Examples of a Show Within a Video Game.
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Examples of type 1 (characters involved in production)
- Night Springs in Alan Wake, an obvious pastiche of The Twilight Zone (1959), which Alan wrote a few episodes of before writing novels, as his manager Barry later mentions. It fits type two as well, as Alan gets to watch the show on certain TV sets during the course of the game.
- We also get to read two pages from Alan's most recent novel, The Sudden Stop, a reference to Remedy Entertainment's earlier Max Payne games. The pages are even written in Max's Private Eye Monologue style and read by his voice actor James McCaffrey.
- The sequel/Gaiden Game Alan Wake's American Nightmare plays out like an episode of Night Springs. In fact, it is one of Alan's episodes which he tweaked slightly to help him get back to the real world.
- The first batch of Downloadable Content levels for Alan Wake II take place as episodes of Night Springs, with Mr. Door providing beginning and ending narration for the episodes.
- Die Hard: Vendetta has a fictional film trilogy, the Galaxy Thief series. In fact, The Dragon used to be a Hollywood A-lister who's the star of the first two films, but after Galaxy Thief II receives mediocre reviews which leads to him being recast, he then allies himself with the villains to commit a terrorist attack on the third movie's premiere out of spite.
- In a sense, the entirety of Dynamite Headdy is a show-within-a-show. The entire game takes place in a puppet show that has been hijacked by one of the puppets to tell a different story.
- A radio show on Fallout 3 featured "adventurer Herbert "Daring" Dashwood and his stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle." In each episode Dashwood's bumbling landed them in situations Argyle would singlehandedly extract them from. It turns out Dashwood is a real person who the player can meet in-game. He claims he wasn't really as big of a fool as the radio show portrays him as, but that the real Argyle was just as much of a badass as in the show. You can find Argyle's corpse in Rockopolis, where he fell trying to escape from the slavers (which Dashwood accidentally led to Rockopolis and barely managed to escape himself), the news of which will crush Dashwood.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy VI: The in-game opera house is staging a production of Maria and Draco — a tale of love set in a time of war. Due to the mother of all contrived coincidences, party member Celes is forced to play the role of Maria, whose true love, Draco, is presumed to have died in wartime. When Maria is forcibly betrothed to the conquering Prince Ralse, she mournfully sings to her lost love, stating that even if she must move on, her heart will always belong to Draco.
- In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud and Aeris (or Tifa or Yuffie, depending on how you play the game — though the scene is just outright skipped if you're with Barret) get to play pivotal roles in a brief play during the Gold Saucer segment.
- The start of Final Fantasy IX revolves around the theater troupe Tantalus performing a play called I Want to be Your Canary (Queen Brahme's favourite) for the birthday of Garnet, princess of Alexandria. In actuality, the performance is merely a front, for Regent Cid of Lindblum's order to 'kidnap' Garnet (who, ironically, wanted to run away, anyway).
- Grand Theft Auto series:
- GTA Radio in various games features radio programming, including talk radio and news.
- In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, one of the radio advertisements is for a play entitled In the Future, There will be Robots, starring a classically-trained actor who resents that he's better known in-universe from his leading role in the sitcom Just the Five of Us. The former was evidently not well received by the public, described as being 'difficult to put into English'.
- Grand Theft Auto IV features television programmes that can be watched, including complete episodes of in-game series Republican Space Rangers, The Serrated Edge, Princess Robot Bubblegum (In Episodes from Liberty City) and a history of Liberty City. The Men's Room is a talk show matching a Camp Gay host with MMA legend Bas Rutten.
- Grand Theft Auto V continues this trend, with Strawman Political parodies Impotent Rage and Kung Fu Rainbow Lazer Force, as well as Fame or Shame, The Underbelly of Paradise, Jack Howitzer is Jack Howitzer in Jack Howitzer, and Moorehead Rides Again (a Call-Back to a radio drama within a game in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories). The aforementioned Republican Space Rangers also gets a new episode, as does Princess Robot Bubblegum (but only on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One & PC versions).
- One of the playable characters in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is an actor starring in Midnight Animal, a movie inspired by the vicious killings done by Jacket in the first game.
- Deathwatch, the Deadly Game within MadWorld; Jack is a contestant.
- Mafia III has Native Son, a talk show hosted by Remy Duvall on WBYU and discussing current events from a white Southern Christian point of view, along with the Hollow Speaks, a pirate radio show hosted by Charles "The Voice" Laveau, which explains current events and topics from a Black revolutionary perspective.
