When playing videogames, it’s easy to get sucked into the zone of playing the game. When the stakes are high for our onscreen avatars, the tension can amp up and we can find ourselves on the edge of our seats running from the law, chasing items, or racing after bad guys. But sometimes the mood can be lightened by the very welcome relief of a bonus game or mini game that breaks up the gameplay and allows us to blow off some steam. So, here are some of the best mini games we’ve seen in video games.
Crash Bandicoot Bonus Level
Crash Bandicoot can be difficult – indeed, the remastering of the original trilogy, Crash N.Sane Trilogy, has been cited by fans and critics as much harder than the original. So what could help relieve tension better than a bonus game that affects little to the actual game? Only with Crash, sometimes the bonus games can be a way of attaining some extra apples, lives, or even an Aku Aku mask. The beauty of Crash bonus levels is that no bandicoots will be hurt in the process – a death doesn’t count and the bonus can be attempted as many times as it takes you to get to the end.
Yakuza 0’s Baccarat Minigame
Sega’s Yakuza 0 is another example of a game that creates a frisson of excitement that can be broken up nicely by a minigame. In this case, it’s a version of baccarat that the player can partake in. The game can earn the player a total of 10million yen, so is definitely beneficial to the game as a whole – although failing does nothing to ruin the character’s run. To American audiences, baccarat is better known as Punto Banco, and stands on its own as a popular game to play at both online and land-based casinos. Yakuza 0 is a good example of a minigame helping break up meaty portions of gameplay.
Grand Theft Auto Minigames
GTA is a high-pressure game, and as the gameplay unfolds, you take everything you learn mission by mission in order to proceed to the end of the game with a new set of skills. But somewhere in the police chases and other crimes and misdemeanours are some non-sequitur games that give the player a breather from the fuzz. These range from playing basketball to doing yoga and even dancing. These games can even advance to the extremely meta stage where you play a videogame within a videogame, as the perfect escape from your escapism.
Call of Duty Multiplayer Minigames
CoD provides one of the most prolific minigames in the form of its Nazi zombies multiplayer gaming session. The game can be played solo or with others and forces you to enhance your skills as you progress through various levels of difficulty during a zombie outbreak. The game provides enough entertainment to be a game all of its own, and many still play long after tiring of the edition of CoD.
Playing minigames and bonus levels during a hardcore gaming session is the perfect way to escape from the tension and pressure of completing a level or achieving a mission objective. Games developers choose the optimum time to bring the relief of a mini game, and even provide a lot of fun and even an added layer of multiplayer competition.
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