BioShock is still regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made. Its blend of first-person shooter and horror mechanics, highly original story, and unforgettable underwater dystopian setting secured it countless glowing reviews and game of the year awards following its release in 2007. It also spawned two sequels, with BioShock Infinite being particularly successful.
But one aspect of BioShock that is rarely discussed, and was dispensed with after the original game, is the mini game that players had to negotiate each time they wanted to hack one of the FPS’s computer systems, like the security cameras or vending machines. This highly addictive distraction was a perfect mix of puzzle mechanics, race-against-time tension, and risk vs reward balancing.
Bioshock’s Highly Addictive Pipe Puzzle Mini Game
BioShock players attempting to hack any of the game’s turrets or health stations would enter a mini game that required them to swap tiles on a grid, setting out a path of interconnected pipe parts to enable flowing water to make it from one side of the grid to another. Punishment for failure ranged from health damage via electrocution to alerting nearby enemies if the water flow was mistakenly diverted into an alarm tile.
The game was based on Pipe Mania (also known as Pipe Dream), a 1989 Amiga title developed by The Assembly Line, which followed a very similar structure, requiring players to direct slowly-flowing goo known as ‘flooz’ from the start to the end of an on-screen grid. As well as a 3D version released in 2000 and a 2008 remake, the game has also influenced other mini games, such as the one featured in Half Life: Alyx.
The game works very well in BioShock for several reasons. First and foremost, it is fun and satisfying, pitting players in a race against the clock to devise a solution before the dreaded water flow reaches the end of their frantically-laid pipework. Secondly, it presents players with a compelling dilemma: failure resulted in a damaging electric shock, but success would earn them a variety of useful rewards ranging from cheaper vendor prices to conscripted gun turrets that would attack enemies instead of the protagonist.
Another key component is its narrative consonance – the mini game makes perfect sense in an underwater metropolis full of mechanical contraptions and cutting-edge but unreliable technology. It feels like part of BioShock’s environmental storytelling rather than an immersion-breaking bolt-on.
Furthermore, players who did not enjoy the game were given multiple ways to avoid it, either by using “autohack” devices to automatically solve the puzzles, or by spending in-game currency to “buy out” the machines. Alternatively, players could skip the hacking altogether and find alternative workarounds, like using stealth to avoid the security cameras.
Other Memorable Mini Games
Of course, BioShock was not the first game to weave a popular mini game into the experience. The Final Fantasy games have featured several well-liked mini games, including Final Fantasy 7’s famous snowboarding and motorcycle sequences, or the various arcade games available in the beloved RPG’s Gold Saucer amusement park.
Final Fantasy 8, meanwhile, incorporated an entirely optional card game, which could be played against most of the denizens of its unnamed fantasy world by pressing an alternative button instead of the usual dialogue input. The competition enabled cards to be won and lost, including competing for rare cards, and some players found building up their collection even more addictive than the main game.
Other titles, like Nintendo’s WarioWare series, eschew a “main game” altogether to act entirely as a series of mini games. The popularity of this franchise shows that there is most definitely an ongoing market for mini games, and that their simple mechanics often appeal to players looking for a quick and enjoyable gaming fix.
BioShock is available now for iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.