Best Side-game you've ever played

[2xDouble]

FF8 - Card Game


It's fun...AND it's useful!
There's even some side-story.

Yeah, Triple Triad was a great game. Also Blitzball (FFX) was a lot of fun for fake underwater soccer.

Edit: I seem to remember hearing this exact same topic... oh yeah, this month's Game Informer had a "top 10 Games within games". I'll re-hash the list and bold the one's I've personally played and/or enjoyed.

1. Geometry Wars (Project Gotham Racing 2)
2. Blitzball (Final Fantasy X)
3. Hunting (Oregon Trail)
4. Arcomage (Might and Magic VII) A nifty little M:TG style card game
5. Tekken Ball (Tekken 3) Tekken-style volleyball, but for real.
6. Guy Savage (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) The zombie-killing dream sequences.
7. Lost Viking (Starcraft II) A nifty little space shmup.
8. Liar's Dice/Texas Hold'em (Red Dead)
9. Triple Triad (Final Fantasy VIII)
10. Zom-Botany (Plants vs. Zombies) ...even reading the description, I have no idea.

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

I still don't get why people like triple triad...

 

[Criquefreak]

Hmm

Legend of Zelda extreme archery, knocking out all opponents in a room from the entryway?
Tight rope acrobatics of doom in in Super Mario games, triple jump sequences on catwalks?
Invisible sheep bowling in Warcraft, polymorph, invisibility, wait, fireball?
Playing the melee characters in Dark Cloud?
Low level cross country travel in MMOs?
Attempting to catch neighbors with the bug net in Animal Crossing?
Landscaping for lost treasure in Kartia?

Can't think of any side games that seemed intended, unless we're counting FFX-2.

 

[Tanis]

FF8 - Card Game
It's fun...AND it's useful!
There's even some side-story.

Yeah, Triple Triad was a great game. Also Blitzball (FFX) was a lot of fun for fake underwater soccer.

Not too sure about the Blitzball, I always got confused by it.

 

[mirror's edgy]

hold on... Just Cause 2 has story missions, too?

 

[Lordmarkus]

I whole-heartily loved the side-game in Ratchet & Clank 3 (or something) where you had to play a sidescroller as Captain Qwark.

So fucking epic.

 

[Jamash]

My favourite side games are the Insurance Fraud diversions in Saint's Row.

It's so much fun 'rag-dolling' your guy into traffic and bouncing off cars.

I also enjoy getting drunk in GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption, the Euphoria engine makes for some hilarious stumbling about, especially when you do it with The Lost MC, who fall over each other and their bikes whilst shouting like hooting dickholes.

 

[Private Custard]

Tekken bowling from Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2. Played more of that than the game itself!

 

[Flamezdudes]

The gambling games in Red Dead Redemption. Those were really enjoyable to play.

 

[EatPieYes]

The mini-games in Pokemon Stadium were pretty fun. Especially the Likitoungues in the Sushibar, or whatever that was. 4-player madness!

Or Monkey Target in Super Monkey Ball. That is just brilliant.

 

[Jonluw]

The car-painting in the Forza series.

I'm trying to paint a cobra on the side of a chevy camaro at the moment.

 

[MrShowerHead]

Liar's Dice (Red Dead Redemption)

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

Dammit now I feel bad for not buying red dead redemption. Wish I had enough money...

 

[rokkolpo]

Monster hunting in FFXII

this indeed.

i wish it was harder to find them though.
some are just really weird to find.

like the big black shiny blob which you can only encounter if all your characters are female.
took me a long time to get him out.

 

[PureChaos]

the ball rolling game in Twilight Princess was fun and infuriating. the Star Game in that was great fun, too. there were some fun dice games in Golden Sun: The Lost AGe

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Hello people of The Escapist.

I was just looking through my old Gamecube library of games and came across Sonic Adventure 2. I remembered all the fond times I had with chao in it and started it up again. I went immediately through the first few levels and then it was onto the Chao Garden. I spent upwards 3 hours just sitting there raising the Chao. After a while I realized how much I was in love with this side game, So much so infact that I hadn't even touched the main game since except to get more things to upgrade my chao's stats. This gave me a brief insight into how addictive and fun a side-game could be.

And now Escapist's I want you to tell me your favorite side/mini-game you have ever played.



P.S. I call it a side game because it is in no way mini. I remember spending months just playing this in my spare time.

That wasn't the main game? Shit dude, I thought the running part was just extra =P

anyway, I got Wii Play ONLY for the tank game. it's fantastic

 

[black_omega2]

I loved Paazak from the Kotor series, even if I got fed up with the random number generator alot. Seriously, there is no way you got natural 20's three times in a row!

 

[Elfangorax]

I have to go with the Chao Garden, too. Managed to get one of every type (not counting mixes like Run-Fly) of every alignment, including those special Angel, Devil and Zero ones. I like my Chao Gardens nice and organised. ^_^

 

[AnAngryMoose]

This has to be my favorite side game:

That brings back memories. Great memories from the game, but horrible memories from Sphera and the epilogue.