1. Battle Mode (Resident Evil Sega Saturn version only)
Not many versions of Resident Evil 1 had mini games. Sega Saturn was lucky to surprisingly become the beginning to a long tread of mini games. You play as Chris or Jill killing every enemy in each level. All the bosses are included with two exclusive enemies. A Wesker zombie aka the toughest zombie in the entire game to kill & golden Tyrant-002.
This particular version of Tyrant takes a lot more magnum shots to put down. Thankfully they reused his first boss fight otherwise this wouldn't be possible to complete. You have a timer as well as an ranking system. They threw all the enemies in one mini game. You can unlock it by entering a code or after beating the game.
2. Extreme Battle Mode (Resident Evil 2 later versions)
First available in the later PS1 release Resident Evil 2 Dualshock Edition. You get an extra mini game where you play as Leon, Claire, Ada and Chris. The first two levels is straight toward get to the end. The final level involves finding all the antivirus bombs. There are three difficulties you can choose to play.
Most of the enemies including two boss characters will be after you. It is easily to die on difficulty 3 for many reasons. If you aren't use to any scenarios of the campaign you won't survive this. I also believe some later ports got this mini game like GameCube version. Easily one of the best mini games of this series on PS1.
3. The Mercenaries Operation: Mad Jackal (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)
Believe it or not, it was RE3 not RE4 that started The Mercenaries tread. Although RE4's The Mercenaries did led to it's popularity exploding. You play as Carlos, Mikhail or Nicholas, Umbrella mercenaries in the city. Most enemies are present including a few versions of Nemesis. It is even possible two of them can be in the same area.
You must reach the end before the timer runs out or it's game over. You can dodge or kill enemies adding slightly more time to the timer. You also can get some good stuff by saving people. Doing good enough in this mini game gives you great unlockables for the campaign. This alone makes you truly feel like an mercenary.
4. Battle Game (Resident Evil Code: Veronica X)
Not to be confused with Saturn's port Battle Mode. Battle Game has two versions of Claire, Chris, Steve and Wesker fighting through hordes of enemies. You can play this in third or first person mode. Most of the enemies are present with a twist for each character's bosses. All of them have a different boss creature waiting for them in mostly different areas.
Both of Claire's bosses share the same location. Wesker can only use a knife just like Nicholas in that mini game. There is a timer that keeps going until you die or win. Yes there is an ranking system with a difficult to unlock weapon. There is also a bonus room that rarely gives you an magnum. Some areas is nearly impossible to not get hit.
5. Leech Hunter (Resident Evil 0)
Some may feel like it doesn't exactly belong here. I feel like it should be for many reasons. You play as Rebecca and Billy collecting two different colored leeches. More hunters than the campaign with two six slot inventories makes planning more necessary. Most of the enemies are present here. You do get to explore most of the facility.
Yes there is an ranking system where time doesn't matter but the amount of leeches you collected does. You can unlock a lot of stuff for the campaign. It does a great job keeping you on the edge at most times. Leech Hunter doesn't have many key items. Sometimes you could get a submachine gun or an magnum.
6. The Mercenaries (Resident Evil 4)
The Mercenaries has Leon, Ada, Hunk, Kauser and Wesker as playable characters. You can play all four levels trying very hard to unlock the handcannon for the campaign. You only increase your timer by getting more clocks. There also alternate clocks for adding up the score in a short amount of time. You won't know how much points until the combo ends or you win.
After getting enough points, the bosses will come after you. Only two of them can instantly kill you. More than one can appear at a time making things more difficult. You also get character moves that do help save ammo. Two out of five characters lacks a knife forcing you to break stuff by wasting ammo.
7. The Mercenaries & The Mercenaries Reunion (Resident Evil 5)
Originally The Mercenaries was going to be a lot bigger. But due to time constraints they had to split it up into two mini games. The later portion is called The Mercenaries Reunion adding more characters while changing some of the mechanics to make things easier. There also exist what used to be PC exclusive The Mercenaries No Mercy where you will quickly be over whelmed by enemies.
More recently in RE5 remastered they combined both The Mercenaries & The Mercenaries Reunion into The Mercenaries United. They also included within it No Mercy variation of it. This also allows you to play with characters from the other Mercenaries mini game together. Also doing character moves helps increase time quickly making it a lot easier to score big.
