History ShowWithinAShow / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has Inkopolis News, a news show hosted by the Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie. Its primary purpose is to report which battle stages are currently available on the online modes, as well as information on the Splatfest events. When you start the game for the first time, the duo will also report on the disappearance of the Great Zapfish, a crucial plot point in the game's story mode. Upon clearing the game for the first time, a news segment plays reporting the return of the Great Zapfish. This news broadcast returns for the same purpose in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', now hosted by Pearl and Marina of the pop duo Off the Hook.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4,'' you find a radio station dedicated to a RadioDrama entitled "The Silver Shroud." Not only was the PC a fan before the Great War, you can find the costume and prop gun, bring it to a guy named "Kent," who modifies them into functional armor and weaponry, and act it out on Goodneighbor's local gang of drug-pushing thugs (who inexplicably wear Prewar three-peice suits for the "30's gangster" vibe) during the quest ''The Silver Shroud.''

* Travis Touchdown's favorite anime in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' is ''Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly'', which appears to be a MagicalGirl Mecha series. We never see the show itself, but he has a T-shirt with the main characters on it (and more can be bought), there are posters of it all over his motel room (including one that he presses to and sighs, ''{{Moe}}~''), he seems to have stolen his [[CallingYourAttacks attack names]] from it, and he plays an upward-scrolling [[ShootEmUp SHMUP]] based on the series to pass the time on the subway on his way to one of the game's boss encounters.
** Creator/Suda51 has expressed a little interest in {{Defictionalization}} of the show if the opportunity comes up. Presumably it would be a scathing parody of anime tropes... or just plain MindScrew. Or both.
*** We get to see the opening sequence in the sequel. It appears to be a ClicheStorm parody of {{Moe}} MagicalGirl shows, but [[GuiltyPleasure might actually be interesting to watch]]. ([[{{Otaku}} Travis's]] obsession with it has no excuse, mind)

** Alphys is a huge fan of ''Mew Mew Kissy Cutie'', an anime, though she doesn't like the sequel (a likely nod to ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'' and its poorly-received follow-up, ''Tokyo Mew Mew à la Mode''). The anime is only discussed and never seen, though in the Nintendo Switch version, [[spoiler:the Mad Dummy]] ends up possessing a ''Mew Mew Kissy Cutie'' figure owned by Alphys, becoming [[spoiler:Mad Mew Mew]]. In ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', Alphys actually enjoys the sequel.
** Also in ''Deltarune'', Toriel mentions that Kris and Asriel used to play a game called ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smashing Fighters]]''. Asriel liked playing as [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland "the green dinosaur"]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': Alphys is a huge fan of ''Mew Mew Kissy Cutie'', an anime, though she doesn't like the sequel. Said anime is only discussed, however. In ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', Alphys instead ''likes'' the sequel.
** ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'': Toriel mentions that Kris and Asriel used to play a game called ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smashing Fighters]]''. Asriel liked playing [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros "the green dinosaur"]].

* In the ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' series, ''Dick Justice'' is a SelfParody of the first game. ''Address Unknown'' is eerily close enough Max Payne's story to feed his paranoia and guilt over the death of his wife; although he avoids making the association to himself in waking monologue, it does haunt his dreams. ''Lords and Ladies'' in ''2'', a period piece about the going-ons of the Duke of York's pursuit of a maiden he loves over the objections of the Matriarch of York and the Duke's brother, also parallels the side plot in the main game regarding Max and Mona on one side as, and [[spoiler:BigBadFriend Vladimir Lem and TheMole Detective Winterson in gender-flipped roles]] as the Matriarch and the brother who try to stop them.

* In the ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' series, ''Dick Justice'' is a SelfParody of the first game. ''Address Unknown'' is eerily close enough Max Payne's story to feed his paranoia and guilt over the death of his wife; although he avoids making the association to himself in waking monologue, it does haunt his dreams.

** The main character of the show, Annie, is one of the many potential future DLC characters for the game. [[ComicBooksAreReal Her character is actually real.]]

* In ''Love & Pies'' Amelia and her best friend Yuki are lifelong fans of a TV series called ''The Mysteries of Miguel''. When Amelia's mother disappears and is accused of arson in her absence, their love of the show spurs Amelia and Yuki to investigate the situation.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', there is the movie franchise Blasto, an exploitation series produced on the PrivatelyOwnedSociety planet Illium. A clear nod to the Film/DirtyHarry movies, they star a member of a pacifistic and deeply spiritual race of floating jellyfish as the lead character. In the third game, more [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyK8nopOwqs advertisements and trailers for the sixth movie]] can be found, which include members of other often discriminised races in the other roles. In the ''Citadel'' {{DLC}}, Shepard and Javik guest star in the seventh installment, [[WhoWritesThisCrap and are not amused]].