- Mewgenics: Radio station within a game, rather. The music in the house Raising Sim section comes from an in-universe radio station, complete with bumpers by Mathias Bossi.
- Mortal Kombat: 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 Mortal Kombat: 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 Mortal Kombat: 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.)
- A few of his movies have titles that were parodies of real movies: Tommy Scissorfists, Citizen Cage, Pirates of the Outworld Demons, and Brokenose Mountain.
- Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 has the Pokéstar Studios (Or Pokéwood, depending on the language) movies, in which the player character acts. Depending on their acting, the movie's ending can be good, but predictable, downright crappy, or strange and weird, resulting in a smash hit.
- In the Ratchet & Clank series for the PlayStation, Clank comes to star in a James Bond-like series called Secret Agent Clank. (Ratchet is consigned to the role of Agent Clank's bumbling chauffeur, to his annoyance.) According to Insomniac Games on Twitter
, the Secret Agent Clank Gaiden Game is also an episode of this show.- In the games preceding it, Captain Qwark also has his own show and considerable celebrity although he sold out to the Big Bad to get it.
- Saints Row 2 has FUZZ, a violent parody of COPS where players impersonate a police officer and apprehend criminals in excessively violent ways (chasing down a streaker with a flamethrower, to name one example).
- The Sakura Wars games are loaded with these, because of the entire cast's cover identities as part of a theater troupe. In addition to the many, many stage productions they put on, there are also the movies made by the studios owned by Sumire's family (including the infamous Crimson Lizard), and the radio serial Red Lad.
- Snoopy vs. the Red Baron is presented as a play being put on by Snoopy and the other Peanuts characters.
- In the bonus rounds of Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, Sonic operates an actual pinball machine, in what looks like Las Vegas. You can see his reflection in the glass, and his eyes and hands even move as you play.
- Each Splatoon game has a news show as the first thing you see whenever you boot up it up (at least, after you've beaten the tutorial). Its primary purpose is to report which battle stages are currently available on the online modes, as well as any information on Splatfest events, new weapons, gameplay updates, etc. When you start the game for the first time, the hosts will also report on whatever the inciting incident for the single-player campaign is.
- Story of Seasons (2014): Building a television allows you to watch the various shows broadcast on the three available channels. One show is broadcast per channel each day, running all day until the signal cuts out at midnight.
- Weather Channel: Only broadcasts one program, the weather report hosted by Lillie (a resident of Oak Tree Town). She gives information on the day's weather and the forecast for the next day.
- Variety Channel: Hosts a variety of programs, including a travelogue, a murder mystery, and children's programming. Runs different programming each day of the week. Some shows are rerun immediately once all episodes are aired, others are replaced by a different show. Some of the shows are shout-outs to popular real-world franchises.
- Murder at Black Gull Villa: Cry of the Carillon: Monday's program, a murder mystery centered on the investigation of what appears to be a suicide during a dinner party at the remote seaside mansion of a wealthy businessman.
- Streets of the World: Tuesday's program, a travelogue that explores the countries from which the merchants in the trade depot hail. Usually in the form of the comical misadventures of the hapless hosts and their crews as they explore the region.
- Search for the Legendary Chef: Wednesday's program, an adventure-documentary detailing the search for a legendary chef Char Han, who has disappeared from public view. Host and reluctant adventuress Misa must undergo a series of wacky trials to find out what has happened to her cooking idol.
- Princess Lillia's Adventure: Thursday's program, in which the titular Rebellious Princess Lillia decides she'll become a hero of the realm and battle the Dark Prince in order to escape from an Arranged Marriage.
- Mighty Munchin' Veggie Rangers: Friday's program, in which a trio of color-coded, vegetable-powered superheroes fight a villain who steals the world's supply of fresh fruits and veggies.
- Nature Sprite Tale: Saturday's program, in which a young nature sprite named Socra details his work for the Harvest Goddess and the various schemes of their nemesis, the Witch.
- Rookie Detective Karen: One of Sunday's programs, in which the young detective Karen sets out to solve crimes. Narrated by her sidekick, the sentient feline Mr. Tiddles.
- Robot Genesis: Gotter Robo ZERO: Replaces Rookie Detective Karen after its run on Sundays. Concerns the exploits of four girls as an alien presence gifts them giant robots with which to defend the planet against a fearsome foe.
