Night scenes in limited games

I really like night scenes, but not in a "scary" way with creatures of the dark wandering around that every Vampire player loves.

Photo I took in Tiradentes, Minas Gerais

Generally, people have a certain fear of the night, and that's understandable, but I've always found completely dark nights very calming. It's a time when everything in the world seems to rest.

When I was younger, I worked for many years as my dad's truck helper. Even though I totally hated waking up early, I loved heading out in the early hours of the morning and seeing those various dots of light in the distance along the highway, whether from towns when we were close by or from the stars when we were passing through some road in the middle of nowhere. That near absence of light always brought me a complete sense of peace.

São Paulo seen from above (one of the few ways this city looks beautiful)

I could stay here for hours talking about the micro details of what makes a night calming to me, but they would just be personal experiences that I find hard to translate to others. So, I’ll try to show it in a way that I think many of you reading this will also understand: GAMES!

Specifically, I’m going to bring up some older examples here. I feel like more limited games had a really beautiful way of translating the visual of a calm night, and as video games evolved and became more powerful, we started losing that way of seeing things in exchange for a more realistic look. So, let’s stop talking and jump straight into my TOP 3 LOW-RES NIGHTS:

Night Scene 1 - Sonic 2 and 3

This isn't necessarily a ranking from best to worst; I think it’s more in chronological order of games I got to know. I remember this one very clearly to this day, sitting on the floor playing my very first game: Sonic 2.

Aside from the speed, music, and colors, one thing caught my attention on a slightly later stage: the backgrounds! Specifically, Casino Night Zone. The place where I lived was up on a hill, so from the upper part of the house, you could see the city wayyyyy off in the distance. I still miss that view to this day (which, naturally, the surrounding houses adding several floors and apartment buildings popping up nearby simply wiped out…..).

Seriously, take a look at these details, and consider this an invitation to play and check out this stage in the game, since I couldn't find any gifs of it. And yes, this background has some animations that really enhance that immersion of a big city in the background pulsing with life.

I find it interesting how the background is all a single color; the only things that stand out are the lights from the buildings and the stars on the screen. This was also used in Sonic 3 Carnival Night Zone, which has a very similar theme (someone at Sega definitely had a thing for this kind of background).

By the way, taking advantage of the fact that I’m making some comparisons here, PLAY Sonic Mania. I think this is the absolute peak of what an old game can improve with current pixel art knowledge. That game features Studiopolis, which is kind of a blend of those two stages I mentioned, and graphically, it is SO FREAKING GORGEOUS! It has more of a late-evening vibe than full-on night, but it’s still an outstanding background. And the subway train passing in the background of the stage is the cherry on top.

Night Scene 2 - Ocarina of Time

Ocarina's title screen is something burned into my head ever since the first time I turned on that game and saw that late-night scene playing one of the best themes of my life.

The first time you're set loose in Hyrule is breathtaking. Back then, it felt like there was a whole world waiting to be explored, and my mind basically exploded when, out of absolute nowhere….. it turned night.

I think the nights in Ocarina are so subtle and so well-done. Even though you're deep into the dead of night, the sky always looks like it's about to bring the sun back, giving off an early-morning vibe, a touch of the so-called "blue hour," that moment in the early dawn when everything looks bluer (shouts out to all my colleagues who have to catch the 5 AM train).

Here, the game isn't afraid to slap this blue filter over everything, creating a really strong silhouette with the contrast of those dark-blue-toned buildings against the almost-brightening background. And speaking of contrast, this was my first time encountering the use of yellowish lights in windows, almost screaming out in comparison to the night's blue. I love these details, and they made me pay more attention to this in real life (I genuinely love those yellowish lights; it kind of makes me sad how modern streetlights nowadays are so harsh and bright ʕ ´•̥̥̥ ᴥ•̥̥̥`ʔ).

By the way, I really liked the 3DS version of this game. I thought it managed to greatly improve Hyrule's nights, especially by adding that very tiny little detail of light spilling out from the windows.

And for those of you who made it this far, I'll share one of my favorite spots in Ocarina: high up on Death Mountain, right before Goron City, there's a spot where you can watch the sunset, and as night falls, you can see the lights turning on in Kakariko Village!

Night Scene 3 - Pokémon Crystal

This is one of those cases where I played almost predominantly the night version! It was mind-blowing when I went to play Pokémon Crystal and simply, when it became night in real life….. IT BECAME NIGHT IN THE GAME!

I played very little of this version on the Game Boy I borrowed with the shiny cartridge, but when I actually sat down to play Pokémon Crystal, it was on my amazing Sony Ericsson via an emulator. Since back then I only had free time to play at night, almost my entire playthrough of this Pokémon game happened under the night sky. And here, I think something similar to Zelda happens: everything turns kind of bluish (or purple?), while very striking pops of yellow stand out on the screen.

To this day, I get a nostalgic feeling looking at images of this game; it takes me back to the nights I spent playing it during my epic Pokémon saga.

By the way, if you don't know her, I think you should check out Foofarawr's art. To me, she draws exactly what this game feels like in my memory (even knowing it's much simpler than that, as we saw above XD).

Continuing with the remake comparison game, this is the only one on the list that I feel lost its identity. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, those contrast tones between blue and yellow feel kind of weak. Maybe they didn't want to make something too loud, but it resulted in something that, to me, just felt pretty meh.

The End of a Night Era

---

Honorable Mentions

Radiata Stories

I have two honorable mentions here. The first is Radiata Stories for the PS2. I really love the art style of this game and have talked about it here before, at some point, I have to do a deep-dive study on it. Overall, same vibes as the others above: bluish scenery, really cool contrasting colors!

Stardew Valley

Some of the night scenes in Stardew Valley are so cool that they tricked my mind into believing the Harvest Moon 64 version looked like that! (Which, unfortunately, it didn't. In my head, Harvest Moon 64 is way prettier; in fact, it was originally going to be on this list).

---

And to wrap things up, I used this brief hunt for real images pulled straight from my memory to sketch a little night drawing too! It doesn't compare to any of these classics, but it made me remember that I should draw more night scenes…. After all, I started drawing pixel art with them, hehe.

So, what about you? What's your favorite night scene in gaming? I know there are plenty of others out there waiting to be seen!

That's it for today, folks. Have a good night,

enjoy the lights and the stars, don't forget to hydrate,

and see you next time! ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ/