I'm replaying the Mass Effect games through the new "legendary edition" and the extremely tedious mini-games are so annoying. In Mass Effect 1 especially every time you open a "treasure chest" you have to play this stupid game of Frogger.

It got me thinking about other games like Bioshock, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Fallout 3/4, etc... all games with stupid mini-games that have nothing to do with the actual gameplay, all of them annoying.

My question to you: is there ANY mini-game like this where you really enjoyed it and were happy it was in the game? Developers must think people like this stuff because they keep freaking doing it, but I'm not sure I've ever talked to a person who was like "yeah this mini-game kicks ass!"

I spent an ungodly amount of time playing Pazaak in KOTOR. I really liked the dice poker in the first Witcher. Unlike Gwent it felt like something that actually made sense in that world.

I also didn't mind the hacking minigame in Human Revolution.

That was the PC version, in the original Xbox release, it was Simon Toy game.

I like lockpicking in Skyrim a lot and i enjoy all of the Pipemania ripoff minigames.

Do puzzles in an otherwise non-puzzle game count as minigames?

I enjoyed dice poker in W1 as well. Although I'm playing Witcher 2 atm and finding it very annoying the way the dice can fall of the board if you throw them too hard and then you lose them (which seems way too easy to do). I hate that!

The first time I tried the W2 version, I pretty much threw all my dice off the table! XD

I kind of liked the hacking minigame in the first Bioshock. Other than that all I can think of is Pazaak Breja mentioned. I found that quite interesting, though it was negated by those incredibly stupid podracing minigames.

The first thing that came to mind though was GTA. I hugely liked the optional minigames in San Andreas and GTA 4 (haven't played 5 yet). I loved how I could take a break from it all, go the bar, have a drink and play some pool. It somehow made the world feel more real.

I liked Triple Triad in FF8, until the stupid rules like Random came in. But it overall made the game worse because they hid so much content of the game behind the minigame. I even had used an external tool to play it.

I rather liked Blitzball in FFX. Fortunately, few things were hidden behind it. But unfortunately, those were big things gated behind it.

[sarcasm]And let me tell you how much I love fishing minigames in everything ever...[/sarcasm] Lilke, every time I get a while into Graveyard Keeper, I stop when fishing becomes required. I managed to plow through Stardew Valley's fishing, but it's not a pleasant experience at all. Zeldas, FF12, others. *rage builds* Ugh, game-makers just stop!

Speaking of Stardew Valley, it does have fun mini-games. The egg hunt is pleasant, as is the slingshot festival game (now that the controls have been un-inverted). But it has numerous bad ones too (both arcade games, the casino).

Would you consider the "scanning environment for lore" part of Metroid Prime a mini-game? I'm undecided, but I did rather enjoy that.

One of the Mortal Kombat (or other fighter games? Soul Calibur? Tekken? I feel like at least one other did) had a "beat em up" alternate play mode that were really fun. I'm pretty sure Mortal Kombat had a whole spinoff game based on it that was decent.

I love the party-games-mini-game in Samurai Warriors 2 called Sugoroku. It was excellent couch competitive distraction.

The Sims 3 had some mini-game-like elements, especially in its Worlds of Adventure expansion (mainly the tomb mazes) that were excellent, and I'm sure played no small part in the The Sims Medieval spinoff.

The vehicle stages of Lego Batman are competent. (A lot of games seem to have good driving segments.)

The tile-slide puzzle in FF1 was important to succeed a few times early on for its gold reward when it was a lot of gold, and easily done.

But there are numerous awful mini-games out there. Too many to describe. (Level up choices in Oblivion were dictated by which mini-games it would get me out of soonest. Like lockpicking. Or casinos in any game ever! I'll refrain from ranting in this positive-slant thread!)

Also, I'm avoiding listing "games that exist at multiple tiers", since those aren't mini-games but the core design of the overall game. (And I tend to like them.)

Exception to that: The entirety of Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sid Meier's Covert Action are basically giving structure to collections of mini-games, and both are excellent. Covert Action eventually wore thin (driving quickly became a hassle if you increased difficulty at all), but it was still definitely enjoyed mini-game action. I'd still like a Covert Action infiltration-mini-game-promoted-to-full-game spinoff.

I enjoyed Blitzball in FFX. I might be the only one, but I won something like 59 straight games and wanted more. Released and signed players as I got more money and got better. Eventually, Tidus was one of the worst players on my teams.

They're a necessarily evil to break up monotonous gameplay. They're fine for me as long as they're entirely optional, don't have associated achievements, are rewarding, and don't have unfair RNG. For the last point, gamedevs should technically be doing cumulative binomial distribution analysis to determine RNG rates for their minigames.

A few examples of good ones:

- Solo colosseum matches from FF6, FF7, Symphonia, Jade Empire, etc. Optional for challenge your technical understanding and rewarding in weapons and EXP.

- Triple Triad from FF8. Optional and very simple minigame you can do at nearly any point in the game. Rewarding for gamebreaking gameplay.

- Chocobo Hot and Cold from FF9. Optional and rewarding with endgame equipment and access to superboss.

Depends how fast it becomes tedious i.e. if you have to do it very often then it's just useless busy work.
I remember enjoying the lockpicking in the original TC Splinter cell if you wanted or needed to do a stealth only mission and you had to do it while the guard was coming round the corner. That added to the experience because you needed to keep calm while the game was rushing you.

As soon as I saw the thread title, the first thought to pop into my head was: "Pazaak was pretty cool." ;-)

Yes. And generally they deserve the ire sent their direction.

But what about Maniac Mansion as a mini-game in its sequel?

I enjoyed Chocobo Hot and Cold from Final Fantasy 9, even though it is out-of-genre. (That still doesn't make it good game design.)

Also, if it counts, the Magic of Scheherezade has this mini-game that randomly comes up where you fight a group of enemies in an RPG-style turn-based combat. (Note that, since this isn't the only, or even primary, form of combat, it counts, unlike in a game like Dragon Quest where said battle system is the only way combat happens in that game. On the other hand, Magic of Scheherezade doesn't otherwise fit my RPG definition.)

I remember in the original CD version I couldn't find a way to go back to the main game, had to force quit out. From then on had a big mental "do not touch" sign on it.