- Oak Tree Channel: Programming focused on farming and life in the town of Oak Tree.
- Oak Tree Tips: Broadcast Mondays through Fridays, offering vaguely worded tips on edit combos, farming, animal care, and other subjects.
- Giorgio's Gorgeous Farm Life: Saturday's program, in which local farmer Giorgio offers tips on farming and animal care, as well as musing on the nature of beauty.
- Oak Tree Times Sunday's program, in which host Kassie interviews the denizens of Oak Tree Town. Useful for finding out what marriage candidates and other citizens like and dislike, as well as revealing some of their backstories. Almost all the guests are characters from town, and many of them remark to Kassie that they've seen her show.
- Super Mario Galaxy has Rosalina tell a very sad story about a young girl having to deal with the loss of her family. The girl in the storybook is actually Rosalina herself.
- In Super Robot Wars Z 3, some of the heroes go to watch a showing of the "Celestial Being" movie. This version makes the VF-25 heroic mooks and while the normal Celestial Being is shown, they have the 00 Raiser flanked by Mazinger Z (God Scrander), Shin Getter Robo, Gurren-Lagann and Tetsujin 28-Go, the latter of which never participated. The heroes come out of it less than amused.
- Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE follows a casting agency, making this a given. Productions in which the party members are involved in include but are not limited to Microwavin' with Mamorin and Sneeze Detective Maho.
- In Unpacking, The protagonist's girlfriend/wife has a collection of Anti-Hero memorabilia, including a signed poster for Season 2, a cap promoting Season 3, and a trophy that's presumably an award for it, implying that she's the director.
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus features "Blitzmensch", a Saturday morning cartoon where a blond Aryan superhero battles Allied soldiers and supervillains based on racist caricatures. The cartoon is Nazi propaganda in an alternate version of The '60s where the Nazis curbstomped the Allies in World War II and took over the world. The main character, former American soldier and Nazi-killer B.J Blazkowicz, is a villain in the show, going under the name "Terror Billy".
Examples of type 2 (characters are fans)
- Animal Crossing:
- Once you get friendly with Sable, she'll sometimes mention her favorite show, a porcupine soap opera called Pointed Love. In New Horizons she's also shown to be a fan of a courtroom drama called Pointed Questions.
- In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Peppy villagers will sometimes mention a soap opera about talking trains called Maglevs in Love. Peppy villagers are also fans of a romantic-comedy comic book about the Princess of Rocket-Boarding and the Princess of Explosions.
- Attack of the Friday Monsters features a kaiju show that is filmed in the protagonist's hometown. The protagonist and his friends are fans of the show, and you have to play the tie-in card game to advance the plot at some points. The protagonist's next-door neighbour is a scriptwriter for the show, and you can visit the studio and talk to the producer (type 1).
- The quest "Awful’s Beauty" in Bug Fables has you collecting three poorly written books for a character who collects them. He will then talk about how awful those books are:
- 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 Caligula Effect features an anime called Shadow Knife, with a protagonist named... Shadow Knife. One of the Ostinato Musicians is such a fan of the show that he named himself after it, cosplays Shadow Knife himself, and also has his powers thanks to μ.
- The Choices: Stories You Play series called, has one of the stories, The Crown & the Flame, treated in The Freshman as both a tv series and a series of doorstopper novels.
- In Coffee Talk, Overflowing Warmth: Comforting Beverages Around the World is a documentary about various drinks that Aqua recommends to the Barista on her first visit in Episode 2. She also introduced it to Myrtle, which gives her an idea to order Shai Adeni to try recalling its name.
- Pritchard from Deus Ex: Human Revolution appears to be a fan of Final Fantasy XXVII (the franchise exists, but the actual game doesn't), and has a poster of the main character (some kind of Black Magician Girl, from the looks of it) in his office.
- With El Paso, Elsewhere wearing its influence from Max Payne on its sleeve, it is perhaps no surprise that it has one of these too, in the form of the Audio Play series Pill Cop, which is a self-mocking take on the game's story. Protagonist James Savage expresses pleasant surprise upon coming across the show while fiddling with a radio, remembering the series fondly.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location: protagonist Eggs Benedict (who might or might not be Michael Afton) unwinds after his shift every night by watching The Immortal and the Restless, a soap opera starring the vampire Vlad, the human Clara, and their dhampyr son (not that Vlad acknowledges the baby as his).
- Some of the Grand Theft Auto games have a number of different (all rather raunchy) shows that the player can watch.
