Now that you've beaten the game, why not relax?
You just beat the game! Congratulations! Now, time to view the Closing Credits...
Except that certain games have a Mini-Game in which you interact with the credits themselves. Doing this can make players actually pay attention to the names in the credits, since otherwise people tend to ignore or outright skip them. Doubly helps if there's an in-game reward for playing the mini-game well.
It's common that the game's usual controls carry over to the credits in this case, though it's not the only way to interact with the names of the people behind the game.
Compare Creative Closing Credits.
Examples:
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Action Adventure
- Part of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]'s credits is done in dive mode, where your goal is to collect all the golden letters. Doing this unlocks a message.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, there's a mini game at the credits where you collect rupees.
Action Game
- Starting with the third game, Devil May Cry gives you an infinite number of mooks to beat up; killing enough unlocks an additional scene afterwards.
- In NieR: Automata, to unlock ending E, you need to play through a grueling Bullet Hell minigame that has you blast through the entire credits sequence. After losing several times, you'll be able to accept help from other players to make the minigame much easier. Afterwards, you can choose to offer the same help you received by relinquishing your data and deleting your save file.
- Vanquish has you shooting meteors with the development team on them.
- The last level of Zombies Ate My Neighbors is set in the Lucasfilm games offices. You can talk to the game developers (and George Lucas himself!) while shooting monsters and rescuing hostages.
Adventure Game
- In Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse, the credits sequence features Mickey using his fighting moves from the Crash Barrels minigame as he blasts the names slowly scrolling by. There's even a counter that shows how many you destroyed each letter.
- Sam & Max:
- Sam & Max Hit the Road features a fully-playable, carnival style "shoot the targets" minigame during the end credits.
- Season 2 of the Telltale Games series tosses targets up on the screen during the opening credits representing features of the cases you've already solved, though it doesn't keep score.
Beat 'em Up
- Bayonetta has short extra fights during the credits. You even get ranked for each one!
- Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage has the actual final boss fight against Carnage occur during the credits, made harder because you have no Assist Characters for this fight (them having all departed due to thinking that Carnage had been defeated in the previous battle.
- The Warriors, similar to Devil May Cry, featured a battle at one point in the credits. You play as Masai, and you and the Riffs beat up the Rogues.
- The Wonderful 101 does the exact same thing as Bayonetta, complete with ranking you for each one.
First Person Shooter
- The Unreal Tournament Game Mod Operation Na Pali had a series of playable scenes and minigames acting as credits. It included among others a small Super Mario Bros. 1 level and a Pong game played against an AI.
Fighting Game
- In Ehrgeiz, (a Square fighting game best known for including Final Fantasy VII characters) the credits play during the final boss battle. This is actually important to at least one ending: When the boss is defeated, a number of bonus items appear, including coins, jewels, and Han Dehan's severed leg. If you're playing as Han, your ending is determined by whether you recover his leg before the timer runs out.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2006): After it's revealed that the events of the story mode were Billy's fault, Mandy suggests a mode where you can just beat up the culprit. The end credits minigame feature her doing just that, using a flamethrower and a sledgehammer to beat the instigator mercilessly, as well as destroy the credits.
- Punch-Out!!: In the Wii version, you can correct inaccuracies (mirrored/upside down letters and boxer names) in the credits for points.
- In Street Fighter EX 3, you can mow down an infinite number of Mooks during the end credits, including Andore from Final Fight, who got bigger the more times you defeated him.
- It's a Super Smash Bros. tradition:
- 64: Shooting the names in the credits would only bring up more specific info about the person's contribution.
- Melee: Same as before, but more dynamic, giving a feel similar to rail shooter, and the game would report your score at the end of the credits sequence. High scores did nothing, though there was an urban legend that shooting all the names would unlock Toad as a playable character.
- Brawl: A roll call of characters/things in the game. It keeps track of your score, and you gain coins from shooting more targets which can be used elsewhere in-game. The actual credits, played after completion of the game's story mode, are traditional for once, and so long that any game with them would be unwieldy.
- for 3DS/Wii U: As the credits scroll, you can attack them with your character to knock them into the background, uncovering a picture of your character. You get a small amount of bonus gold depending on how much of the picture you uncover by the time the credits are done (1G for every 1% of the picture uncovered).
- Ultimate: A simple Shoot 'em Up game, with a meter at the bottom with a few markers; each marker reached adds another treasure to your rewards. Like in Brawl, the story mode still has its own traditional credits scene upon completion.
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has 2: the normal variety involves Doronjo and her henchmen riding a bicycle and collecting golden letters, while if you beat the game as Roll in the Updated Re-release version of the game, you can fly around the screen on her broom instead. Collecting all golden letters is necessary to unlock a shooter minigame in the UR version of the game.
Miscellaneous Games
- In Flower, the credits are an entire level, and can be played and replayed whenever one wishes. You even get a trophy for completing it 100%.
- Katamari Damacy and its sequels had different minigames during the credits. The original had the Prince rolling up all the nations of the Earth in a giant katamari, We Love Katamari had the Prince picking up his cousins in a katamari while dodging the King of All Cosmos (who was rolling the sun), Me and My Katamari had a 8-bit side-scrolling platformer version of the typical Katamari Damacy level, and Beautiful Katamari had a similar Retraux credits mini-game, but as a top-down shooter instead.
