A lot of video games involve characters. Sometimes those characters get it on. Of course, since this is a video game, it's only a couple more steps of logic to present those, err, activities as part of gameplay. The result is this trope, so named after the Unusual Euphemism used in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. (See below for more details on its amusing history.)
Please note that this trope does not concern the general depiction of sex in a video game, or where the sex is merely an option a la Optional Sexual Encounter. (Though the two often overlap.) This trope concerns when said encounter is interactive. If the player doesn't have some control over what happens, it doesn't count. This means games like The Sims are right out, since you can tell your characters to "Woohoo," but the act itself is a Cut Scene with no interactivity, Game Mods notwithstanding.
This trope often crosses over with Optional Sexual Encounter, since (most) games do not make sex mandatory. Often overlaps with Ikea Erotica ("press B to blow!").
Examples:
- Each game from God of War has one. Amusingly, they are Safe For Work Everywhere But America (SFWEBUS), since the Quick Time Event takes place against a Sexy Discretion Shot background. III does something similar, but subverts the Sexy Discretion Shot by panning the camera to Aphrodite's two half-naked handmaidens fondling each other while watching the action and eventually starting a private minigame themselves offscreen.
- In Ghost of Sparta, Kratos visits a brothel in Sparta and manages to entertain EIGHT women at once.... it must have been a really large bed!
- Subverted in Ascension. There are a few moments where Kratos is about to have sex, but he doesn't go through with it because he realizes these are illusions caused by the Furies. Considering the game take place six months after Kratos killed his family, it would probably be in bad-taste to include such a mini-game anyway.
- History repeats, and God of War (PS4) also has no minigame. Given that he lost another wife and is trying to raise a living son, promiscuity would set a really bad example.
- Parodied in Robot Chicken, where Kratos negotiates with Athena over how many Red Orbs he'll agree to a threesome with a man. Ironically, Spartans like Kratos tended to be more into men than women.
- Parodied in Jak X where unlocking the bonus content titled "Hot Coffee" shows a quick scene with Daxter and Tess drinking coffee, then Daxter looks at the camera and snaps, "What!?"
- Subverted again in Lair, when viewing the unlockable "Hot Coffee" content takes you to a scene... Of some making hot coffee with a brewer.
- The original version of Fahrenheit has several sex scenes, the first of them being optional and interactive, which were both Dummied Out when the game was released in the United States under the title Indigo Prophecy. The developers claimed that the removal didn't affect the plot.
- Heavy Rain features a love scene that starts out interactive, though unlike in Fahrenheit, the camera cuts away at a certain point.
- In HuniePop, once you manage to get a girl back to your bedroom, you must complete a faster-paced version of the match-three puzzles in which you must fill a rapidly-draining bar by matching shapes, with each match earning you a moan of pleasure.
- Parodied in Achievement Unlocked 2, where the elephant protagonist runs and leaps around a giant coffee mug.
- Another Flash platformer, Humbugger, in which you play a chicken, has a sequence in which a rooster appears out of a bush. Chicken and rooster then disappear into the bush together, and the top of the screen becomes a reaction game. Hitting the right keys causes the bush to shake, and the game gets steadily faster. Completing this game causes an egg to roll out of the bush. A chick then hatches from the egg, and becomes the new playable character for a while.
- The Bossa Nova minigame in Rhythm Heaven Fever is an...odd case of this. While the visuals aren't sexual in any way, the noises the two characters make throughout the song
are clearly meant to remind you of something.
- Elona Plus adds an event called "Sleep Sharing" that can happen if you try to sleep while one of your companions is holding a special item. Nothing is shown, and nothing sexually explicit is written, either, but it's pretty clear what it's supposed to be. When it happens, you select various actions that increase your and your partner's "limit" by different amounts, and the goal is to get both participants to reach their limit at the same time. Your reward is improved relationship with your partner and a bottle of blood (a result of Lost in Translation; in the original Japanese, the item is a non-specific bodily fluid), which is only useful as Shop Fodder.
- The Roguelike H-Game Omega Labyrinth Z has been banned in multiple Western countries due to including this with blatantly loli-designed characters.
- Omega Labyrinth Life, on the other hand, has been released in western countries on PC, the Nintendo Switch, and a very heavily censored version on the PlayStation 4 in protest of Sony of Japan's CEO Kenichiro Yoshida’s draconian censorship of Japanese games.
- Mass Effect gets an honorable mention here. It does not actually exhibit this trope, as its Optional Sexual Encounter was completely non-interactive, but it was accused of having such a minigame (incorrectly) at the height of the Hot Coffee scandal, and reaped the rewards of free press. Special mention goes to Jack Thompson, who, for some reason, believed the "scandal" was overblown. This is coming from the same guy who called Grand Theft Auto and every other First-Person Shooter a Murder Simulator.