- The Half-Life/Counter-Strike/Portal universe and the Team Fortress 2 universe are video games within Left 4 Dead'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 Heavy bobble head on his desk.
- I Was a Teenage Exocolonist has two of them: Turbogirl Hyperjet Transform and Maid Stalker Aries, and the character Nomi-Nomi is a fan of both of them. Dialogue options also allow you to state that you’re a fan of these show as well, much to Nomi’s delight.
- Little Tail Bronx:
- In Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, there's a popular anime in the game called "Super Mewly", which looks surprisingly like Astro Boy.
- The distant prequel title Fuga: Melodies of Steel still has an example in The Adventures of Sucre, an in-universe newspaper comic that the player themselves can collect a segment of and read before every chapter. It's a parody of Tintin, and Socks and Hack are big fans of it.
- In Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, there's a popular anime in the game called "Super Mewly", which looks surprisingly like
- In Love & Pies, Amelia and Yuka loved reading and watching The Mysteries of Miguel when they were kids, and inspired by it, they work together to investigate the arson of Amelia's mother's café. Amelia, especially, is such a big fan of the show that she used to decorate her bedroom with posters of the eponymous character when she was in high school. Joe teases her if she just likes Miguel's abs, but she claims that she just admires his detective skills. Amelia's mother, Freya, was also a fan of Mysteries of Miguel and ran the Miguel fan club in town, and for Yuka's special order, she thinks of starting her own with Amelia, hoping that the actor for Miguel would visit if they attract enough fans.
- Mario Party Advance has a show called Toad Force V, which is about a robotic Toad named Jack and his partner, the heroine Britney, who is more popular. Together, they fight villains such as the Spore King and Toxic Toad Z. The show is so extremely popular that there are a few quests related to this show. It is also mentioned several times in the game.
- The Max Payne series features shows like the cartoon Captain BaseballBat-Boy, the psychological thriller Address Unknown, the costume drama/soap opera Lords and Ladies, and a blaxploitation send-up of Max Payne called Dick Justice.
- Being an Affectionate Parody of the video game industry as a whole, the Neptunia series feature plenty of in-universe games that are parodies of real-life video games. Most of these go unnamed and are only indirectly mentioned with phrases like "that plumber's party game" or "a little big racer", but one that gets mentioned from time to time is Pocketed Monstrosities. On the non-parody side, there's the in-universe MMORPG 4 Goddesses Online, which was eventually partially defictionalized as Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online.
- No More Heroes:
- Travis Touchdown's favorite anime is Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly, which appears to be a Magical Girl 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 attack names from it, and he plays an upward-scrolling SHMUP based on the series to pass the time on the subway on his way to one of the game's boss encounters. 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 Mind Screw. Or both.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Continuing from where the first game left off, we get to see the opening sequence of Bizarre Jelly 5. It appears to be a Cliché Storm parody of Moe Magical Girl shows, but might actually be interesting to watch. Travis's obsession with it has no excuse.
- In the Pokémon games, there are several shows that can be watched on the TVs, in NPCs houses.
- "There's a movie on TV. Four boys are walking on railroad tracks.... I'd better go, too."
- "There's a movie on TV. A girl in pigtails is walking down a yellow brick road.... I'd better go, too."
- From Pokémon Gold and Silver onwards, you can listen to radio shows on the Pokégear, including one from Professor Oak.
- Ratchet & Clank: A few characters are fans of a ludicrously cheesy soap opera titled Lance and Janice, notably Dr. Nefarious has a recurring malfunction that causes him to play audio clips from the show when he gets flustered.
- Matt Miller from Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row IV is a fan of Nyte Blayde, a cheesy action-drama adapted from a comic book about a vampire-hunter turned vampire. Overlaps with Type 1 as one of the major NPCs from The Third, Josh Birk, is the actor who plays Nyte Blayde himself.
- Sam & Max Save the World features a variety of shows from WarpTV, including the sitcom Midtown Cowboys, talk show Myra!, and celebrity tell-all program Oh, Is He Still Alive?. Turn into Type 1 when the two protagonists get embroiled in them in "Situation: Comedy".
- In Skullgirls, Peacock and Parasoul (secretly) are fans of the kid's show Annie: Girl of the Stars. The main character of the show, Annie, is one of the DLC characters for the game, her character is actually real.
- Stardew Valley:
- The game 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.
