Hey people, After playing the Wind Waker a little bit this past weekend, I''ve come to thinking that perhaps mini-games are an overlooked concept in gaming. So in this post, reply with what you think the best mini-game you played in a game was.

Not necessarily the best, but the 7 round fight tournament and the chocobo racing in Final Fantasy VII were fun..

(silencer)

I was kind of partial to the submarine game in FF7. But all of the Golden Saucer games were great. And they were a benefit to play as well, can''t get better than that.

Webby

Again, may not be the best, but the Donkey Kong remake in Donkey Kong 64 (or whatever it was called) was quite fun - retro gaming going mainstream!

I enjoyed Triple Triad in FF8, but never got into Tetra Master in FF9 (Chocobo Hot & Cold was kind of fun too). Blitz Ball in FFX I felt was possibly too good - when the mini-games are that much better than the battle system, there''s something wrong in the design...

quote: Original post by rmsgrey when the mini-games are that much better than the battle system, there''s something wrong in the design...

Are you saying mini-games should be stripped down so that the rest of the game can look better? Or that the mini-game should never show-up your real game that comes equipped with a plot line and side quests.

quote: Original post by forsakenMarz
Original post by rmsgrey
when the mini-games are that much better than the battle system, there''s something wrong in the design...


Are you saying mini-games should be stripped down so that the rest of the game can look better? Or that the mini-game should never show-up your real game that comes equipped with a plot line and side quests.

No, I''m saying that a part of the game that you have to play through hundreds of times in order to complete the game (effectively a compulsory mini-game) shouldn''t be so dull, boring, tedious, etc. when the optional mini-games are so entertaining. Apart from the battle ''mini-game'' which, admittedly has improved gradually over the series (at least since FF6 which is the earliest I''ve actually played), FFX is a big step forwards from FF9, but the battle system which was never that great to begin with hasn''t changed greatly at least since the SNES days of FF6, when, OK, in combination with the rest of the game, it was probably pushing the system''s limits. Blitzball shows that something comparable to an advanced combat system can be done, and as a mini-game rather than part of the core mechanics.

Yo is that you forsaken marz!

@ zerzic: Do you know of any other forsaken chocolate bars?

@rmsgrey: Although I do share your opinion, I have raised another question (from the bottomless pits of my mind). Why is it not possible for a mini-game to be better than a full game itself? And if it is better, could it be considered to rejuvinate the gameplay of the so-called defunct gameplay in the actual game?

I''ve found Zelda to have many many little mini game, IE for N64 there was the fishing when you where small, there was collecting ghosts, there was little games in the shops, there was racing, there was so many different games.. My goal is to have a game where I can have minigames..

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quote: Original post by forsakenMarz [...]
@rmsgrey: Although I do share your opinion, I have raised another question (from the bottomless pits of my mind). Why is it not possible for a mini-game to be better than a full game itself? And if it is better, could it be considered to rejuvinate the gameplay of the so-called defunct gameplay in the actual game?

Not directed at me but I''ll give my opinion anyways =-)

Generally mini-games are only a small part of a game and not the thing you will be doing most of the time. If the mini-games are better than the main game, the actual game will get boring very fast. Each time you finish a minigame you will feel somehwat dissapointed and the main game will probably feel like it is draging along.

Imagine playing tic-tac-toe against a nearly perfect computer opponent that only loses 1% of the time (lets say it was made that way on purpose =-) and each time you win, you get to play some completely awesome game that has extreme graphics, AI, very nice gameplay etc. Wouldn''t you get really bored of tic-tac-toe and want to play the ''mini-game'' more often? Since you have to win at tic-tac-toe to play the minigame, you''ll probably get bored stop playing both (or find a hack to be able to win every time vs the computer).

Mini-games should be fun, but they shouldn''t be more fun than the main game or people will probably not play the main game much and it will probably get bad reviews, people wil say it sucks etc. Mini-games can provide a welcome break from the main game but the mini-games shouldn''t be so awesome as to make the main game seem like trash.

If you want to make your mini-games complicatated and you want to focus on them, you can always make a game in the style of mario party (or something totally different, but its the only example I can think of) where the many mini-games make up the game. The object of mario party is basically to win all the mini-games vs either friends of computer opponents.

[edited by - Big Brother on January 1, 1984 12:00:00 AM]