there’s an overarching story tying everything together, plus the passage of time in the form of terms and seasons to keep things moving.
Bully
- Released
- October 17, 2006
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Crude Humor, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Vancouver
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- RenderWare, Gamebryo
5 Saints Row 2
Saints Row 2 was released in 2008 and, though many other games in this particularly silly series could be celebrated for their mini-games and other diversions, is perhaps the best of the bunch. This open-world GTA “clone” dropped any pretense of being able to ape Rockstar’s tone or realism in favor of having fun. It’s a big open-world sandbox that’s full of ridiculous activities to complete.
While the game has GTA-style main missions to complete, the real stars of the show are the activities. My favorite of these is Insurance Fraud, where the aim is to do as much damage to yourself by intentionally ragdolling in front of traffic. It sounds juvenile, and it absolutely is, but it’s still some of the best fun I’ve ever had in a video game.
Other activities include Mayhem where you destroy as much property as possible, Trail Blazing where you ride a quad bike that’s on fire and has to maintain a certain speed or it’ll blow up, Crowd Control where you have to protect celebrities from obsessive fans using your fists, and Heli Assault where you have a military helicopter at your disposal in order to protect your allies.
This is just a small sampling of the total number of activities, which are backed up by jobs like being a taxi driver, a firefighter, or an ambulance driver. There’s also a fair selection of pretty standard mini-games like being able to hold up stores, taking hostages, taking part in drive-by shootings, or playing video poker and video blackjack.
You can also play the Zombie Uprising arcade cabinet, which effectively reskins the game as some sort of zombie survival shooter. The rest of the Saints Row games are worth checking out if you like this style of silly fun and you’re in the mood for some Xbox 360-era shenanigans (and the 2022 reboot gets a lot more flak than it deserves).
Saints Row 2
- Released
- October 14, 2008
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Volition
- Publisher(s)
- THQ, Deep Silver
- Engine
- havok, vision
6 Red Dead Redemption 2
There are lots of reasons to play Red Dead Redemption 2 outside of all the things you can do outside of the main missions. That said, you can easily get sidetracked by the sheer number of things that don’t progress the story or meaningfully develop your character outside of role-playing.
In fact I’d argue that these mini-games are at the core of embracing the world and the game’s typically slow pace. There are some typical on-brand card games in which you can gamble, including Blackjack and Poker (both of which require a fair amount of luck). You can also play Dominoes. If you don’t know how to play, don’t worry, the game will teach you.
Perhaps the quirkiest of them all is Five Finger Fillet, a game in which you must stab the table with a knife while avoiding your fingers. This is the only form of gambling that’s all about skill, so if you’re good at rhythm action games you can earn quite the payout.
Outside of these, you’ll find shooting challenges dotted around the world, in which a stranger will ask you to shoot a bird or a distant bottle for a cash reward. These appear organically as you traverse the world, so they feel neatly integrated into whatever it is you’re doing.
The other two mini-games you’ll want to spend your time and money on are fishing and horse racing. Spend money on bait to lure out bigger and rarer fish, with different species found in different parts of the map. Horse races will appear from time to time, and require that you carefully manage stamina (and keep some apples on hand).
You could also consider the entire hunting experience to be a mini-game in itself. Many of these activities, including fishing and poker, are included in the Red Dead Online multiplayer mode, which makes the game an immersive and fun place to hang out if you’re into that kind of thing.
There’s a lot to love here, but if you’re thinking of jumping in then you might want to wait for the rumored current-generation update that could add features like 60 frames per second and better visuals, set to arrive some time in 2025.
Red Dead Redemption 2
- Released
- October 26, 2018
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
Even though there are too many games in my backlog, I still find myself returning to Shenmue and Red Dead just to spend time in the world, playing darts and relaxing by a creek. And I’m not alone, either since for some mini-games are the best part of these experiences.