- Update 1.4 adds a movie theater that can be unlocked. You could invite someone to watch a movie with you. Each villager has personal tastes in films and concessions (from a randomly generated stock); bringing someone who loves the movie and choosing their favorite movie snack improves their friendship. There are eight movies depending on year and season: The Brave Little Sapling, Journey of The Prairie King: The Motion Picture, Mysterium, The Miracle at Coldstar Ranch, Natural Wonders: Exploring Our Vibrant World, Wumbus, It Howls in the Rain, and The Zuzu City Express.
- In the Story of Seasons series, there are often shows that one can watch on the TV or hear on the radio in their farm-house, in addition to weather and news channels.
- In Super Robot Wars Alpha, Ryusei Date is fan of mech simulator game call Burning PT, which is actually used by military to recruit pilot. It's only mention in dialogue and players never actually see the game until anime adaption of Super Robot Wars: Original Generation though. In the end of Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden, he end up watching his favourite anime Banblade with his Unwanted Harem, but players never actually see how the anime look like. Also in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, he give Mylene Jenius a rare copy of Macross: Legend of Lyn Minmei as birthday present.
- The Syberia series has the radio show Reactors of Passion.
- In the Team Fortress 2 comic "Ring of Fired", The Demoman and his possessed ghost sword, the Eyelander, are watching a show called Ghost D.A. It's hilariously bad, from the protagonist being a prosecutor, not a defense attorney, to the cliche dialogue, to the fact that he phases out with a "doodily doodily doot" noise. The two of them (especially Eyelander, who has developed its ability to speak, and has become a Cluster F-Bomb) comment on how awful and inaccurate it is.
- Tokimeki Memorial 2 is the host of several Shows Within a Show: "Super Dragon Warrior" (Chou Senshi Dragon, a Hot-Blooded Super Sentai series), "Go-Driller" (a Hot-Blooded Super Robot anime), "Space Idol Love-Love Star" (Uchuu Idol Love-Love Star, a Magical Girl series), and "Protuding-navel Kero Kero" (Kero Kero Debeso, an anime). Homura Akai is a big fan of the first two, to the point of mimicing the Dragon Warrior's special kick and wielding drills just like Go-Driller ; Mei Ijuin likes the second too ; Miyuki Kotobuki is an avid fan of the third ; and Miho Shirayuki adores the fourth.
- This overlaps with Type 3, as "Go-Driller" and "Space Idol Love-Love Star" become plot points in the storylines of the Substories games Leaping School Festival and Dancing Summer Vacation respectively.
- Tokyo Xanadu features Magical Girl Alisa, a very popular show in the city. There's some amusing Company Cross-References in play as the characters are based on the DLC costumes from The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, with the two games being made by Falcom.
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby has "Nutrition Warrior Carrotman" (localized as "Carrot Ranger"), a Toku TV show that Biko Pegasus is a mega-fan of. The official Pakatube channel has a full-length episode of the show, which depicts Carrotman fighting against alien invaders seeking to conquer the Earth by making humanity unhealthy. Biko Pegasus appears at the episode's climax, pulling a Big Damn Heroes and teaming up with Carrotman to defeat Lardron.
- Undertale:
- Alphys is a huge fan of the anime Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, though she doesn't like the sequel (a likely nod to Tokyo Mew Mew 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, Mad Dummy ends up possessing a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie figure owned by Alphys, becoming Mad Mew Mew. In Deltarune, Alphys instead prefers the sequel over the original.
- Also in Deltarune, Toriel mentions that Kris and Asriel used to play a game called Super Smashing Fighters. Asriel liked playing as "the green dinosaur" and had a birthday party themed around the character.
- The Deb of Night in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines gets a special mention for being a radio show within a video game. You can hear it on any radio you find in the game, which plays pre-recorded dialogues (which ones, depends on how far your progressed with the main quest) between the hostess Deb and people who call her.
- The Player Character siblings of Zenless Zone Zero run a videotape rental store, so lots of fictional productions crop up. Most famous among them is an old multimedia Toku franchisenote called Starlight Knights which Billy is a very devoted fan of. He shouts out phrases from the franchise while attacking, gets distracted by a piece of SK merchandise during a searching operation, and at the close of Chapter 1, treats his sisters-in-arms to an all-you-can-eat buffet at a Starlight Knight Kitschy Themed Restaurant.
