Maybe it's this summer's maddening heat causing my brain to act up, but I couldn't help but reminisce about the tropical beach vibe emanating from so many games from the early aughties. You might not remember, but you'll thank me for reminding you, because it was the best.
The knee-jerk reaction might be to think that late '90s or early '00s video games didn't invent tropical beaches, and that's true. Having a game set on a tropical beach is almost like a cheat code, one that immediately has our brains associating it with fun times, even if the game itself fails to live up to its looks. Still, these early tropical beaches usually existed in games about beach sports like Wave Race, the jet ski levels from Crash Bandicoot 3, or games about driving in Miami, like OutRun. These are successful series, albeit niche ones. It was only when the PlayStation 2 generation arrived that we began to witness the full-scale invasion of the tropical beach in video games.
There are no better games to jog one's memory about the importance and the constant presence of the tropical beach at the time than the trifecta of Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, and GTA: Vice City.
And it wasn't just a PS2-only thing. The GameCube also made two significant investments in tropical beachfront properties at the time. The first one with Super Mario Sunshine, which many see as the black sheep of the Mario family, but no one can deny its beauty, likely due to its setting. The other, and most successful GameCube foray into tropical islands was—you have likely already guessed it—The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
Much like Super Mario Sunshine, the entirety of Wind Waker takes place on a tropical world, a stark departure from anything seen in either series up until that time. And so a tropical beach seemingly became a requirement for a team trying to make the biggest and best game of the generation. Like, even the Halo series pulled it off, a grittier and more tone-muted one, sure, but an attempt was clearly made nonetheless:
The tropical beach was even the only setting in Far Cry for the PC, which features arguably the most beautiful environments of this kind in gaming history. It also remains my favorite game in the series, having only had its place in question for a bit when Far Cry 3 came out—you know, the other game in the series also set on a tropical beach.
These environments were even prevalent in the Dreamcast, as seen in Sonic Adventure and Phantasy Star Online. That's no coincidence: the '00s were when the tech finally allowed for beaches large (and with water effects beautiful) enough to evoke the feeling of being on a beach despite being inside a barely lit bedroom.
It’s good that the PS3 era mostly forgot about this aesthetic. Repeating things just because they succeeded in the past gets old fast. Also, that period was marred by engines seemingly only capable of rendering stuff through a brown filter, and we need our beaches green, blue, and lush. Sadly, tropical beach vibes have been mostly gone ever since—just look at one from Death Stranding. "The beach" is there, yeah, but the tropical vibes are completely absent.
Video game tech is better than ever, and players have been treated to some of the best vistas of all time in recent years, but, outside of titles such as Uncharted 4, most games have been overlooking this beautiful staple for too long. If any devs working on a game that'll come out during a future summer are reading this, please consider bringing the beach vibes back, even if just for the most important level in the game. Every summer gamer will thank you for it.
The post Why video games need to bring the 2000s tropical beach vibes back appeared first on Destructoid.
