Weird video game question

[yendi]

Is there a term used for games that are essentially collections of different games? I'm thinking particularly of the early arcade era, and of games like Gorf, Tron, and Journey's Escape, as opposed to games where the gameplay is largely the same on different types of levels (Donkey Kong, Phoenix, etc). Time Bandit for the Atari ST (one of the truly great and sadly-forgotten games of the '80s) probably also qualifies here.

"Meta-game" isn't right, of course, since that has an entirely different meaning. There are probably some terms that could be coined, but I wonder if anyone's already done so, or compiled a list of games like this.

(And I'm talking about multiple gamestyles within one game, as opposed to something like Atari's Air Sea Battle cartridge, which had multiple but separate games but not within the context of one game.)

You could make an argument that the minigames that predominate a lot of AAA titles also fit this bill (GTA's racing games, FFX's Blitzball, a good half of Kingdom Hearts 2, etc), but in many ways, there was at least a core game here that the minigames serve as contrasts to; in the earlier titles, there's less of a central game.

Comments

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

'thalon? Like Decathalon or triathalon but without the numbering?

[yendi]

Hmm. Seems like one that might work (in fact, Konami's Track and Field kind of fits the bill, too).

[laurion]

So many different forms seem to have their own word for a thing made up of smaller bits of different things.
Yes, 'thalon', but also medley (or mix tape?), collage, parquet, even salad. Nintendo calls their game made up of a bunch of other games loosely strung together 'Mario Party'. Wonder if it would be better to adopt an existing term or coin a new one.

[yendi]

I'd probably consider Mario Party a little differently (it's rather explicitly a party game). But many of the Wario games definitely qualify (and might be the extreme form of the game concept).

I'm not sure if adoption or coinage is the way to go; I'm kind of surprised neither had happened already.