Examples of type 3 (SWAS is plot point)
- The Ace Attorney franchise has the toku series The Steel Samurai (Tonosaman in the Japanese version):
- The show was first introduced in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, where Maya is a big fan, and the star of the series, Will Powers, is later arrested for murder.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All reveals that toku series are Serious Business in the Ace Attorney universe, to the point one case revolves around an awards show and the stars of the sequel series, The Nickel Samurai, and a rival show, The Jammin' Ninja, whose lead actor ends up dead.
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth has an embassy host a Steel Samurai/Pink Princess Hero Stage Show as part of the celebrations it's holding, with another one for the rival show, Jammin Ninja, being held in another embassy. Edgeworth's fanboyism for the series also manages to show itself somewhat.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice has a show produced by the Kingdom of Khura'in, The Plumed Punisher, a Propaganda Piece that demonizes the rebellious Defiant Dragons group. The show borrows so heavily from The Steel Samurai that the characters familiar with the latter believe it borderlines Plagiarism in Fiction.
- Adventure: The Inside Job is a sort of a 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.
- Alan Wake twists this in all sorts of ways: Alan (a novelist) apparently wrote the story-within-the-story, but he can't remember it, and the events of the story-within-the-story start predicting events in the outside story, except it turns out the events of the outside story are happening that way because of the story-within-the-story being written under the influence of an Eldritch Abomination, and then the story-within-the-story starts referencing the story-within-the-story in the context of the outside story and now you've gone cross-eyed.
- A major point of Assassin's Creed I is that you are playing as Desmond Miles, who spends most of his time in the game participating in an interactive simulation of his ancestor's memories. In other words, Desmond is playing a video game.
- Every other Assassin's Creed game turns out to work exactly like that, sooner or later. Sometimes Desmond is the one living through the simulation, at least one time it's one other guy who is later revealed to have died in the third gane, and in Black Flag, it's you!
- Brave Hero Yuusha: The RPG is a story being read by/to the Protagonist.
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII has both the book and the play version of Loveless, which has already been established as a play in the original Final Fantasy VII. Genesis is a huge fan of the book, to the point of basing his rebellion around it and wandering dangerously close to having Otakukin type thoughts regarding he and his friends reliving the story. In an interesting case of Truth in Video Games, the player can meet up with fans of the book who complain about the Adaptation Decay and Misaimed Fandom of the play version.
- In the second chapter of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Monokuma presents the students with a doujin game called Twilight Syndrome, which functions as Shmuck Bait: completing the game reveals a motive to kill, but if you choose not to play and someone else does, then you might be in danger and not know about it. It was revealed that the game revolves around the death of Fuyuhiko's sister along with the death of Sato who was the killer for Fuyuhiko's sister.
- Chapter 4 of Killer7 focuses on the comic book series The Handsome Men, a Sentai series written by Trevor Pearlharbor. The comics appear to depict events that happen later in real life, carried out by an assassin squad that looks exactly like the comic characters. Trevor believes he's the one controlling them, but this turns out to not be the case.
- The Lakeview Cabin Collection is actually a series of films, with the original Lakeview Cabin apparently being the first installment. The Hub Level is a movie theater, with pedestrians walking to view the movies. You're still not entirely safe, by the way.
- Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!: Stallions is an in-universe game show Larry takes part in and wins the trip to La Costa Lotta.
- The novel Ardus is working on, "The Tower of Ideals", in The Logomancer. One Sidequest revolves around him refining the manuscript, and it involves pointed commentary on the writing process in general as well. Given a later development, it is also possible that it's a warped version of a real event that occurred prior to the game's story, which Ardus forgot due to Laser-Guided Amnesia but retained subconscious impressions of.
- The Forgotten Plantation could also be considered a game-within-a-game, as characters treat it like an augmented reality experience. It's a vessel for pointed commentary too, this time on Video Games.
- In Love & Pies, Amelia and her best friend Yuka 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 Yuka to investigate the situation.
- Pony Island: The titular Pony Island is loaded onto an arcade machine located in Limbo.
- Pulp Adventures features three levels which represent books being read by the heroes of the main timeline (a group of classical characters from various pulp universes), each of them being important clues about the villains' plan. The first story features Conan the Barbarian, the second is about Zorro, and the third let you control the Lone Ranger and Tonto.