- Temple of Elemental Evil, a Dungeons & Dragons video game made by Troika, originally had a brothel that was later Dummied Out. With the Circle of Eight Mod Pack, it becomes available again. Inside, the player can purchase sexual favors in dialogue which "leave very little to the imagination."
- Final Fantasy X-2: comes damn near this trope; there's a minigame about halfway through where Yuna disguises herself as an enemy goon, goes to her arch-rival's mansion, and winds up unwittingly drafted into a massage minigame. Said rival tends to let out an orgasmic "AH! THERE!" when you hit a sweet spot; there's also some snarky innuendo before and after from her two chief goons.
- The Elder Scrolls: Given the series' large and industrious modding community, it should not come as a surprise that many game mods of this type exist. To note a few examples:
- Morrowind has a rather well-done and popular version.
- Two major mods add such minigames to Oblivion. One is actually pretty decent, if you can find the translation patch and like Nintendo Hard (heh, heh) minigames.
- Amorous Adventures for Skyrim adds dozens of Optional Sexual Encounters. If you only install the main files, the mod has a fade to black when the player character has sex, but it also offers compatibility with a sex mod adding graphical and interactive sex scenes.
- The Neverwinter Nights mod A Dance with Rogues took the easy route and used the dialogue system to create some.
- This is one of the selling points for Valhalla Knights 3 as spending enough money in a shop results in a little "Sexy Time" with the hostess and the game makes you work that touch screen!
- There are a few dating sim games on Newgrounds that have this, usually in the form of 'alternate pressing up and down' or just plain Button Mashing.
- As mentioned, The Sims does not support this out of the box, but people have changed that with Game Mods.
- Plenty of that in 7 Sins, where sex is definitely not optional. During the scenes (where both parties leave their undergarments on), the player has to finish one or several Mini Games with the sex as the backdrop. Successful completion of the minigame results in the character's increased affection for you, while a failure is not seen favorably. The sounds made by the player's partner during the minigame reflect how close he is to completion.
- The entire goal of Custer's Revenge is to have sex with a native woman while dodging incoming spears. At least, it's generally agreed that that's what's going on, as the incredibly bad graphics (even for its day) make it hard to tell. note
- Borderline example with Assassin's Creed II. One of Ezio's conquests early in the game involves Action Commands to kiss the girl and take her clothes off.
- Centurion: Defender of Rome had an example, if you managed to negotiate a peaceful alliance with Egypt. Cut to a night encounter with Cleopatra, where you have to negotiate a different kind of alliance...
- Grand Theft Auto:
- The Trope Namer is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a game which, as released, does not actually let you control the player's sexual activities — you just consent to going up to the girl's apartment for "coffee", and then hear a lot of moaning. Interactivity was originally programmed in, but later isolated from gameplay so that there was no way to reach it; hackers discovered it and released a patch to get access to the minigame on June 09, 2005, prompting a huge furor from Moral Guardians. Rockstar Games benefited from the press but lost a lot of money from the lawsuits, as well as from having to pull the game from shelves to be fixed and re-released.
- Averted in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. When Maria invites invites Toni in for some "coffee" after the conclusion of an early mission, Toni automatically turns her down, perhaps a nod to the controversy.
- With Grand Theft Auto IV, the reactions of the Moral Guardians are Hilarious in Hindsight. While you still do not see anything when you go up to a girlfriend's apartment, the prostitution cutscenes have gotten upgraded to a full Optional Sexual Encounter - including a choice of services, and realistic animations to go with them. While the characters remain clothed and partially-obscured, it essentially boils down to Hot Coffee - minus the interactivity. While that itself means that it isn't part of this trope, it's still pretty interesting that the Moral Guardians haven't said 'boo' about it. Apparently sex is okay in video games, as long as you can't interact with it. Yes, despite all the various illegal and immoral activities one can do in the series, a perfectly legal and consensual heterosexual encounter is what raised the most controversy. The game even references the Hot Coffee incident by awarding the player an achievement/trophy entitled "Warm Coffee" when they have said Optional Sexual Encounter with anyone for the first time.
- Saints Row:
- Saints Row 2 has a button-matching minigame when the PC has sex with random people in secluded locations. You don't even get to see anything. Waste of a perfectly good Virtual Paper Doll.
- In co-op for both Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: The Third, Escort missions have the second player pleasing the client in the backseat rather than having to find a hooker to do the work for them.
- Way of the Samurai 4 has "night crawling" activities, where you set up a rendezvous with an NPC, sneak into their house at night and find her, and then take them to an inn. There, you partake in "sexy time"; a.k.a. fight her until most of her clothes fall off. Yes, it actually is historically accurate (well, except for the fighting part).
- Downplayed but present in Red Dead Redemption II when bathing in most hotels. You have the option for a deluxe bath in which an attractive woman helps you bathe. You can give inputs on body parts to wash and make small talk.