Favourite game-within-a-game

Now that we're all playing Squid Jump whilst waiting for a game of Splatoon, I had an idea for, well, this very thread. What are your favourite games-within-games? I'm sure I've forgotten a lot over the years, but there are a few stand-outs from what I remember:

-Shenmue had *tonnes* of them. Some were rudimentary, like Lucky Hit (a bit like the minigame in Nintendo Land to earn special trinkets), but others ranged from inspired (there are a few arcade machines based on Sega classics hidden in clever ways) to plain fun (I seem to remember an arm wrestling game in Shenmue 2). They all fit in with the overall atmosphere and narrative of the game, as well, and made the world feel a lot more believable. Particularly in the sequel, which was set in a bustling environment full of all sorts of people.

-This is cheating a little, but some of the unlockable minigames in WarioWare are fantastic. I still play Paper Plane every now and again, for example.

-something I've forgotten

Anaconda in Timesplitters 2

It's a 360 degree movement snake clone with multiplayer and it's wonderful

Wind Waker's KA-BOOM game with that bored guy whose name I've forgotten.  It's been over a decade since I last played wind waker, yet that one still sticks in my mind, which I guess says what sort of impression it made on me all those years ago.

I've definitely lost hours to some of these but none are coming to mind just now (other than NES games in gamecube animal crossing, which I suppose are cheating)

Off the top of my head it's Darts from Shenmue and Zork in Call of Duty: Black ops..........oh and randomly kicking a ball back and forth with other players in the hub area of Destiny.

EDIT: Also Kung foot from Rayman Legends.

I really liked Salvatore too, but I'm finding it annoyingly hard to think of anything original that'd count.  I enjoyed the beach volleyball and ice hockey in Mario Party 5, but suspect that, like Paper Plane, they aren't really in the spirit of this thread.

I lost hours to the Whack-A-Mole clone in Legend Of The Mystical Ninja.

The Dead Ops twin-stick shooter in Call of Duty: Black Ops was a pleasant surprise. I'll need to have a think for some more examples.

Surprised no one has said Gwent from Witcher III as I've seen a lot tweets about it and everyone seems to love it.

Mercenaries or the shooting range in Resident Evil 4.

Probably my favourite was the one in Saints Row 3 where you rack up insurance points for being hit by cars.

Ill say it very quietly but... Blitzball from FFX, I know its stupid but i got HOOKED!

OrangeRakoon wrote:

Anaconda in Timesplitters 2

It's a 360 degree movement snake clone with multiplayer and it's wonderful

Yep, came to say this one. Just another great addition to a great game.

Not sure if it'd count but grifball from Halo 3 was always a favourite deviation from the usual gamemodes.

As a child I played Theme Park World on the PS. There was a go-kart ride you could make in world 1 where you designed the layout of the track. Afterwards you could race on it against other people in the park. Even then, I knew it controlled like arse, but the being able to race on a track I'd made, against virtual people virtually enjoying it blew my mind. I spent far too much time making elaborate tracks, racing in them, demolishing and repeating. Pretty sure I did that more than play the game.

Can't go wrong with Tetra Master in FFIX or Blitzball in X either.

Muss wrote:

As a child I played Theme Park World on the PS. There was a go-kart ride you could make in world 1 where you designed the layout of the track. Afterwards you could race on it against other people in the park. Even then, I knew it controlled like arse, but the being able to race on a track I'd made, against virtual people virtually enjoying it blew my mind. I spent far too much time making elaborate tracks, racing in them, demolishing and repeating. Pretty sure I did that more than play the game.

Actually that sounds awesome - a proto-Trackmania.