The best and worst sub & mini games in Amiga games?

[dreadnought]

One of the reason 1985-1995 is my all time favourite decade in gaming, in which Amiga played such a crucial part, is that the games from that era were often crossing boundaries, genre-bending, and trying to cram numerous ideas under one roof. Sometimes it worked better, sometimes worse (or not at all), but it was always exciting - even if just to read about in the previews.

Key feature of many of these games was having different gameplay elements, often tied by an overlying meta-gameplay loop. The definition of a subgame and minigame in this context might be somewhat blurry, but I guess the former is bigger, and the latter smaller. Here are some of my hi-lo's that I remember.

Cinemaware - the masters of this style. It never ceases to amaze me how much I love their games overall while having rather mixed feelings about their sub/mini games.

Defender Of The Crown - the most infamous I guess. I don't think I've ever won jousting or fencing, but I quite like the catapult.

King Of Chicago - the bombing run is preposterous. I think I did manage to "win" it a few times but always by pure luck. Not even sure how it works to this day. You hold the button to control the throw's strength?

It Came From The Desert - a curious case. I kinda like the main ant shooting though it can be infuriating too, the later grenade tossing is fun . Escape from hospital ....hmmm. It's a kinda clever and well executed idea but am not sure how I feel about it overall. Maybe because I failed it so many times. The fist fight and driving suck thou.

Rocket Ranger & Sinbad & Three Stoges I loved but don't remember much. Must replay soon.

Pirates! - the best game ever has a few key sub games. I love the ship-to-ship combat, it's just perfect. I think the 8 bit versions and Amiga have it best though, the later ones were wishy washy (with everything). The fencing is also pretty good, though it was like a physical exercise, played with my crappy joystick. The ground strategy combat was poor though and how I wished they would develop it into a bigger'n better thing.

Monkey Island - I guess the deservedly famous sword-talking can count as mini game. Hard not to love this. The real fist-fight from the 1st Indy is terrible though - I've been actually stuck on this since forever, so infuriating. Does anybody know how to get past this thing?

Also can add every stupid maze in a point'n click adventure game to my Most Hated list.

B.A.T - my top 5 Amiga game but, again, the sub/mini games can be a pain. Combat is so-so. The memory mini game is okay, the dancing I can't get past. Never got to the flying part yet so dunno about that.

These are some examples from top of my head....how about yours?

[Predseda]

There were quite funny minigames in Wiz 'n' Liz. Like throwing tomatoes to programmers faces. I think these were the good ones.

Also shoot-em-up "Underkill" in Gloom was fine and you could win a life in there.

I loved subgames in Slamtilt, some were pretty awesome like VIDEOMODE (werewolf fight).

On the other hand "Dux" in Lotus 2 was boring and you could not even quit it.

[DisasterIncarna]

i cant actually think of any off the top of my head, id probably have to replay a load to remind myself out of interest, kinda sticking to the topic but other than the obvious cinemaware titles, does the amiga have anything top heavy on the minigame front such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the C64.

[Megalomaniac]

That 'Crossword 2091' word-arranging game in Wizkid was suitably bizarre, especially the way it presented as a 'consolation prize' if you lost on the previous main screen.

A really weird one is from the unfairly obscure Breakout clone Giganoid, after every five levels. Balls are fired down the screen, from one of four 'chutes' at the top of the screen, and you have to catch them. Choose to catch between one and four - catch them all and skip that number of levels; miss any and you don't skip any levels, so it's a big risk versus reward thing.

Conversely I didn't like the Breakout style bonus game in Zool 2. Joystick control never really works for bat 'n' ball games.

[Predseda]

Another good ones: Meteor storm and Memory station in Deluxe Galaga.

[roondar]

Superfrog had Project-F, which was a funny nod to their other game as well as that slot machine at the end of levels.

[gimbal]

The robocop 2 memory recovery mini games come to mind. I don't hate it, only that you have to do way too many of them. The shooting range minigame on the other hand is great.

[kremiso]

the batcave puzzle sequence in Batman the Movie
a couple of times i used the infinite time cheat to listen the ending of that short but imo cool tune

[Rob68K]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

Defender Of The Crown - the most infamous I guess. I don't think I've ever won jousting or fencing, but I quite like the catapult.

Put the mouse pointer near a horses foot while it's loading and you'll never lose the jousting.

I love some Bill Williams stuff for sub-games.

Sinbad and Mindwalker are 2 of my favourite Amiga games.
The colour-cycling Sigmund Freud stage in Mindwalker is epic.
As is the Noosh Noosh Noosh Noosh Noosh bit.
I never quite got into his later stuff like Knights and Pioneer Plague.

[gimbal]

Winter Supersports 92. All the events are essentially minigames and they're all dull as heck - except for the skidoo race. That could have been a game on its own really.

[Fiery Phoenix]

Shooting the cows in Super Space Invaders (I know its an arcade conversion, but....)

[CCCP alert]

Can't think of any except Cinemaware, some worked some didn't. 3 Stooges is crap though