I'm quite surprised this hasn't been mentioned already - Kirby Super Star for SNES. Great game, great minigames. To be honest, I've probably spent roughly around the same time playing the actual game, as I have with the minigames. It's just a great overall title. Breaking through the earth with your hand is fun, too.

Another would be the fishing in Breath of Fire III. Reeling in octopus was endless amounts of fun, and I've clocked in at least a good 20 hours on doing that alone. It's peaceful, it's easy, it gives you food, and it also helps towards the actual game.

Suikoden IV's Rita-Pon consumed at least 10 hours of my gametime on that game, Its really fun and addicting, i remember where i used to play it for hours just to hear Rita say those cute words.

Another good minigame was Xenogears - Battle arena, i still remember when me and my cousins will play 2 players and use a weak ass mecha just to beat xenogears, it was really fun and entertaining.

I just remembered the plays from Suikoden 3.

You could make some seriously hilarious conversations with certain characters in certain roles. (Admittedly, I used a Gamefaqs guide to help me do it, but with so many goddamn characters, I didn't have the time or patience to find out which ones were worthwhile, although generally the worst actors were the best.)

To restate Elixir, Kirby Superstar indeed had some fun minigames. I'm looking especially at Megaton Punch (it wasn't too hard to get a perfect score, or close to it, and crack popstar in half in the process), and Samurai Kirby (I always died at Metaknight in hard mode, less than 13 ms reaction time required!).

Offhand, I'd consider single event Road Rage in Burnout 3 to be my biggest time waster. My game clock says 25 hours...At least 15 of those have been spent in that one mode. Dunno if that counts as a mini-game or part of the actual game.

Also, the switches in La Pucelle were a fun mini-game in their own right, as was Ys VI's Boss Rush mode. And Dragon Warrior 3's arena and DW4's casino added some healthy playtime overall.

But the best? All of the games included with SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium (Neo Geo Pocket Color). There was a Bemani game (the best of the bunch...They could've done a whole game on rhythm presses for various character themes), target shooting, dummy slicing and one with Arthur jumping over pits to avoid ghosts. And these were in addition to survival mode and first hit mode.

YES. I basically stopped playing the main World Tour mode in favour of Road Rage. If only Burnout Revenge let you play the individual modes freely like Burnout 3, I think its Traffic Attack would become my new late night lover. "OUTTA THE WAY, CLONED GREEN VAN"

Also, you know Sonic & Knuckles? Sure you do, had those famous characters, Burly Bob and Gumbazzo the Giraffe. When you shoved any old cartridge into the top of it, you'd get that fancy error screen, but if you mashed in a code, it'd let you play a sort of neverending version of its bonus levels where you walk around the semi-3D checkerboard, jumping blobs.. and.. blobs.. getting.. rings. I got pretty addicted to that. Then it started all over again when it became its own seperate game in Sonic Mega Collection.

I loved this in the GBA original (ha ha ROM ha ha). Then I was crushed when I couldn't find it in the GameCube port which I purchased instead. CRUSHED. >=|

I remember that! Man, I got to like level two hundred and something (or maybe it was one hundred and something; it was so long ago I forget, quite far either way)...and then lost the code. :(

I'm gonna mention a pretty obscure one. The game Time Stalkers (aka "Climax Landers") on the Dreamcast, though it wasn't that good in my mind in and of itself, had an addicting VMU minigame called "Dungeon IV". You basically ran around in a Phantasy Star-esque dungeon, killing baddies, leveling up, getting better stuff, descending further down into the dungeon, etc. The battles weren't turn-based, and once you died, that's it. It might sound a little boring, but I actually found it quite fun. I think I ran out the VMU's batteries a couple of times from playing this game.

I'm partial to the pirate ship duels in Sly Cooper 3, myself. It's only supposed to be a short segment of the game, but I wasted hours just going around blasting up pirates left and right. One-on-one ship duels get to be pathetically easy once you figure out how to outmaneuver the computer ship, but it gets pretty hectic trying to sail around and prioritize targets when you're up against three ships at once.

I always enjoyed the Mercenaries mode in the Resident Evil games, especially in the fourth one. Playing as Krauser and Wesker alone make this mini game the BEST!

When I was a kid, I went NUTS over the snail maze game built into the Sega Master System. I don't remember what level I got up to though. :(

Final Fantasy VII has that card-game that's just incredibly addictive. Got plenty of cards that way.

