History Main / SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer

* Katie Tiedrich of ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' [[https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/no-pokemon-allowed-in-my-pokemon-game has this problem.]]

** The Gummi Ship sequences in ''VideoGame/{{Kingdom Hearts|I}}'' or ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. Particularly in ''II'', where the sequences received a much-lauded overhaul which turned the levels into the adrenaline-fueled lovechild of ''VideoGame/StarFox'' and ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoon''.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', ''LethalLavaLand'' becomes a huge skatepark in the later stars after you get the koopa shell. Players have also been known to glide around using the wing cap, trying to collect all the 1-up mushrooms while avoiding landing or falling into the lava.

** The ''Tower of Tragedy'' quiz and "shootout" modes in Banjo-Tooie'' are so neat, Rare includes them as their own mini-games. They're also ridiculously addictive and make great multiplayer fodder.
** One can spend more concentrated time building vehicles in ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts'' than actually focusing on Jiggy Challenges.

** In that vein, most of the "theme park" Zones in the entirety of the series invoke this both in-game and during play; all of them... except for ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic 3]]'''s [[GuideDangIt infamous]] Carnival Night Zone...
** The Special Zones where you tried to get the Chaos Emeralds. Those were a game in their own right. The trope is played straight when you lock Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge on Sonic & Knuckles'. You get a full version of Blue Spheres minigame, with a total of 134,217,728 levels! It also will sidetrack players from playing ''both'' games attached.
** Chao raising in the ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 games]]. For some people, it's the only reason why they still play those games. The first Sonic Adventure also featured two different pinball games in Casinopolis [[note]](one based on Sonic, the other based on [[VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams NiGHTS]])[[/note]] that can prove addicting in their own right, along with a collection of other mini-games like kart-racing time trials, Amy's WhackAMole, and the [[RailShooter Sky Chase stages]] - the UpdatedRerelease added a Game Gear emulator to the main menu, with ''every Game Gear Sonic game'' unlockable by collecting Emblems, some of which are earned through the aforementioned minigames.
** ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' marks a return of the ''Blue Sphere'' minigame as the bonus stages from reaching checkpoints with enough rings, [[spoiler:and beating all of them unlocks a mode similar to the stand-alone ''Blue Sphere'' game with randomly generated levels. It includes the variation with classic rules and a "Mania" variant that adds two new types of spheres.]] The game also contains a minigame in the form of [[spoiler:a remake of ''Puyo Puyo''(/''Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine''), which can also be unlocked to be played at any time after clearing enough bonus stages.]] It's possible to get lost in either of these, spending game sessions not even touching the main platformer because of them.

** ''[[VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards Kirby 64]]'' contains, for no adequately explained reason, three mini-games in addition to the main game. That doesn't stop them from being a total time-sink, and great fun if you happen to play them with your friends. It helps that the "100-Yard Hop" minigame has the popular Gourmet Race theme from ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' as its BGM.

* The WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail feature has overshadowed the other features on ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' -- with the possible exception of ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad''.
** Which spun off of Strong Bad E-mail.

** Website/{{Fark}} has the same division, created when they offered, for $5/month to be able to see the links that weren't approved for the main page. Folks started submitting links that they specifically didn't want on the main page, just to be able to use the comments sections like a forum (Fark does not have a formal "forum", just a mass of rejected links). From that mass, the [=TotalFark=] community was born.
*** Not to mention dozens of other little splits and subgroups on Google Groups, Facebook groups, #fark (IRC). There's even people who, willingly, spend all their time on the Politics tab. Of a website. On the Internet. '''Willingly.'''

* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', the side-jobs were largely regarded as a minor obstacle to blaze through in order to unlock more lucrative assassination jobs. So what happens in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle''? They get turned into [[{{Retraux}} faux 8-bit]] mini-games... and they're just as fun as the main game itself. In particular, "Bug Out" and "Tile in Style" are easily liable to suck your time away. Oh, and if you're not into those, there's the faux-{{Moe}} ShootEmUp in Travis' room, which allows you to blast the ages away...
** The eventual discovery of a hidden "Special" mode in the latter, unlocked by beating the game on Hard without dying once, did not help.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'' is either an overly dark, ContestedSequel to the original or the most awesome video game guitar simulator, letting you play almost any song. Since the game's release, numerous videos have come out of people doing covers of various songs using the game.

