All posts tagged in mini-games
Dec 11, 2019
So many unique genre mash-ups for indie games were announced during Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase, like Boyfriend Dungeon and The Survivalist, including Sports Story! Sports Story is not only a game with various sports, but also a dungeon-crawler full of mini-games and other activities! This adventure RPG, developed by Sidebar Games, is a sequel to Golf Story, and an exclusive to the Nintendo Switch releasing in Mid-2020. The game is also listed as a multiplayer game of up to 4 players, although it remains to be seen if that’s only for certain aspects of the game or for the whole campaign.
Here are some of the things you can do in the game:
- Embark on a golfing adventure in both ordinary and fantastical places.
- Undertake full-time study at a renowned tennis academy.
- Make friends and enemies in your quest for sporting excellence.
- Dungeons, espionage, mini-games, buried treasure and you get to meet the queen.
- Make your coach proud by competing in Decasportathon.
If it’s anything like Golf Story (the colors, the whimsy, the silliness), a winner of awards and a game that truly stood out to me, than I expect really great thing from this title! The developers mention that it is a sequel because of some familiar characters and the story is set sometime after, although it is definitely its own game with a lot more features!
- May 9, 2019
Button City is a coming-of-age game about making friends and adorable anthropomorphic animals trying to save their local arcade. Play mini-games, solves puzzles, and complete quests in a world with beautiful pastel colors and floating islands. Button City is created by Subliminal, a two-person indie game studio and is still in early development with no release date or announcements on platforms. However, stay tuned with myPotatoGames to stay caught up with all of the updates (see below for the latest post on their Patreon page).
About Button City
The game follows a shy fox named Fennel as he befriends the coolest kids in town, the Fluff Squad. He joins them at the Button City arcade for the tournament of the summer against their ultimate rivals the Tuff Fluffs. But their battle is cut short when they discover that the arcade will soon be closing its doors to make way for a Big Box store. With friendship on their side and a crazy scheme, the Fluff Squad set out to save their beloved hangout and win arcade glory.
At the Button City arcade, there is a fierce rivalry brewing. Eight spunky kids, two teams, one game, and one prize. It is the battle of the Fluff Squad versus the Tuff Fluffs, a story as old as time. In the arcade and beyond their rivalry runs deep. Which team is the best in town!?
The Fluff Squad
The Fluff Squad comes in with Fennel the Fox, Sorrel the Cat, Lavender the Panda, and Chive the Rabbit. They are pastel loving friends who are bright and love to dance. Don’t let their cute looks fool you, these Fluff’s mean business.
Sorrel the team leader brings the hype! Always looking for thrills and excitement she will infect you with her energy and pump you up times a billion! When she’s not dancing or playing games you can find her doing her Metal Yoga.
Chive is inventive and quick-witted. Looking to make things faster, stronger, better she hacks together devices and tinkers with the world around her so she is always at the cutting edge. She will not slow down to explain things so try to keep up.
Lavender is creative, enthusiastic, and caring. She loves to write fanfiction and draw fanart in her free time. She will talk your ear off for hours about her favorite books, shows, games, and manga. Don’t bad mouth her favorite characters or she will bring down wrath like no other.
Fennel is the newest Fluff Squad member! He is a bit shy and quiet but he’s excited to have all these cool new friends. He loves to play video games and he’s currently trying to memorize all of the knock-knock jokes in his new book, but he’s embarrassed to try telling any.
The Tuff Fluffs
The Tuff Fluffs are here to rumble with Saffron the Cat, Cayenne the Mouse, Paprika the Pup, and Sesame the Bear. These younglings come in ruff and tumble but do it for love and respect.
Saffron is the leader of the Tuff Fluffs and she means business. She will be the shoulder to cry on, she will help little old ladies cross the street, she will be Tuff to do what’s right. With lollipop in paw, she leads by being true to her Tuffness.
Cayenne is the brains of the Tuff Fluffs! Even at a young age, he already reads at a 10th-grade reading level and does complex long division in his head! He will outsmart you with high-level tactics in game and then get a perfect score at trivia.
Paprika is a star! They are super photogenic, super nice and have a ton of friends. Though they are always positive, there may be more than what they are letting on.
Sesame is super chill listening to the freshest beats before anyone else. He’s always cool to hang out with and there to listen when you’re feeling down.
More Information
You can support their game by becoming a Patreon here and receive emails, behind-the-scenes videos, the ability to vote on things, a special role on their Discord channel, and more! In addition, find out more about how to follow theses developers in our previous article of Button City here.
If you enjoy adorable talking animals, you should check out our article about a village simulation game, Hokko Life.
- Apr 18, 2019
Pile Up is a 1 to 4 player co-op 3D platformer for friends and families. Jump on your friends, pile together and start exploring colorful cardboard worlds! Coordination and creativity are the key to success in progressing through the joyful levels and meeting the most friendly bosses.
Pile Up is developed by Seed by Seed, an indie studio based in France. The game has won numerous awards such as “Best Indie Game” in L-Games 2019 and “Official competition at Stunfest” in Rennes 2019. Pile Up will be releasing on PC and a potential for consoles which has yet to be announced. As of now, there is no official release date but you can go to their website here for more information.
