Ask a group of players about their favorite moments in a big open-world game and you may hear surprisingly little about the main story. Instead, people talk about the night they spent playing arcade cabinets in Yakuza, the poker table in a Red Dead saloon or the hours lost on golf in Los Santos. Side activities are often where a game’s personality shows most clearly.
They borrow the familiar appeal of arcades, card rooms and gaming halls, the same appeal that draws adults to real platforms such as casino Aerobet, and turn it into a break from missions and boss fights. Here is why mini-games work so well and what they reveal about game design.
A Long Tradition of Side Activities
Mini-games are almost as old as home consoles. Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997, built an entire amusement park called the Gold Saucer, complete with chocobo racing and arcade challenges. Since then, side activities have become a standard feature of large games. Grand Theft Auto V offers golf, tennis, darts and yoga. The Witcher 3 introduced Gwent, a card game inside the game that became so popular it later received its own standalone release.
Two series are especially famous for their side content. The Yakuza games recreate Japanese entertainment districts in detail, and their Club SEGA arcades let players run emulated versions of real SEGA classics. In Yakuza 0, those cabinets include Space Harrier, Fantasy Zone, Out Run and Super Hang-On. Red Dead Redemption 2, meanwhile, fills its saloons and camps with poker, blackjack, dominoes and five finger fillet, games that fit naturally into its Wild West setting.
Fishing deserves a special mention, because it may be the most widespread mini-game of all. The fishing pond in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time became a fan favorite, and Stardew Valley turned fishing into a skill with its own progression, tools and rare catches. Party games such as the Mario Party series go even further and build an entire product out of dozens of short challenges. The common thread is simple: small, readable rules and a quick sense of success, placed inside a world that players already enjoy spending time in.
Why Mini-Games Work
Large games are built around long arcs: a story that unfolds over dozens of hours, a character who grows slowly, a world that opens step by step. Mini-games offer the opposite rhythm. A round of darts or a race in an arcade cabinet lasts a few minutes and delivers a clear result. That contrast is valuable, because it gives players a way to rest without leaving the game world.
Side activities also deepen the setting. Playing cards with other characters around a campfire tells you more about a world than any amount of exposition. They give players a sense of ownership, since nobody forces you to master darts or win a racing tournament. And they create memorable moments that players share, which matters a lot in the age of clips and streaming.
|
Game |
Side activity |
What it adds |
|
Final Fantasy VII |
Gold Saucer attractions |
A festival atmosphere and a break from the main quest |
|
Yakuza 0 |
Club SEGA arcade cabinets |
Nostalgia and authentic retro gameplay |
|
The Witcher 3 |
Gwent card game |
A strategic hobby that fits the world’s culture |
|
Red Dead Redemption 2 |
Poker, blackjack, dominoes |
Social scenes and Wild West atmosphere |
|
Grand Theft Auto V |
Golf, tennis, darts |
Relaxed sports between intense missions |
Classic arcade machines. Many modern games recreate this kind of space as a side activity. Image: Steve Elliott from UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, source: Wikimedia Commons.
The Casino as a Game Space
Few side activities are as recognizable as the virtual casino. In July 2019, GTA Online opened The Diamond Casino and Resort, which added table games, slot machines, a penthouse and new missions. The update was one of the biggest in the game’s history. It also showed how strongly the casino theme resonates with players: the lights, the sounds, the dress code and the social atmosphere all become part of the fun, even when the chips have no real value.
That popularity also brought scrutiny. Rockstar made the casino games unavailable in a number of countries because of local gambling rules, and rating boards pay close attention to simulated gambling in games. The debate highlights an important distinction. Virtual chips in a video game are part of a story and cannot be cashed out. Real-money platforms are a separate form of entertainment with their own rules, intended for adults only.
From Virtual Tables to Real Platforms
Many adults who enjoy card scenes in games also enjoy the real thing. Online platforms have taken over much of the role that arcades and card rooms once played. Aerobet, for example, combines slots, live dealer tables, crash games and sports betting on one site, with live games streamed from studios with real dealers. The appeal overlaps with the mini-games described above: short rounds, clear results and a lively atmosphere. The difference is that real money is involved, so a personal budget and time limit matter far more than in any video game. Treating it as paid entertainment, like a ticket to a concert, keeps the experience enjoyable.
Designing Good Side Content
Not every mini-game works. Players quickly notice when side activities are forced or repetitive. Designers who get them right tend to follow a few principles:
- Keep the rules simple and teach them in seconds, ideally through play rather than text.
- Respect the player’s time with short rounds and the option to leave at any moment.
- Connect rewards to the main game without making the side activity mandatory.
- Match the world’s culture, so a card game feels like something the characters would really play.
- Allow mastery for players who want to go deeper, with harder opponents or higher scores.
When these principles are followed, mini-games become optional highlights instead of chores. When they are ignored, players complain about trophies or achievements that force them to grind an activity they do not enjoy.
Mini-Games and Clip Culture
Side activities produce some of the most shareable moments in gaming. A perfect golf shot, a dramatic poker hand in a role-playing game or a ridiculous arcade fail makes an ideal short clip. These moments are easy to understand without context, which is why they spread across social platforms so well. Modern consoles make capturing them simple. Both Xbox and PlayStation include built-in tools for recording recent gameplay and sharing it directly.
If you enjoy creating clips, side activities are a great place to start:
A gamepad. Mini-games are often the moments players record and share most. Image: Reza Almanda from Bogor, Indonesia, CC BY 2.0, source: Wikimedia Commons.
Why Side Activities Matter
Mini-games are more than filler. They give big games breathing room, make virtual worlds feel lived in and create moments that players remember for years. They also connect gaming to older forms of play, from arcades and card tables to casinos and amusement parks. For many players, they are the reason a familiar game still feels fresh on a fifth or tenth playthrough. The next time you find yourself spending an hour on darts instead of chasing the next mission, there is no need to feel guilty. You are enjoying exactly what the designers hoped you would find: a small game inside a big one, where the only goal is having fun.