- Saints Row: The Third and IV (in addition to the Nyteblade show in type 2 example), gives us Professor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax, which is an example of types 1, 2, 3, and arguably 4 all rolled into one. Professor Genki is the host/mascot the show, itself is a Japanese game show similar to Takeshi's Castle but with firearms and various mascots trying to kill the contestants as they try to get through a colorful, bizarre obstacle course before the timer runs out. The Saints are fans of the show (type 2), and participation is a gang activity which increases control over Steel port...somehow (type 1), with an entire expansion pack devoted to a Super Bowl-esque event in which the Saints Boss participates (types 1 and 3), and, finally, the general bloody antics and anarchy the player gets up to is roughly similar to the regular gameplay, and way past 11 (type 4).
- SUPERHOT is a game In-Universe that your friend sent you and recommended you to play, which is what you also do with your in-game friends at the end of the story, but in a much darker context.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the party watches a production of the play "The Heroic Adventures of Addam", which detailed the events of the Aegis War from 500 years prior. The writer of this play, Cole, named Minoth at the time, was witness to these events as they occurred, as a Flesh Eater Blade under Amalthus. The subsequent DLC campaign Torna - The Golden Country showcases the Aegis War as it actually happened.
Examples of type 4 (Plot Parallel)
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Activision): Much like in the mainstream Marvel Universe, the game features a version of Marvel Comics making comics about Spider Man. Owing to Peter's secret Identity the comics are implied to be rather inaccurate. Within the game players can visit a comic book shop run by Stan Lee. Furthermore some of the alternate costumes players can unlock for Peter are stated to be based on some of these comics, including Miles Morales and Spider-Man Noir.
- Mario Party Advance's Toad Force V. See Type 2 above.
- In Mass Effect 2, there is the movie franchise Blasto, an exploitation series produced on the Privately Owned Society planet Illium. A clear nod to the Dirty Harry movies, they star a member of a pacifistic and deeply spiritual race of floating jellyfish as the lead character. In the third game, more 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 Downloadable Content, Shepard and Javik guest star in the seventh installment, and are not amused.
- One advertisement on the Citadel is for a film, Citadel, based on the events of the first game. Unlike many of the above examples, there is no eeriness to this - most of the events of the first game are public knowledge.
- In the Max Payne series, Dick Justice is a Self-Parody 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 the Duke and the beloved maiden, and Vladimir Lem and Detective Winterson in gender-flipped roles as the Matriarch and the brother who try to stop them.
- META (2005) is a game about editing the game "Awesmoe [sic] Quest", so the latter is a game-within-a-game.
- The Japanese and European releases of Metal Gear: Ghost Babel features as an Easter Egg a hidden Codec frequency that launches a fictional radio drama titled Idea Spy 2.5, which has an actual Audio Adaptation in 2007 (with Hideo Kojima in the title role).
- Raw Data 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 on YouTube.
Examples encompassing multiple types
- Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is both "characters are fans" and "Plot Parallel" with the book A Blue Dove for the Princess. It fits into the "characters are fans" category in that the book in question belongs to Nagase, and is her favorite story from her childhood. It becomes a plot parallel as the exploits of the protagonist squadron, Wardog, begin to coincide with the story of the "Demon of Razgriz" from the book.Demon's Story Several characters make note of this, including the squadron's enemies, who begin referring to them as the "Demons of Razgriz," and the squadron officially adopts the name after their rebirth.
- Cyberpunk 2077: Safe & Sound, a series of Public Service Announcements giving safety tips for living in Night City, will occasionally play on TVs and monitors. A Policeman Dog, Sergeant Dobs, gives advice to the viewer, while Mr. Puggins demonstrates what happens if you disregard his words. The nature of the advice given serves to highlight how much of a Crapsack World Night City is, treating things like Police Brutality and gang violence as ordinary facts of life that everyone just has to adapt to and live with.
- The big reveal of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is that the killing game itself is one of these, and the students are the stars. It's part of a long-running franchise of reality shows called Danganronpa, which was conceptually based on the success of the in-universe Hope's Peak Saga games and anime. The mastermind deliberately styled the victims so they'd match the archetypes in their favorite series. To make matters worse, everyone turned out to be such a big fan of the series that they'd willingly get mindwiped and have their personality overwritten so they can get on the show. Let's just say the survivors weren't too pleased to figure that last part out.
- Digimon Story: Time Stranger has the "characters are fans" and "plot point" with the in-universe anime, Agent Alpha. Specifically, multiple characters, including Dr. Simmons and Inori's deceased brother, Yuta, are massive fans of it. The characters in said show also bear a striking resemblance to Dan and Kanan, and this isn't a coincidence, as The Agent was fashioned from an echo of Aegiomon from a failed timeline (the dark shadows that trigger time travel), and the Operator is a voice in their, and Homeostasis explicitly gave them the forms of said anime characters.