** Justified, though, there are certain lizards you must kill to increase your grip power and fruit to raise your HP. But you probably wouldn't know that.
*** There are also the Time attacks after killing the Colossi which can net you features; The Parachute, Explosive Arrows, but the best is a Sword that can kill a colossus in 2-3 hits. So if you wanted this stuff or wanted to experience a certain battle again because it was "epic" to you, then go nuts.

* Pretty much the entire point of ''VideoGame/GarrysMod''.

** Also, the ''working'' Casino in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' [[NoExportForYou for the]] UsefulNotes/PlayStation2. None of the prices were so great -- except the pretty cheap Devils Arms weapon. Or Raine's bunny outfit, costing the most chips.

* VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay: While no one's complaining about the solid single-player campaign, the original game also includes a bunch of surprisingly robust and fun multiplayer modes (Beach, Raptor, Heist, War, Tank, Race, and Deathmatch) that are all available right out of the starting gate, and they are considered to be just as fun, if not more fun than the main game, and being a UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 game, it supports four players off the bat, though they can also be played alone with reasonably intelligent AI opponents. In fact, when the Xbox remake ''Live & Reloaded'' only included one of the modes (a variant of the original games Deathmatch mode) and threw out the rest, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks it was considered a deal breaker for many fans of the original game]].

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsJedISurvivor'' brings back both the collectible customization options and the optional boss fights from ''Fallen Order'', along with some new additions:
** A "Holotactics" minigame, which both grants rewards for beating certain opponents and encourages exploration[[labelnote:*]]The player's unit library is drawn from non-boss enemies they've encountered in the main game.[[/labelnote]].

** Certain new collectibles can be [[ShopFoder traded]] to various characters for upgrades and customization options.

** ''VideoGame/DarkCloud2'' gave you the option to take pictures of items and mix them to create possible new weapons. Cue every time you get to any new place, you whip out the camera and compulsively take pictures of everything and mixing them to get something new.

** Similarly, there are many of us who have popped the disc for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' and ended up catching monkeys for hours on end.

** ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'' replaced Dice Poker with a card game called Gwent. With so many cards to collect, four factions to play as (with the ''Blood and Wine'' expansion pack adding a fifth), and a lot of deck-building possibilities, many a player found themselves clocking more hours with the cards than the rest of the game. Gwent became so popular with the player base, that Creator/CDProjektRed eventually set about making [[VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame a standalone version of the game]], with more extensive rules and multiplayer content to boot. Lampshaded at one point if you challenge a particular NPC to a game of Gwent at a particularly inappropriate time:

** On that note, the side quests as a whole for ''The Witcher 3'' are generally regarded by critics and fans as one of the best collection of side quests in all of gaming, with even some of the most humble side quests having a presentation, writing and moral complexity and nuance that rivals most other games' main story quests. Many players have talked about completely losing themselves for days on end in the sheer number of compelling and addictive side content that were just as tantalizing as the main narrative.

** The [[NintendoHard surprisingly difficult]] Ambulance Rescue mini-game.[[note]]Unless you're playing ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', where carrying it out in a small rural town is a snap.[[/note]]

** The highly controversial HotCoffeeMiniGame.[[note]]At least this one has you [[StealthPun fully in character]].[[/note]]

*** GTA Online itself is prone to distractions. In addition to all the things you can do in single-player mode, the element of player interaction can make the game a {{Griefer}} paradise. After all, who can resist the urge to blow up someone else's expensive personalized car they spent 30 minutes customizing to their tastes while riding in a chopper or tank equipped with long-range explosives and lock on targeting?

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' has some unique activities that can take up a player's time.

* Kaos Mode in ''State of Emergency'' strips out the storyline and just lets you wreak havoc. It's actually more fun than the story mode.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' series, you're supposed to balance [[ItemCrafting alchemy]], combat, and exploration. However, the alchemy mechanics are extremely deep and intricate, so in the games where you don't have [[TimeManagementGame a time limit]], it's easy to spend hours focusing entirely on making the perfect item, chaining and looping syntheses into each other to bump up your quality and get the strongest traits onto one item. The ''Mysterious'' subseries, whose alchemy involves placing tiles onto a grid like a PuzzleGame, can be especially fun, yet time-consuming.