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

[Sebas366]

Castlevania dracula x have symphony of the night as an unlockable once you get the item to unlock it on story mode you can play it on extras (supposing it counts for what you ask)

Yakuza games and latter Like a dragon games have that option where you visit some arcade place and play old sega games (even judgment games have those arcades)

The weird demo inside metal gear solid 3 that you can play if you do some weird steps.

 

[IDMTINP]

System Shock 2 has little hand-held consoles you can play some symbolic games with. Super cute in such a horrifying game.

 

[IyoTheHelpfulWolf]

I spent more time playing the arcade games in GTA: San Andreas than I probably should have

 

[トマトちゃん]

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

Original gamecube animal crossing lets you play famicom and nes games if i remember correctly its been forever since i touch that game. I think even the 3DS version has 1 game and it was disappointing from my personal experience and others online option.

Another is fallout 4 if you get the pipboy app u can play holotape games u can find ingame. While you’re waiting on the loading screen bc the amount of mods u need to fix/make the game fun.

 

[ThunderBoy]

In Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War you can play classic arcade Activision games.

 

[hazys]

Every time a new Yakuza/Like a Dragon/Judgment game is announced with playable SEGA arcade games inside of it I die a little more. PLEASE just release them on a collection, I am begging you

 

[miguk]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned MiSide. It's a game in which your character plays a casual phone game until the phone game somehow sucks him into the phone game. So already you are playing a game of the inside of a game you played in-game. But there's more: you are trapped with a girl who, as a result of being a game character, is obsessed with playing games and encourages you to play with her. So you can play games inside the game world of the game inside the game. It gets more complex than that later on, but I won't spoil anything.

 

[JaguarGod6]

Fallout 4 has a few games you can play on your Pip-Boy, or even build an arcade machine for each of them in one of your settlements. But the arcade machine thing is a paid mod.

 

[spectresfrommercury]

whatever i find at smash bros its what i'll likely play case in point trace memory or hotel dusk.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Sure do love playing Thunder Force in Segagaga
...IF I COULD!

but fr idk if that counts. Does linking Touhou 12.3 with 10.5 count?
Also Pico-8 Celeste in Celeste
Also Also Classic Mega Man in Mega Man ZX Advent
Oh also previous boss fights from Gunvolt in Gunvolt

 

[Blamhammer]

In Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People you can play SNAKE BOXER where you are a boxer, fighting snakes.

 

[miguk]

Sure do love playing Thunder Force in Segagaga
...IF I COULD!
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Forget playing that, SEGAGAGA had the Sega Game Gear Advance, complete with DVD playback and a TV tuner. Now that is what they should have made playable.

 

[LaserMoose]

In Sonic Generations (360/PS3) they included Sonic 1 as an unlockable. As far as I'm aware the unlockable was removed in the recent re-release.

 

[stealthRUSH]

A few on Sega Saturn-

Die Hard Arcade had the arcade game Deep Scan (1979) where you can earn extra credits.
PowerSlave / Exhumed / 1999 AD had Death Tank, Duke Nukem 3D had Death Tank Zwei.

 

[Jediuser]

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

Let's see....

Day of the Tentacle lets you play the original Maniac Mansion on a computer in the home.

Uncharted 4 sees Nate controlling Crash Bandicoot at one point.

Sonic Generations has the og Sonic the Hedgehog as an unlockable.

Post automatically merged: Mar 28, 2025

In Sonic Generations (360/PS3) they included Sonic 1 as an unlockable. As far as I'm aware the unlockable was removed in the recent re-release.

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Honestly, not too sad about that. That game's been re-released so many times I kinda found it unnecessary to include it in the original release.

 

[ZombieFish]

Maybe stretching OP’s intentions, but it’s too badass not to mention that you can build Conway’s Game of Life inside Conway’s Game of Life. Turing Complete +.

 

[merzbun]

a bit different conceptually than some of the entries here but Tower Unite has libretro support so you can literally just run an emulator and play games on a TV in your condo. sadly i dont believe it streams for other players but i understand how that would be a logistical nightmare

 

[Antilocal123]

In the game called Life you can play games inside of the game, you have to use currency but usually the games inside of Life are better imo

 

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

It's a mod, but Doom running in Doom

 

[snes9x]

If I remember correctly Moon is framed as playing an NPC in an RPG while it's turned off

 

[cjl8336]

load screen for ridge racer - I never knew there were initially 4 cars to pick since I cleared that screen every time (it adds the extra ones for clearing it)

 

[Kamako]

Off the top of my head:

- Deltarune and SMT: Digital Devil Saga both have a vertical shooter in them.
- DOOM 3 has the chicken punching mini-game
- DOOM Eternal has DOOM and DOOM II in it.
- Thimbleweed Park has a couple in the abandoned arcade.
- Metroid Zero

Spoiler

let's you play the original Metroid upon completing the game

 

[Gamma]

In Yume Nikki, you can play a game on the TV in Madotsuki's room called Nasu.

 

[kuroninneko]

Retro Game Challenge (USA) DS ROM – RGT Repository

Retro Game Challenge (USA) DS ROM Download. Languages: English. For the NDS.

retrogametalk.com

This one of my favorite games

 

[Patapolis]

outrun, super hang-on, space harrier and fantasy zone can be played in yakuza zero.