10 Video Games You Didn't Know Were Hidden In Other Games

They put a game inside your game, so you can play while you play...

Rockstar/mTV Like the video gaming equivalent of Christopher Nolan's mind-bending film Inception, you would be surprised to see just how many games include games within the games, allowing you to play while you play. It's not as complicated as it sounds. It's also not a new idea either - there are titles on this list that go back over two decades. Some are incredibly cleverly implemented, the games which fit into their parent game in a very natural way, adding depth to the game world. Some are deviously hidden and entirely unrelated to the game itself. Many are just cheesy, forgettable gimmicks, the kind of spoof distractions that bring a smile to your face for a moment and then are left behind. If you recall the torrid Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 hidden in Doom 3, you've got the idea. And then we have the more openly presented games, not all that well hidden, but rather displayed as side-show attractions to the main event. Some of these are disposable nonsense, others are genuinely worthy little games all on their own - the sort of games which deserve to exist separately from the game which hosts them. You've got your well-known big name classics, sneaking around in the back-end and waiting for enterprising explorer-types to stumble upon them, and then there are those quirky titles that have been slipped in there as a bit of fan service. There are instances where you could become so embroiled in the complexity of some of these hidden gems that you forget about the actual game you're meant to be playing. What we have shied away from, though, are the countless variants of card games, board games and other gambling mechanics. Your Red Dead Redemption blackjack, your Far Cry 3 poker, Assassin's Creed 3's Six Men's Morris board game, that sort of thing. And, except for one example (but for valid reason) we've also overlooked those games created purely to be filler within their parent games - the likes of Cub3d in GTA and so on - as entertaining as they may be. There are just too many of them, and they don't fit the bill. Instead we are looking strictly at the interactive iterations of exisiting interactive video games within interactive video games. Try to keep up, will you?
 
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Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.