- Possibly the only Real-Time Strategy game so far to feature one, Metal Fatigue features a controllable battle on its credits screen. There's no primary interface though, so all you or the computer can do is simply throw your troops into the fray.
- Retro Game Challenge ends with one final shooter sequence with a 16-bit version of the ship from Cosmic Gate up against Game Master Arino. The sequel has a similar minigame, with the added option of being able to evade his attacks via barrel rolls and being able to collect powerups. If you chose a girl character in the beginning, you're also given the option of using autofire by pressing Y.
Party Game
- Bishi Bashi: The final stage of Hyper Bishi Bashi Champ is set to a relaxing background music with the players blowing up fireworks and the game's credits scrolling at the bottom of the screen. However, in both the arcade's Choose Your Game mode and the console version, this round is treated more like a normal minigame with score counters and without the credits.
- Mario Party Superstars: The game's credits roll while an album showing minigames from across the history of the series pages itself. At first, the minigames' pictures are shown as taken from their original versions, but tapping them will update them with this game's modern graphics.
- WarioWare:
- WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! has one where you shoot panels to reveal letters in the credits, and keeps track of how many you hit and how many appear in total at that point.
- WarioWare: Touched! lets you manipulate little, blue video game shapes (the Nintendo GameCube logo, The Triforce, etc.) in different ways as the credits roll.
- WarioWare: Smooth Moves has you move a hole in the stage floor around, sending the Miis of the creators falling in it.
- WarioWare: D.I.Y. has you destroy UFOs that are carrying the names across the screen. There's actually a medal (achievement) for getting a perfect score!
- WarioWare: Get It Together! lets you knock the credits off the screen with the game's playable characters. In a similar vein to D.I.Y., there's a mission (achievement) for getting a perfect score.
Platform Game
- Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge has credits that take place on a slide, where you can collect tokens. You can later take those tokens to an arcade machine in one level to unlock the game's minigames in free-play mode.
- Donkey Kong Bananza: The credits for the Emerald Rush DLC is a level that has you hunting for emeralds by smashing the credits.
- Freeware Steam game Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls has this as well. Behind the end credits you see Chelshia and enemies as white silhouettes on the black background. You can still move Chelshia and punch the baddies around, and there's even a counter that shows how many of them you defeated.
- Kirby:
- In Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, the credits roll immediately after defeating the final boss. You still have control of Kirby during this sequence, so you can continuously attack the boss to your heart's content.
- There's a fishing minigame in Kirby Mass Attack during the credits. There's even a Medal hidden in there!
- Kirby: Planet Robobot has a fairly simple one where you use the Robobot Armor to punch developer names into the camera, recording your score at the end. In Meta Knightmare Returns, you use Meta Knight to slice the developer names instead.
- Kirby Star Allies has you and your friends beating up waves of enemies and collecting stars for points, culminating with a boss fight depending on which mode you completed (Dedede for Story Mode, Meta Knight for Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!, and Marx for Heroes in Another Dimension). In Guest Star ????, a crowd populated by every character you've cleared the mode with will be watching you, and the character you're playing as will join them at the end.
- Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 and 2 both feature a playable X during the credits for the compilation (which play either at the end of X Challenge or can be triggered from the Options menu.) X is able to move around and destroy the credits, and destroying enough of them before the credits reach a certain point triggers an English version of the track "Re:Future" from Legacy Collection's soundtrack (as well as an achievement.)
- In the credits for the Wii version of Sonic Colors (and its remaster Sonic Colors Ultimate), you can use the homing attack and various Wisp powers to attack the names displayed and get rings. You even get extra lives for your rings at the end. It's a good thing, too, because the credits are 12 minutes long on Wii and even longer in Ultimate.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii has you hitting the letters of the developers' names as blocks to get coins. In New Super Mario Bros. U, you collect coins from bubbles instead.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 allows you to run around as Mario (or Luigi) in moving dioramas of some of the levels. Once you have all 120 stars, you can use a Bee Mushroom to fly around the levels and even fly off the screen and die.
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder has the developers' names scroll past in one of two diagonals, while your chosen character runs around trying to hit them all and navigate various Wonder effects.
- Super Monkey Ball had you collecting Bananas whilst the credits got in your way.
- Korean Steam platformer Wicce has, after the end credits, a minigame where stars with names attached to them (probably the backers) fall down; if you can get to the sequence's ending without missing more than three, you'll get an achievement.
Puzzle Game
- A Little to the Left: The credits sequence has you as the reoccurring cat, with your hand now being a paw to knock around scenes from previous levels and the names shown. There's an achievement for batting away everything.
- Meteos lets you play a game with tiny blocks during the credits—any Meteos launched here count towards fusion, the two rare Meteo types appear more often, and the credits last longer the higher your Difficulty Level was.
- Pushmo lets you jump around and collect 100 stars.
- In Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop, the main story credits has a simple endless Puyo Puyo mode integrated.