- In Fallout 4, you find a radio station dedicated to a Radio Drama entitled "The Silver Shroud.", a dead ringer to The Shadow. 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.
- Kingdom Hearts III features Type 2, 3 and 4 in the Toy Story world. Rex is a huge fan of Verum Rex, a Final Fantasy XV expy, where the main character, Yozora (a Noctis expy), 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 expies. They're all Real After All. ...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. Kingdom Hearts continues to be a Mind Screw.
- Unrelatedly, the characters come across a toyline based on the real-life figures made for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT — which makes this a case of Recursive Canon as well, since it's been shown that Final Fantasy characters also exist in the Kingdom Hearts universe.
- Metaphor: ReFantazio: The protagonist carries an unnamed fantasy novel depicting a Utopian world with him at all times, and frequently consults it for inspiration. More, the mysterious host of Akademia, introduces himself as the book's author. And for bonus mystery points, the Utopia of the novel is the real world. It is eventually revealed that the novel is based on the forgotten past of the game's world, but that the author - King Hythlodaeus, who More is an Archetype of - allowed his dreams and ideals to color his perception, turing it into a true fantasy. Upon regaining his memories and seeing the protagonist nearly killed by the Big Bad, More loses faith in the real world entirely and attempts to convince the protagonist to flee with him and live in an illusion of the novel's world forever. However, the protagonist rejects the illusion of fantasy and chooses to fight to make the ideals contained within real instead - not surprising, considering he is said ideals, being another independent Archetype born of Hythlodaeus's son's belief in the ideals espoused in the novel and his desire to make them real.
- Persona has recurring Sentai series Phoenix Ranger Featherman, first introduced in Persona 2 as Phoenix Ranger Featherman R.
- In Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the Masked Circle cult turns out to be a corrupted version of a Featherman-inspired children's group. Specifically, the very same group formed by the main characters when they themselves were little kids.
- In Persona 3, the show can be watched on the TV in the dorm every Sunday. One episode even has a And Knowing Is Half the Battle segment on Apathy Syndrome at the start. Adorably Precocious Child Ken is a fan, though he's too embarrassed to admit it.
- In Persona 4, several party members admit to having been Featherman fans as children, with Naoto's own dungeon stated to be similar to several of the show's secret bases. It's also referenced in the Temperance Social Link, since Eri Minami's son Yuuta is a big fan.
- In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Yukari wears Featherman Pink's costume and uses her weapon in combat due to becoming her actress on Phoenix Ranger Featherman Victory.
- In Persona 5, Futaba has a set of Featherman figures in her room, and Goro is a self-admitted fan.
- Yandere Simulator:
- Magical Girl Pretty Miyuki is a popular anime among the Akademi students, with the Gaming Club playing a mobile game based on it that requires them to wander the school, meaning they could potentially come across Yandere-chan doing something suspicious unless Yan-chan can redirect them by killing the monster in the game first. Miyuki also plays a significant role in Osana's storyline if Yan-chan picks the 'Befriend/Betray' elimination option: her strong resemblance to Miyuki has netted her a Stalker with a Crush determined to make Osana his girlfriend, and he kidnaps her cat to force her to come over to his house.
- In both modes there are manga that the protagonist can read to increase a specific stat: in 20XX mode Yan-chan can read Cherry Touch, a steamy manga that can increase Seduction (and requires a fake id to buy), Life Note, a parody of Death Note that increases Enlightenment (and an Easter Egg is available that can turn Yan-chan into the protagonist Yamiko), and Yokai Story, a horror manga that increases Numbness. In 1980's Mode Ryoba can read Enchanting Petals which increases Seduction, and Ahmya, which increses Numbness.
- As for video games, there's both a Bullet Hell game and an AR game based on Magical Girl Pretty Miyuki, an older game name Space Witch (for 1980's mode) that's also a Bullet Hell, and a Castlevania parody called Yanvania: Senpai of the Night in which Beldere-chan must stop Dracula-chan from stealing her Senpai. Though given that Ayano's dreams about her ancestors play out very similar to the game, and Beldere-chan's weapon, the Heartender, can be found stabbing the corpse of the Basu Sisters' mother, it's implied Yanvania really happened.