Minigame Game

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The opposite of Unexpected Gameplay Change. The game consists of a series of puzzles, challenges and games with very different requirements for defeating them. Often has a Board Game theme.

When the minigames overrun another type of game, that is Gameplay Roulette.

May overlap with Party Game.

Quite a few TV Game Shows are also like this, making this trope older than video games themselves.

Examples of Minigame Game include:

Video Games

  • Anticipation for NES
  • Pictionary for the NES, due to the original's subjective nature
  • Mario Party. Like so many other things that Mario has done, it's also the Trope Codifier.
  • Rayman Raving Rabbids
  • The Lolo series. Ostensibly just brain teaser games, they tend to vary widely among logic puzzles, problems with inobvious solutions, and even a little arcade action.
  • Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Sports Resort. Wii Party also has very heavy elements of this trope, especially Board Game Island.
  • Wario Ware. Bonus points for all of the games lasting precisely five seconds. Maximum.
    • They're so small mini, actually, that they're considered microgames.
  • Amazing Island crosses this with a Mons game, by allowing you to use as your players monsters you've created.
  • Three in Three is an older example of this sort of game.
  • Retro Game Challenge is similar to this, but the games themselves are full length games. So it's more like a....Game Game?
  • Bomberman Land
  • Norrland
  • Fusion Frenzy
  • There is also this semi-obscure PC game of Jumanji which was a group of themed "levels" selected individually based on the movie, with no end other than dying and typing in your high score (like Donkey Kong without the kill screen). There actually was one level that could be beaten.
  • Sid Meier's Pirates!: The main premise is, of course, a real-time naval simulator with RPG Elements that govern your abilities in various areas. Engaging another vessel takes you to a smaller-scale real-time combat map where you duel the enemy ship. Cargo (pirated or otherwise) can be sold in local ports, where you can also engage in Adventure Game-style dialogue at the local tavern. Dancing and swordfighting are both Rhythm Games, land combat is Turn-Based Strategy, prison escapes are Stealth Based Missions... The list goes on.
  • Microprose was doing this often during the late 80's and early 90's. In Covert Action, the theme is espionage, and you need to play minigames for decrypting messages, placing wiretaps, breaking into terrorist cells, and tailing suspects in your car. Then there's Sword of the Samurai, with three completely different kinds of real-time combat (one-on-one swordfight, group melee inside or outside, and army-on-army battles). Unfortunately, neither game was as successful as Pirates!.
  • Sonic Shuffle.
  • Puzzle Pirates does this in a massive-multiplayer environment. Some of the puzzles are somewhat similar, with slightly different rules, but some are quite different from the rest (like the Alchemy puzzle and Battle Navigation). New mini-games are introduced periodically for actions that used to be automatic.
  • Professor Layton consists of dozens and dozens of individual brainteasers tied together with a mystery story.
  • Incredible Crisis for the PS One.
  • Action 52.
  • Lazy Jones for the C64.
  • American Gladiators.
  • Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!!
  • Help Wanted
  • Bishi Bashi
  • Playstation Move Heroes, a far cry from what players expected of a Crossover between Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper.
  • The 3 Stooges

TV game shows

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