Only side characters, and no, there's no cheat for the minigame. Not a bad idea tho.
you could try to do the candy crush and other games like it and put powers in the mini game. if you match four in a square you get a fry cooker which can get rid of the items in a square around it. if you match four together you get a knife that will get rid of of one entire row either vertically or horizontally it depends how you match it. A spatula that you can get by placing an item in an L shape like there two horizontally and two vertically, that gets rid of all the objects that you match it with like you match it with a chicken and all the chickens are gone. Finally you match five in a straight line you get a fire and when used clears the board then resets the board after that. if its possible and could make the game a bit easier, of you could make cheat that doubles and triples all the points. these are just my ideas i was thinking about earlier.