8. Raid Mode (Resident Evil: Revelations)
Raid Mode has three recreations of the campaign with almost every enemy present with an exclusive one. There is also a hidden level called Ghost Ship that allows you on your own or with a partner to fully explore the ship. Some levels are strictly timed making getting their medals very difficult. Trust me it will continue to get harder as it goes on.
You got a lot of characters to play as. You also get some nice costumes for majority of them. All of them have their own moves to help against enemies. You also have to deal with particular types of enemies including boss type that is all three in one. You can replay the levels as many times you need to stock up on stuff.
9. The Mercenaries (Resident Evil 6)
The Mercenaries made doing character moves even easier in this mini game. On PC version you also can play as the cast of Left 4 Dead 2 with two of their boss zombies present. You get a lot of characters & costumes to play around with. Plenty of levels to keep you busy for hours among hours. It works very similar to RE4 & RE5 with a few key changes like hidden bosses.
They lowered the amount needed to complete the level for The Mercenaries No Mercy by ten. Which means you only have to kill three hundred enemies instead of RE5's four hundred enemies. Originally this had residentnet.net support greatly affecting how you get costumes. In RE6 remastered you have to do very good at Onslaught & Predator to get those costumes.
10. Raid Mode (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)
Raid Mode as stated in my recent comparison of Raid Mode mini games plays more like The Mercenaries. You get a lot of characters to play as with a couple costumes. A lot of levels taking hours to fully complete them all. All the enemies are present in this mini game. For some odd reason for some levels it plays RE6's The Mercenaries theme song.
Some of the roster even feels like The Mercenaries because several characters are in those too. You can upgrade your weapons and parts being a time consuming process. You also get a store to help you in so many ways. This is easily one of my favorite underrated Resident Evil mini games to date. Raid Mode does have some timed levels as well as some timed event missions.
11. Jack's 55th Birthday (Resident Evil VII: Biohazard)
Jack's 55th Birthday has a timer you can't do much about. You can add stuff to increase some stuff you can do. In the end you have to play it smart to score big. If you know how to get SS ranks, you are great at this. You have to deal with most enemies including his wife. There's six levels with two versions of each area.
You often hear Jack saying random stuff. Guess what the goal isn't to survive but to give Jack enough food. You have to know the food combinations that scores big with him. Although it will be difficult trying to do that strategy. Sometimes you have to defeat particular enemies to unlock areas. There is times you aren't sure where gets unlocked after by defeating one of them.
I wondered how many of you noticed the pattern before reading this section. Most of them to some degree are timed in some way. You get to face most enemies of their respective games. You unlock great stuff for mostly the campaign. Although Jack'ss 55th Birthday, most of it's unlockables adds to more stuff you can use in it.
All of them even the easiest among of them will put you on the end to fully complete them. Sometimes it doesn't matter if there isn't many characters or a lot of them. As long it plays great giving me plenty of reasons to keep coming back then that's all that matters. Each mini game brought something new to the experience.
Extreme Mode in the first two levels pretty much get to the end. The final level involves collecting four antivirus bombs. Which sorta came back for Leech Hunter collecting the leeches. The Mercenaries Operation: Mad Jackal gave us ways to increase the timer. Resident Evil 4's The Mercenaries adds bosses coming after you once you're within their score range.
Resident Evil 5's The Mercenaries mini game allows your moves to help more out by adding time. The closest to that was dodging them in RE3's The Mercenaries. Raid Mode allows you to explore more often in most levels. Jack's 55th Birthday has unlockables to make getting an S rank or SS rank much easier.
The entire point of this blog is all of these mini games together are an evolution of their core mini game experience. All of them combine could make an truly amazing Resident Evil game. I felt all of them does serve a purpose or two for later mini games. I would go as far to say these hold up better than their actual campaigns combined.
Yes I know what a bold statement I just made. I honestly felt like anyone in time can play them. They give you just enough to help get you started. All of them continued something from Battle Mode of Saturn port. In a way how the entire franchise owes so much to Sweet Home on Famicom. All of them together is the reason why most of us are a fan in the first place.
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