Minigames

The modern minigame collection is largely a product of the success of Mario Party, as well as companies looking for a financially non-threatening way to come to grips with new console technologies. With the transition largely over it’s become a bona fide market sector.




1. Wii Sports Resort
Wii
Nintendo/Nintendo
2009
Wii Sports Resort could herald a rebirth for the Wii, coming as it is with the MotionPlus accessory that fully unleashes the promise of the Wii Remote. But even without that potential it’s still the sequel to Wii Sports, a game every Wii owner has spent significant time with and rather likes. This isn’t going to be the next Wii Play—the pack-in hardware here is not as mandatory a purchase, after all. Yet the brand is strong, and the hardware is exciting, and so Wii Sports Resort will likely be in several million homes by the time it ends its long run in the NPD top ten.




2. Carnival Games Mini Golf
Wii
2K Play/Cat Daddy Games
September
Little low-budget Carnival Games surprised the world when it became one of the first third-party titles to benefit from the Wii’s mass-market appeal and sell in excess of a million copies. The mini golf addition to the franchise is a golf game with a minigame collection rolled into it, which is actually more innovation than strictly necessary for the market in question. As it stands, people will buy this game because they bought the first one a year ago, and will recognize the mustache man on the cover, and will remember that Wii Golf was kind of fun. This probably won’t be as many people as the million plus that bought the first one, though.




3. You’re in the Movies
X360
Codemasters/Zoe Mode
Holiday 2008
To everyone at Microsoft’s E3 press conference, You’re in the Movies will forever be known as that confounding game that made Don Mattrick run in clown pants. But taken as Microsoft’s latest attempt to expand the demographic of the Xbox 360…it’s still really strange, though it does have some readily apparent family-friendly charm. That the required Xbox Live Vision camera is included in the bundle does give the product a semblance of value, but it’s impossible to forget that all similar efforts on the platform have resulted in less than satisfactory financial returns. So maybe 100,000 then, unless taking fully clothed pretend showers in front of a webcam becomes some kind of fad explosion.