Even two console generations ago we stopped batting our eyelids if games contained other, smaller games within them. It didn’t even seem odd if whole games were made up of dozens of little ones. Nowadays we use minigame mechanisms to open doors, enact fancy stealth kills, slaughter bosses or open chests. Minigames are everywhere, be it shoving boulders in Conan, coercing peasants in Oblivion or doing anything at all in Thrillville or Jackass.

Five years from now, we’d not be surprised to see Sony Japan release Ultimate Life Sim for PS3, where you’ve got to tap a button sequence in time with the music in order to open a jar of pear halves for breakfast or starve. Don’t scoff, it’ll shift more units than The Bible, without a doubt. And so, we offer you a diverse glimpse of some of the maddest, baddest or just best minigames that cropped up in recent years...