FFVIII-triple triad was quite phenomenal. i really liked the ability to change rules in areas depending on where you played. the add and same rules made things pretty crazy too.

though i never had the opportunity to utilize the massively multiplayer function of uber battle pong in Lunar:SSSC it was quite fun too.

ape escape in general has some pretty amusing minigames being that it utilized the analog sticks for the first time.

Galaxy monkey: grab a friend, cause its Twoplayer. shoot on screen enemies to progress deeper into space. pretty simple, but the pigs that inflate after getting shot can alter the win streak.

Specter Boxing: (also t2woplayer) i played this for hours on end (and wore away the soft rubbery coating on the twin analog sticks (;^_^) ). the right and left sticks control the arms of the monkey respectively. by rhythmically alternating punches, you could inflict more damage to the squealing contender.

Monkey climber (ape escape 2): CRAZY!!! this game was quite amusing. you shimmy up and down vines to collect the 5 bananas in the stage as fast as you can. it's controlled in a manner similar to that of specter boxing (left stick-left arm etc.) but in order to grasp the vines, R1 controls the right hand, and L1 controls the left hand. it later becomes a feat to launch one's self across the entire stage to get an isolated banana.

Mesal Gear Solid (ape escape 3): it's a 5 stage monkey themed metal gear solid experience with ape escape controls. it's pretty long. i spent a couple hours playing through it (saving hostages, and collecting monkeytags). it was very amusing.

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and the non-ape escape minigames worthy of mention.

Legend of the mystical Ninja (SNES)- all of them. there are several of them, but my favorites were hockey (air hockey vs. comp/2p), mole (8 button mole-whacking game easy is nice, and hard is difficult), and maze (pso style dungeon where you collect powerups).

Point Blank-Quest Mode: i thought it was pretty cool. they made a mini-rpg out of a story about a mysterious treasure found on an island out in the middle of nowhere that needs meticulous exploration.

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but most of all, i'd like to credit the minigame games such as:
Incredible Crisis (psx)-an assortment of different button mashing games. as well as some more intellectual types.
Bishi Bashi Special (psx JP)-a series that i find to be the predecessor of wario ware.
Wario Ware$ inc. (GBA/DS/GC)-the game that aims at completing microgames in rapid succession without failing more than 3 times (in the main mode at least)

i'm sure there are more that i like... but this should be enough for now...

The best mini-game ever was the Cooking Duel from Suikoden II. This was given to America shortly before Iron Chef hit our shores, so the idea felt fresh and original. The execution was simple enough but it was still addictive and you could count upon certain Army members to award full points to certain dishes each time.

Along this line was the Cooking Duel from Star Ocean 2. It actually had a better mechanic than Suikoden, since the skill of the chef and tools used mattered for once. But you always fought against some interdimensional whackjob and the judging was based off a computer AI who was notoriously biased against you. But the fun was in watching the dishes get "prepared" in front of you. (Wilted Salad? Let's pretend that didn't happen.) I never stopped getting a kick out of the "woob-woob-woob-woob-woob" sound they made as those huge polygons shifted about.

Also from Suikoden II was "Chinchirorin", that dice game you played with Shilo in Two Rivers. Some felt the game was annoying, but I thought there was a subtle strategy involved. I spent a lot of time playing it. I don't remember how it works anymore but if I had a copy of Suiko II still, I'm sure I could waste an hour or two refreshing my memory.

"Liar's Dice", from Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail (PC), was such a great mini-game that a friend and I made our own version with some plywood beams and a couple magic markers. It's definitely a thinker's game with tons of bluffing. Larry added the "strip" factor but the game works just as well without.

Breath of Fire III and IV had some of the best fishing mini-games during a time when seemingly all RPGs had some quasi-fishing game available. But most sucked (Lookin' at you, Legend of Legaia). The tugging patterns suggested by the game were annoying but thankfully you never truly needed them. I caught plenty of marlins and blue whales without any strategy other than casting my line by the huge, shady silhouettes in the water. Fish could be redeemed for prizes and a special bait allowed access to a "rare-item" shop, which I thought was a neat touch.

One of the best and most addictive mini-games was "Tekken Bowling" from Tekken Tag (PSX). You could play as most of the characters, choose your techno-track and have at it amongst friends. It was nice since one of my friends would cheese up the battlefield with Hwaorang but he couldn't touch me at Bowling when I used King.

