Often the main course of any given title will be the best possible deal, giving you an emotional story with beloved characters and intense gameplay. However, there will be many times when a mini-game completely derails you and pulls you away from the main attraction for hundreds of hours, as happened with The Witcher 3's Gwent.
Unfortunately, unlike Gwent, most of these other minigames only live within their respective titles, meaning it's impossible to get a fully fleshed out and dedicated experience out of them in a standalone or spin-off release. And the shame of it all is that these minigames would thrive as their own title because they are just THAT good!
Pazaak
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
We have the fan-favorite Pazaak minigame from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on stage. In this minigame you have to try to get as close to 20 as possible without going over that score. Although it sounds simple enough, your decks will drastically affect your chances of winning.
The annoying mini-games that made us all mad, stop at least once
They may be mini-games, but they instill a huge amount of rage in me.
In Pazaak you have access to two decks, the main deck and the side deck. The main deck consists only of cards with values from one to ten, while the side deck has a lot of special properties that can either help you tremendously or spell defeat for you. Every match is tense and will have you on the edge of your seat and we NEED him to come back!
Blitzball
Final Fantasy 10
Of course, you can't talk about the minigames that need to have their own separate release without mentioning Final Fantasy 10's Blitzball. We understand why some players might not be as big on this mode as others, but once it clicks, it's all you'll be playing until you have no choice but to continue with the main story.
Blitzball is exciting and ultra-competitive, and we can't believe there isn't an entire spin-off dedicated to it. Executing special moves that send the ball past defenders and straight into the opponent's goal is always incredible, and the underwater aspect of the game adds a whole layer of atmosphere that ties everything together. Blitzball is awesome and we just want it back, Square!
The Garden of Chao
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
Following on from this, we have the Chao Garden mode in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, which allows you to hatch, raise, train and subject your Chaos to various mini-games. This entire mode is a delight and seeing what each Chao can turn into depending on how well you handle them is remarkable. There are also exclusive areas for your Chaos that become available if they are seen as good or outright evil.
How come there isn't a standalone Chao Garden title yet? Everyone loves these adorable things and wants to raise theirs to be the best of the best. Imagine a modern Chao Garden with online multiplayer and PvP. Doesn't that sound incredible? Please, Sego, give everyone what they want!
Crochet
BioShock
BioShock
One of the simpler items on this list is one of the more enjoyable, and that's the unique Hacking minigame found in the first BioShock, in which you quickly rotate and place pieces of pipe to direct flowing liquid to an exit. Again, it's very straightforward, but you'll want more and more.
Since the liquid cannot be stopped, you must find ways to direct it away from danger or dead ends as you try to find the right parts needed to get it to the exit. It's this brief moment of panic and strategy as you shuffle the pieces around that makes this minigame so much fun. We would be playing the whole game which is nothing more than this mini-game that gradually gets harder and more complex!
Zombies
Call of Duty (series)
Okay, this one might be cheating a bit since it's technically a standalone game mode rather than a minigame, but we desperately want a standalone Zombies game from Treyarch. And at this point, we don't think that will ever happen. They work magic with a mode buried in the core game year after year. Can you imagine the kind of brilliance they would do if they had years to make a zombie-only game?
We understand that Call of Duty isn't in the best place with its community right now, but there's no denying that a standalone Zombies game would be a blast, especially if it came with all the maps the mode has ever had. We'd do anything to make it happen, as would millions of others, it's strange that Activision/Microsoft never jumped on the free piles of cash. Maybe someday!
Cabaret club Car
Yakuza 0
Next up is the one and only Cabaret Club Czar in Yakuza 0, which can also be found to some extent in other titles in the series. Still, we absolutely adore how it's implemented in Yakuza 0 and would love to see this mode extracted from the game, polished and expanded for a standalone release. He has no business being as good as he is.
Running a cabaret club like Goro Majima isn't something we knew we needed in our lives until we had it, and now we want nothing more than a game that's nothing but this. Can you hear us, Sego?! It could easily be a gacha game where you unlock different outfits and transformation options for hostesses, and no one would bat an eye. Like Sonic Adventure 2: Battle's Chao Garden, Sega is leaving so much money on the table!
Queen's blood
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Step aside, Triple Triad, there's a new fan-favorite Final Fantasy card game in town, and it's part of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Queen's Blood minigame. While we've enjoyed our fair share of Triple Triad in the past and within Final Fantasy 14, even we can't ignore the fact that Queen's Blood is head and shoulders better in every way, shape and form.
Queen's Blood matches can be extremely intense as you scour every inch of the massive zones Rebirth has to offer in search of worthy challengers, stopping only after securing every card and stomping anyone who dares to get in your way. We haven't had a minigame this hooked since Gwent and we're just desperate for more. How far along is part three?!
Tin Pin Slammer
The world ends with you
Finally, we have a bit of a curveball because we can't believe how little Tin Pin Slammer is discussed about this topic. We get it, The World Ends With You is a bit of a niche series, but we're not going to sit idly by while everyone forgets the beauty of this minigame, which is basically a massive battle of Beyblades with up to four players, each controlling six pins.
Your goal is to knock your opponent's pegs out of the arena with your own. If your badge is detached, it will be exchanged for another available badge in your deck that has different properties and stats. Collecting and battling with these badges is second to none and the satisfaction you get when your badges come out victorious after your opponent's are laid out is pure euphoria. You can also play this mode locally with friends, which is where the hottest and most exciting encounters happen. This mode should have been a side release a long time ago!
These minigames had no reason to be better than the main game
These games are great, but their minigames could be better.
