A minigame, sometimes called a subgame, is a short video game contained within another game. The minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained.

Minigames occur either as gameplay features or as Easter eggs. In the latter case, they are often called "secret games." In the former case, the successful completion of such minigames may or may not be required in order to finish the encompassing game.

Some games, such as Wario Ware, Inc., or some Cinemaware titles like Defender of the Crown are made up of many minigames strung together into one video game. Similar games such as the Mario Party series are considered party games, games specifically developed for multiplayer amongst players. Usually the minigames involve doing something faster or collecting more of something than other players to win.

An example of a minigame is Arcomage, contained within Might and Magic VII. It involves building up a tower whilst trying to destroy the computer opponent's tower. It is a simple but very addictive game that can be played at the inns around the Might and Magic VII game-world, the same way Shenmue II has arcades of early Sega games available to play.

Other examples of minigames include:

• Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle, wherein the whole original Maniac Mansion game can be played on a computer that is encountered.

• In Sam & Max Hit the Road, the player could access several minigames in different locations throughout the game, including "Whack-a-Mole" and "Car Bomb." Some (though not all) of these games needed to be completed in order to progress in the game.

• The sliding numbers magic square that can be played when sailing in Final Fantasy.

• Astro Chicken is playable on an arcade machine standing in Monolith Burger in Space Quest III (Consequently, the Astro Chicken game became a running gag as it repeatedly popped up in somewhat varying incarnations in the following sequels).

• TheSuper Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 arcade game, which can be played by the human-controlled hero in the mess hall in Doom 3.

• Puzzle Kombat and Chess Kombat in Deception, which are available from the start.

• Final Fantasy VII features some minigames that are mandatory to advance the plot, and all of them (plus some others) can later be replayed at will at the Gold Saucer.

• Donkey Kong 64 includes the arcade games Donkey Kong and Jetpac, which represent major achievements of the two companies who developed the game, Nintendo and Rareware. These games must be completed in order to yield the Nintendo and Rareware "coins", tokens which unlock the final area of the game.

Fan-modded minigames include:

• Hot Coffee sex scene from San Andreas
• The original Doom embedded onto Doom 3.

Computer and video game gameplay | Computer and video game development | Minispiel | Mini-jeu | ミニゲーム