Also, I must be the only person who spent hours and hours perfecting the Basketball Throw mini-game from FFVII. It was annoying and required split-second timing. But with practice, it became like second nature and it proved to be the quickest and easiest way to earn tickets. I also liked the flashy hoop. I'm easy to please.

We also played Liar's Dice as a drinking game back in college. It's great that I played Larry back then, because it took most of the other people a few beers to catch on to the rules.

I thought of one more cool minigame: the Moredhel wordlocks from Betrayal at Krondor. They were basically word jumble games with riddles for clues, but I appreciate the way the game worked the idea into its setting. I don't know if all the riddles are original, but some were pretty clever.

Quite a far cry from the puzzle boxes of Onimusha, which were functional as a minigame, but hardly engrossing or endearing. As you can probably tell, I enjoy puzzle games a lot.

Heh, I remember the dice game from Suikoden, too. In the first game it was the premier abusable way to get scads of money to outfit your entire army. I'd save the game there in the castle and continuously bet the farm. Usually I'd walk away loaded, since it got pretty easy once you figured out the right strategy.

Too bad they cut down on the cash payout in Suikoden 2 so that it wasn't nearly so exploitable.

Dart from Shenmue. Sorry the murderer can wait :(.
you play eh dart. Nothing special. just Dart.

It was just the atmosphear in the dirty club and the betting, sweet.

Since a lot of mini-games come from RPGs and such, what about...the ones from fighting games?

I'm not sure if this counts, but the "Boost Mode" from Guilty Gear: Isuka is really fun, and I guess you could say, another element to Isuka, rather than just a mini-game.

And who could forget the original Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II Turbo. In Mortal Kombat, you had that damn mini-game where you had to break the blocks, ranging from wood to ruby. I remember my cousin kept screwing me up on those. And Street Fighter II Turbo, with the "smash the car" and "break the barrel" mini-games. Those were fun.

Ahaha, TEST YOUR MIGHT. I had heaps of might at the time, due to the obsession with 'turbo' buttons on third party controllers. "TEST YOUR MI-*Crowd cheers*"

Do the Maxi-games from Ratchet & Clank 2 count? I've spent countless hours on those. The 99-round Battle Royale ones were completely nuts,but not as nuts as the Skill Point challenges where you had to take down an entire horde with just a puny wrench. Wrench ninja,indeed.

"Would you like to try a game of Lucky Hit?"

I agree with FF7 motorcycle chase, FF8 Triple Triad, Zelda64 fishing, and Lunar battle Pong. All great in their own right. Other minigames of note are Grandia II's arm wrestle (first one that actually took advantage of analog buttons) and of course the original versus Mario Bros. in SMB3. You can't beat the classics. :) Jetpack in DK64 was a pleasant surprise too.

Edit: Oh, and add SSBM's Homerun Contest to the list. There's just a certain pleasure in hitting that sandbag guy with a baseball bat. :)

Greatest mini-game EVER.

I loved it so much...definitely more hours playing it than the rest of the game lol.



I loved FFVIII's card game, perhaps the best of the series (though I liked IX's as well).

Umm...FFVII's Snowboarding is an obvious one, as was the battle arena (gotta get Omnislash), but my favorite from the entire game was the motorcycle mini-game. Simply amazing.

Oh, I loved that submarine minigame in FF7. I spent hours playing it at the Gold Saucer. That thing deserved it's own full game. I loved everything about it, visualizing the ocean floor as a polygonal grid was so cool. Man, I feel like playing it right now.

All this talk of FFVII reminds me of the snowboarding mini-game in Sonic Adventure (PSone RPG = DC platformer = yes!) I spent a lot of time on that as well as the NiGHTS pinball game chucked in there. It's still awesome when Sonic floats around the level for a little bit. NiGHTS 2 plz Sega, make it a kart racer.

Ohhh just like a few others said, I'm going for Triple Triad from Final fantasy 8.

It was fun enough trying to get all the cards around the world, i hated that travelling gambler, or whatever it was called who you basically stalked around for ages. I HATED the random rule so much though, oh gosh.

And then there was that one time when triple triad was online, there were a few who copied it as well, but i still remember the old old school original, the one where people ended up typing the ip rather than the site to connect too.

Ah, good times.

There was two minigames in Romancing Saga 3, Thomas' merchant game and Mikhail's rulership game: both are quite addictive and are a nice break from free scenario mode.