Video games that let you play other video games, inside the game (gameception??)

[xuvetyn96]

Sorry for the word salad, but I always find it cool when games let you play other games within the world of the game. Like how in Shenmue, you can play Space Harrier and Hang-On at the arcade (and even acquire copies of the games to play at home on Ryo's Saturn). Or in the first Black Ops, you can play Zork.

What are other cool examples of this you can think of?

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Beavis and Butt-Head on the SNES, which were actually better then the game itself.

 

[Gorse]

As a kid, I spent an ungodly amount of time playing through all the 8-bit Sonic games in Sonic Adventure DX – they quite literally included every single Sonic game released for the Game Gear as simple unlockables. That was such a cool way to extend that game's value: you get the full game, and then you get a bunch of other full games for free, just by playing it! They'd never do that now, and indeed took all those games out when DX was released on Steam. Buggers! I know the 8-bit Sonic games are all a bit hit-or-miss, but I think many of them are very good and it's a shame they never get proper rereleases (or maybe even full remakes! I'd buy that for a dollar!).

Also, people have been doing some crazy stuff recently with the NES emulator in the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing. Again, what a great way to add more value and playtime to that game – if you had a Gamecube and a copy of Animal Crossing, you also had access to a ton of awesome retro games for free. That was a purer time.

Beavis and Butt-Head on the SNES, which were actually better then the game itself.

What other game is in this??? I'm very curious about what it could be!

 

[Grimmark]

"Nanashi no Game" for the Nintendo DS is a horror game that is based on this idea - the game tells a story of an urban-legend NDS game that is supposedly cursed and the protagonist tries to investigate it. You either have "real" sections as 3D exploration, or play the 2D RPG-esque cursed game inside the game. Great stuff

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

What other game is in this??? I'm very curious about what it could be!

I think there are like 2 one on one fighters you can play in the Arcade in the Mall Stage, if you have money, but you have to be standing in front of the machines.

 

[Spike]

I don't have good examples off the top of my head.
On Catherine you can play "Rapunzel". which I guess is a made up game with the exact same mechanics of Catherine itself.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

I don't have good examples off the top of my head.
On Catherine you can play "Rapunzel". which I guess is a made up game with the exact same mechanics of Catherine itself.
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That's one of the rare SMT games that people actually play.

 

[davgj2000]

My go to answer for this will always be the Yakuza/Like-A-Dragon and Judgment games. They have brought back tons of sega arcade games and other Sega titles to be playable in game. I have spent many hours unlocking and playing those games. The studio has even started getting awards for their work in conserving those retro games and making them playable.

 

[Yousef]

I was legitimately thinking you were asking about a full fledged original game inside another game. Because stardew valley does this.
To answer your question thought, Yakuza is a textbook example of games inside games.
If you want like, original games inside original games, GTA IV has a game that’s basically 3D Puyo Puyo. It’s a bit braindead but it’s fun!

 

[Gorse]

"Nanashi no Game" for the Nintendo DS is a horror game that is based on this idea - the game tells a story of an urban-legend NDS game that is supposedly cursed and the protagonist tries to investigate it. You either have "real" sections as 3D exploration, or play the 2D RPG-esque cursed game inside the game. Great stuff

This might just be my favourite horror game ever, and it's such an awesome concept. There's this medium-defining moment in it where the "real" game and the fake one start blending together, and you have no idea what is or isn't happening, leading to some excellent scares. Incredibly high-quality and terrifying for a Nintendo DS game!

 

[xuvetyn96]

Also, people have been doing some crazy stuff recently with the NES emulator in the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing. Again, what a great way to add more value and playtime to that game – if you had a Gamecube and a copy of Animal Crossing, you also had access to a ton of awesome retro games for free. That was a purer time.

Wait, so you're telling me you can actually play any NES game you want in Animal Crossing, not just the ones built into the game??? That's really neat.

"Nanashi no Game" for the Nintendo DS is a horror game that is based on this idea - the game tells a story of an urban-legend NDS game that is supposedly cursed and the protagonist tries to investigate it. You either have "real" sections as 3D exploration, or play the 2D RPG-esque cursed game inside the game. Great stuff

Now that sounds really unique. I've never heard of this game, I'll have to check it out!

 

[Karaswinglet]

"Nanashi no Game" for the Nintendo DS is a horror game that is based on this idea - the game tells a story of an urban-legend NDS game that is supposedly cursed and the protagonist tries to investigate it. You either have "real" sections as 3D exploration, or play the 2D RPG-esque cursed game inside the game. Great stuff

Wow, this sounds fantastic! Gonna check it soon!

 

[Gorse]

Wait, so you're telling me you can actually play any NES game you want in Animal Crossing, not just the ones built into the game??? That's really neat.

Yessiree Bob! It's a full, functioning NES emulator developed internally by Nintendo, so it works with pretty much anything once it's been hacked. FDS and weird very-late games like Recca might act up a bit – though I've never seen this discussed, so maybe they're fine – but any standard, officially-licensed NES game will work a treat.

This is the same emulator Nintendo used for the Zelda compilation they did on Gamecube, and it's likely that it was either re-used or developed upon for the Wii's Virtual Console. Why they put it in Animal Crossing at all, I haven't a clue, but I'm glad they did!

 

[DunkeyKong]

Almost every Yakuza games lol (also some GTA games)
Other than that, there's the "There's no game" game if it counts and the VR stuff like Job Simulator

 

[Cu-Neo]

The Yakuza games in Club Sega depending of the game you can play games like Virtua Fighter 2, space harrier, Puyo Puyo and even Sonic the fighters in Like a Dragon Gaiden. There's also in universe arcade games in GTA 4 like QUB3D and even in Day of the Tentacle Remaster you can play the whole original versión of Maniac Mansion.

 

[Clippy]

It's probably worth mentioning that people managed to get quite a few games running in Doom... including Doom itself.

 

[davshap]

In Zero Divide, one of the first 3D fighting games on PS1, a cheat code allowed you to play a new, short version of the shmup Phalanx called Tiny Phalanx.
In Project Gotham Racing 2 on XBOX, the garages featured an arcade machine on which you could play Geometry Wars, a shmup by Alexey Pajitnov.
The same thing happened with Project Gotham Racing 4 on XBOX360, which featured a new version of Geometry Wars.
For those interested, a version called Geometry Wars Galaxies was released a few years later on NDS.

 

[DunkeyKong]

It's probably worth mentioning that people managed to get quite a few games running in Doom... including Doom itself.

Can it run doom be like:

 

[Bonkers225]

Tekken 1 had Galaga
Powerslave had Death Tanks

 

[Gorse]

Tekken 1 had Galaga

So does Air Combat!

 

[davshap]

Tekken 1 had Galaga
Powerslave had Death Tanks

So does Air Combat!

And Ridge Racer PS1 had Galaxian.

 

[ZeroDuplicate]

I remember that on Metroid: Zero Mission you can unlock the NES original. Also, on Pac-Man World 2 you can collect medals that unlock some Pac-Man arcade games, that you can play by going back to the first stage.

 

[RetroShmetro]

San andreas

 

[bjork]

Zork is in one of the Call of Duty games
Donkey Kong in DK64
Fallout 4 and 76 have pip-boy games that are spoofs of old games like Tapper and Wasteland

 

[ATenderLad]

Booting up Doom 1 and Doom 2 in Doomguy's Doom-themed bachelor pad in Doom Eternal is a treat.

...Doom.