It says a lot about the culture of games that 'skip cutscene' is standard but 'skip this challenge' is not.
@kevspace now I'm remembering a game from the 90s that let me skip a mini-game with the option of continuing the story like I won, or like I lost…
@rkniner that rules! do you know what game? I can always use examples!
@rkniner oh that's useful, thanks! Often adventure games will add minigames to break up the pace or add 'excitement' but offer no way to avoid them. That always struck me as unintentionally cruel because they often require skills far beyond the regular mechanics, and there's no genre that's more reliant on the player's desire to see the end of the story.
@kevspace was an improvement from the original game (along with a simpler driving system that didn't require lightning-fast reflexes at highway speeds)
@kevspace It was one of those Sierra adventure games, the VGA remake of Police Quest. The mini-game was a poker tournament you had to win to progress, twice. Both times, the game asked if you actually wanted to play, via three-quarter dialog box (play, skip but win, skip but lose)