- Tetris: The Grand Master and its sequels all have one. From the second game onwards the tetriminos become invisible. While it is not required, clearing them will award you with an orange line on the leaderboard in the attract screen.
Rhythm Game
- Subverted by beatmania IIDX 16: Empress; the credits themselves are not a minigame, but the game's ending theme later became a playable track entitled "THANK YOU FOR PLAYING", with the credits roll as its background video (although with the composer's name, SUPER STAR 満-MITSURU-, given a special highlight effect when it comes up). The song has actually been revived into later versions, and still has the Empress credits roll attached to it. By contrast, the closing themes from other IIDX games — including DJ Troopers, Sirius, and Resort Anthem ("THE LAST STRIKER", "Vermillion", and "Everlasting Resort") — have also shown up as playable songs, although they got standard background videos to varying degrees ("THE LAST STRIKER" is a montage of clips from the "generic" BGA loops some songs use, "Vermillion" has a dedicated video, and "Everlasting Resort" uses a generic BGA with overlays) rather than credits rolls.
- On DanceDanceRevolution Ultramix 2 for the original Xbox, you can play a little minigame during the credits that involves hitting chains of arrows appearing in the background, getting enough points in it unlocks a song.
- Later Guitar Hero games have had a final song played over the credits roll in career mode, being played without any scoring or possibility of failure whatsoever. These have included "Through the Fire and Flames" on III, "Pull Me Under" on World Tour, "21st Century Schizoid Man" on 5, and "American Pie" on Band Hero.
- In Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F's credits, you can throw leeks at the credits to destroy them and score points. Amusingly, after you see the credits for the first time, you can unlock the ability to play it whenever you want, and new features are unlocked as you play the credits game multiple times.
- Rhythm Doctor's credits song, "Helping Hands," is treated as a normal level, meaning you also need to get an S+ rank on it if you want 100% completion.
- Some of the Rhythm Heaven games have this. Rhythm Heaven for the DS has the minigame "Airboarders", Rhythm Heaven Fever has a remake of "Night Walk" from the original Rhythm Tengoku for the Gameboy Advance, and Rhythm Heaven Groove has a game called "Deep Sea". All three are automatically played during the credits proper, but can be played manually after viewing the credits once. And you'd better, because they all show up in their games' respective Final Exam Bosses.
Roguelike
- In One Step From Eden, you can use your deck to the destroy scrolling list of Kickstarter backers after reaching the credits. The names have different HP values, presumably the number of dollars backed.
Role-Playing Game
- The first Boktai game had one of these every second clear of the game if Otenko is saved, consisting of Django picking up items while dodging bombs. Par for the game, you get better items and get faster the stronger the sun and the more items you pick up without hitting a bomb.
- Final Fantasy:
- In Final Fantasy IX if you input a code you can play blackjack after the credits.
- Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales has a minigame where you have to tap the letter "O" where-ever it appears in the credits, while trying to avoid other letters. You have to figure this out for yourself, though.
- After getting the Golden Ending in Undertale, at the end of the credits you have to dodge, bullet-hell style, the names of over nine-hundred people who contributed enough to the Kickstarter campaign to get their name in the credits. If you manage to avoid hitting any of them, you can unlock a Developer's Room behind the mysterious door in Snowdin Forest.
Shoot 'em Up
- Purifying the Tree of Memories at the end of Child of Eden.
- Game Tengoku allows you to blow up the ending credits for points, before a second harder loop starts.
- The Data East arcade The Great Ragtime Show (AKA Boogie Wings) let the player fly their biplanes around the credits, and the appearance of every NPC sprite and also of every rideable vehicle in the game for your amusement.
- Star Soldier on the PSP allowed you to shoot the credits for points. You could also blow up and lose your power ups (but never your lives).
Stealth-Based Game
- Assassin's Creed II throws you out of the Animus when the credits begin and you fight as Desmond, now having a hidden blade and all of Ezio's abilities, some Abstergo guards, when the game leaves you at a cliffhanger. Still, the credits roll for quite some time even after the level has been beaten.
- In Hitman: Blood Money, you play the last level over the credits, after Number 47 wakes up from his faked death and starts wasting everyone at his funeral.
Survival Horror
- The Typing of the Dead: typing out the names of the creators listed in the credits will make dancing zombies jump out from the containers.
- Typing the entire credits and freeing all the zombies unlocks the New Game Plus features (such as AI partners/opponents for "two-player" mode).
Third Person Shooter
- In Kid Icarus: Uprising, you can shoot the names to turn them red, and it counts how many you get. One of the treasure hunt goals is to get at least a certain number.
- Splatoon 1 and Splatoon 2 feature credits which can only be seen if the player shoots ink at the walls. Splatoon 3 has the credits already revealed, but the player can still shoot ink for good measure.
Visual Novel
- During the credits after Case 5 of the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game, you can play a little version of the fingerprinting mini-game, allowing you to see some concept art of each of the characters.
Web Games
- The Bright in the Screen, a surreal, psychological horror flash game allows you to play a creepily pointless game while it loads. A man trapped in a room can unleash seemingly very destructive energy blasts... But there are no enemies to attack, and no way to get out of the room. Even the loading screen interactively messes with your mind.