"Care for a game of  Gwent?"

-Geralt

The developers heard you like games, so they put games in your games, so you can game while you game.
Minigames offer some other activities to do when you just don't feel like doing the main story line. It can be part of the main game that we could play at some point in the game, or unlockable hidden minigame that feature a different version of the game itself, or even a completely different game. The following games are 7 minigames that we play almost as long as we enjoyed the actual game.

Geometry Wars in Project Gotham Racing 2

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The retro twin-stick space shooter that were originally a hidden minigame in Project Gotham Racing 2. When we tired of racing in modern visual, we can play the retro shooter where we control a claw shaped ship instead of a Porsche. The objective is to survive as long as possible by shooting the increasing swarm of enemies.

This retro minigame is so awesome that it made into its own game, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, by developer Bizzare Creations. The developer's name explain it well. And at one point it held the record for the most downloaded Xbox Live Arcade Game.

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Dead Ops Arcade in Call of Duty: Black Ops

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When we start a game, what do we do in the main menu? Checking the graphics setting? check. Gameplay and look sensitivity? check. Start a new game? No, we can go for the minigame instead, in Call of Duty: Black Ops. I'm pretty sure you know about this already, well most of you. In the main menu of Call of Duty: Black Ops, after we managed to break free from our restraints we can walk around the infamous interrogation room. In the back of our seat we'll find a particularly looks interesting computer. If we go to it and type in "DOA" we will find ourselves in a different game, which is a twin-stick top-down shooter called Dead Ops Arcade where we just need to shoot the increasingly difficult zombie waves to survive with unlimited ammo and don't die until the next morning.

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Mercenaries in Resident Evil 4

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If surviving from zombies in the actual gameplay is not enough for you, maybe the Mercenaries minigame is perfect for you. In this minigame we take control of a few different characters and survive by killing the enemies as much as we can to earn points before the evacuation chopper arrives in the specified time. Each character have their own equipment and abilities, providing various play styles and difficulty levels. This minigame is also among the list of minigames that were so good that they made into their own standalone games. 

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Gwent in The Witcher 3

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Gwent is the most popular card game across The Witcher 3 world from the  that Geralt could play with almost everyone he meet, from the merchants, innkeepers, blacksmiths, even bandits, and who knows if Roach play this too. Gwent's cards features the characters' pictures from The Witcher 3 itself each with their special abilities.

The gameplay is not so complicated, you win by gaining higher value from the opponent by combining the values of each cards you withdraw, and you can use several special abilities to increase our values or decrease the opponent's. Although the gameplay is quite simple, it is kind of addicting once you starts playing. Now it has become its own game.

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Motor Kombat in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

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In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon there is something else that Sub-Zero and friends can do to take a break from breaking each other's bones, by playing a Mario Kart-like minigame. From the game that the title clearly telling us the apocalypse itself, it is funny to see the terrifying demonic Scorpion and other Mortal Kombat characters as chibi versions of themselves racing in their own customized go-karts with their own special moves. 

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Hacking in BioShock

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How do you get a hostile flying bot to follow you around and helps you fight your way through Rapture? By hacking it. How do you do the hacking? Pipe swapping game! Irrational Games didn't make this a minigame to be playable outside of the actual game, instead you will encounter this minigame throughout the gameplay, though you can choose to avoid playing it sometimes. The game is to flip the pipe as fast as you can to get the green liquid to the finish. If the liquid get to the end of the pipe before you could set the path, you lose. If you succeed making the path for the liquid, you get the bots.

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Spider Tank in Watch Dogs

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Spider Tank is one of the digital trips that let us play as a giant robot spider, shooting rocket launcher wildly and jumping around so high causing small explosions upon landing to do nothing other than destroying the city. There are several objectives while in this 'trip', including causing as much destruction as you can, destroy certain amount of police and their cars, chasing armored trucks, destroying the L Train and police's helicopter, and also to have fun. That is how Aiden relieve his depression of losing his niece. Of course the cops and SWAT team is not there only to be crushed, as you progress further through the rounds, there will be more SWAT team who will try to top us.  

Are there any other minigames that you enjoy more than the actual game? I'm pretty sure there are also minigames that weren't fun too, but the ones on this list is the minigames that I think one of the bests. From this list, which is your favorite?

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The pic on top is designed by Freepik
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