Not Just Story – The Best Mini-Games
What do The Witcher 3, GTA and Mortal Kombat have in common? Perhaps curiously, playing big games usually implies playing smaller ones, and some of the mini-games are truly exquisite. Here's our selection of the best ones.
Table of Contents
- Not Just Story – The Best Mini-Games
- The Witcher 3 - Gwent
- Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - Motor Kombat
- Yakuza series – too many to choose one
- Project Gotham Racing 2 – Geometry Wars
- Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake vs. Monkey
- Final Fantasy 8 - Triple Triad
- GTA 3 (and some later installments) - Ambulance
Project Gotham Racing 2 – Geometry Wars
INFORMATION
- What Game: Project Gotham Racing 2
- Type of additional entertainment: mini-games hidden in the garage
Before the Forza series dominated the Xbox racing game market, The Project Gotham Racing series, developed by Bizarre Creations, reigned on Microsoft's console. It made four major appearances between 2001 and 2007, and is still remembered by fans of arcade racing. The Geometry Wars series lasted longer than the aforementioned games (and Bizarre Creations, which closed in 2011). The most recent installment of the former debuted in 2014. It is sort of a successor of the Gotham Racing Project, and more specifically, its second installment.
When walking around the garage in Project Gotham Racing 2 and getting close to the arcade machine allows players to play a game that is a variation of the classic Asteroids. The game involves flying a small spaceship around a two-dimensional board imitating interstellar space and eliminating the tingles of objects appearing on the screen.
The minigame was successful enough that in its day it enjoyed huge popularity – there was no shortage of PGR2 fans who spent more time with it than actually driving cars. Seeing a positive response from the community, Bizarre Creations expanded their work to become a full-fledged game, released it as Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved... and broke the record for the most downloaded title on Microsoft service. This game made way for several sequels, but its roots were not forgotten and simplified versions were included in subsequent PGR releases.