** Tragedy on the Hills: "This was supposed to be a murder mystery. The real mystery was how this got published."
** Our Twisted Summer: "Why was so much time spent setting up all those characters!? There are at least three characters not mentioned post page 75. This includes the main character!"
** Axis Invert: "No! This one’s too awful! This book was perfect. Such a beautiful story… Incredible prose! Tight pacing! Amazing characters! It was all a dream! And then a rock crushes the main character!"

* The quest "Awful’s Beauty" in ''VideoGame/BugFables'' has you collecting three poorly written books for a charcater who collects them. He will then talk about how awful thos ebooks are:

* One questline in ''VideoGame/BugFables'' has you collecting three poorly written books for a charcater who collects them. He will then talk about how awful thos ebooks are:

* ''VideoGame/RawData'' has "E-Men", an {{Animesque}} propaganda cartoon that demonizes the player characters and their actions. The developers of the game went so far as to put a trailer for the cartoon [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBVl2iHYJCg on youtube]].

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': None of Johnny Cage's movies where actually ''shown'' in the game, but plenty were mentioned. A few notable ones were ''Dragon Fist'' (which had two sequels), ''HWAAAAA!!'' (which won an Oscar, according to ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat Deadly Alliance]]''), ''Sudden Violence'' (supposedly award-winning), and ''Ninja Mime'', which was a box-office flop in America; Cyrax loathed this one. He also supposedly stared in movies that were based on his experiences in the first two games of the franchise and ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat Deadly Alliance]]''. (The last one appeared to be his greatest success as an actor, but unfortunately, only existed in his non-cannon ending to that game.)

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' features Type 2, 3 ''and'' 4 in the ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' world. Rex is a huge fan of ''Verum Rex'', a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' {{expy}}, where the main character, Yozora (a Noctis {{expy}}), [[UnreliableNarrator allegedly]] resembles Sora, and is accompanied by his friends, Aegis and Magia, trying to save a yet-unnamed-girl (a Lunafreya/Stella {{expy}}). From the same game are Gigas, a type of mecha enemy prominently featured in the game, which also have toys based off of them that Sora and co. end up fighting. Presumably, they're Magitek {{expy}}s. [[spoiler:They're all RealAfterAll. ...Sort of. Yozora is very much real, as is the Nameless Star, however the city they inhabit, Quadratum, is a "fictional" world - an unreality akin to an imaginary number]]. [[{{Understatement}} Kingdom Hearts is a bit of a MindScrew.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' world in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', Rex is a fan of ''Verum Rex'', a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' {{expy}}, where the main character, Yozora (a Noctis {{expy}}), apparently resembles Sora, and is accompanied by his friends, the shield-carrying Aegis and sorcerer Magia. From the same game are Gigas, a type of mecha enemy prominently featured in the game, which also have toys based off of them that Sora and co. end up fighting. Presumably, they're Magitek {{expy}}s. [[spoiler:The secret ending implies Yozora is RealAfterAll]].
** Later, the characters come across a toyline based on the real-life figures made for ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015 Dissidia Final Fantasy NT]]'' -- which makes this a case of RecursiveCanon as well, since it's been shown that ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' characters also exist in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' universe.

* ''VideoGame/TokyoXanadu'' features "MagicalGirl Alisa" a very popular show in the city. Also serves as a CrossoverPunchline since the main characters shown are from Creator/{{Falcom}}'s ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails Series]]'' entry; ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel''.

* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife''/''VideoGame/CounterStrike''/''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' universe and the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' universe are [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall video games within]] ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'''s reality. When picking up a crowbar, Louis may say "I feel like Gordon Freeman!"; when picking up an SMG, he might say "This is just like ''Counter-Strike''!"; and he has a [[FaceOfTheBand Heavy]] bobble head on his desk.

* ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'' has recurring {{Sentai}} series ''Phoenix Ranger Featherman'', first introduced in ''VideoGame/Persona2'' as ''Phoenix Ranger Featherman R''.

* In the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series for the [=PlayStation=], Clank comes to star in a ''Film/JamesBond''-like series called ''Secret Agent Clank''. (Ratchet is consigned to the role of Agent Clank's bumbling chauffeur, to his annoyance.) In the appropriately titled PSP game ''Secret Agent Clank'', Clank actually assumes his television identity to help clear Ratchet when the latter is framed for a crime.

* ''VideoGame/AdventureTheInsideJob'' is a sort of meta-game set in the world of ''different'' video games. While most of them exist in our real world, some were actually invented by the author.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' has ''Legend of the Prairie King'', a top-down shooter that's fully playable from the Stardrop Saloon. There's also a co-op mode, though it's only played during a relationship event with Abigail.