Key Features
- A very simple yet deep mechanic : piling!
- An adventure you can share with up to four players!
- Explore a cardoard world!
- Enjoy original mini-games
The developers latest update this April on their Twitter account is that of a very serene environment for our Boxlings to hang out in.
Who knew that boxes could look so adorable? Want more relaxing puzzle-based games with boxes? Check out our most recent news on Box Boy! + Box Girl! here and Unpacking here.
- Apr 15, 2019
Fun! Fun! Animal Park is a 2-player party game developed by Nippon Columbia and published by Aksys Games exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. A game I thought would be so much fun because it says so twice in its own title. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer many hours of gameplay with extremely repetitive mini-games. This is definitely geared toward a younger audience in terms of its simplicity but may take a few tries to get used to the motion controls. However, if you want to challenge your family members (or yourself with high scores), want to have a good laugh, and love adorable animals, then this game is easy to pick up and play at any time.
The Mascots
There is not a story to speak of in Fun! Fun! Animal Park but you are accompanied by two mascots; a lion and a rabbit. If playing with a partner, the left joy-con will get the lion as a coaching partner and the right joy-con will get the rabbit. As an adult, they get quite tiring quite quickly as their high pitched banter will never end. Thankfully, the developers have added a fast-forward button to speed through the slow moments and the talking moments. However, you should listen to your animal friends for the explanations of how to play in case you can’t or do not wish to read. This is a great way to keep children involved or to keep their interest while watching!
Lion and rabbit mascots To Start Playing
As your first time playing the game, you will only have access to Tour Mode with the selection of the Laid Back Course. That course suggests that it will be a playtime of 10 minutes. Since you are playing with the motion controls you cannot use the joy-cons together or with a pro controller. Separate the joy-cons and grab a partner and begin playing tournament style. You will be given 3 short mini-games to play and if you win, collect the amount of Director Medals. The amount you will receive is displayed for that specific mini-game before entering. You then get to spin a roulette wheel for the chance to multiply the amount earned. Once the tournament is over, all other modes and mini-games will be unlocked.
30 medals to win 
spin the wheel
Mode Selection
Now back at the menu screen you have 3 modes to choose from; Tour Mode, One Match Mode, and Solo Mode. Tour Mode now gives you 3 more options of length of the tournament; Thrillseeker Course for 20 minutes, Nail-Biter Course for 30 minutes, and Extensive Course for 40 minutes. For One Match Mode, it is still a competition but you play only one mini-game at a time. All 30 mini-games can be completed in roughly 1 hour if you take your time.
Modes 
Courses
About the Mini-Games
Overall, the mini-games showcase about a total of 10 different safari animals; ostrich, cheetah, penguin, giraffe, meerkat, macaw, lemur, kangaroo, panda, and chameleon. Then there are a few pet/farm animals; cat, dog, pig, owl, squirrels, and sheep. They do have adorable animations and the graphics of them are quite nice. You get to play with the animals in all the mini-games so there’s a lot of interaction with them.
In terms of the mini-games becoming repetitive, there are really only about 4-5 types of games. There are races, where you have to shake to joy-cons as quickly as possible and some with obstacles. My partner really enjoyed playing the mini-game that had you curling with a penguin. I enjoyed taking the quick pictures of animals running around and trying to have them center frame. Then, there are balancing games, games that have you counting, and games that have you taking pictures.
Penguin Panic Finish 
Safari Photoshoot
Some challenges are even exactly the same but with an added difficulty (i.e. counting or taking pictures of more animals). This would be a lot more acceptable if there were way more than 30 total mini-games to play. However, unlike some luck-based games in the Mario Party series, I did enjoy that all of the games were based on skill. It is a lot more rewarding to win and a lot funnier when you fail spectacularly.
Panda Balance Fail 
Doggie Catcher Fail
Controls
This may be just me, but the controls weren’t as obvious as the tutorials made them out to be. I was using the left joy-con and tried to replicate what I was seeing on my screen, so I didn’t think at first to put the controller in my right hand as that’s my dominate hand.
Controls demonstration All motions would be shown with the buttons facing you, even though some challenges required you to have the joy-cons with the buttons facing upward. Once I started getting the hang of always keep my joy-con that way, other mini-games have you putting the joy-cons back upright. You can also play with the joy-cons flat, buttons facing upward, but you have to hold it either vertically for some games and horizontally for others.
Some of us handled each mini-game with ease however and someone kept winning…We won’t mention who fails at this game. To be fair, a lot of the commands are not as responsive as other games. Also, the controls become a lot easier after practice which you can do before starting a real match.
Tutorial 
Practice
Fun! Fun! Animal Park provided a solid 2 hours of gameplay for me and can be replayed a countless number of times when you want to have a good time with friends or family. A lot more content could have been added and controls a little more refined but none of those things really soured the entire experience. If you want to purchase the game, go here. You can also download this cute Family Fun Party Pack from Aksys Games for free which includes bingo cards, fact cards, recipe cards and word searches.
