New York, New York: 25 Appearances Of The Big Apple in Video Games

Image via Complex Original

2005

While the Xbox 360 launch game wasn't too impressive by technical standard (it was a PS2/360/Gamecube game first), it was definitely fun to rampage through NYC as the iconic giant gorilla.

Someone should make a sequel where the graphics don't look like a game from the original Xbox.

2000

The NYC level in Tony Hawk 2 (a true classic) is actually pretty light on the standard Big Apple imagery (Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, etc.).

But we'll never forget what a pain in the ass it was to grind on those subway rails.

2008

Legendary was another critical dud, but its assertion that the mythical Pandora's Box has been in a New York City museum all along tickles us silly in an Indiana Jones kind of way.

When protagonist Charles Deckard opens the box (naturally), all manner of mythical creature is unleashed on the world, rampaging through New York like God of War meets Jumanji.

2005

Chaos Theory's story spans everywhere from Japan to Panama, but there's a particularly exciting level around the middle that takes place in NYC.

We don't want to spoil it for you, but Sam Fisher has to infiltrate the HQ of a private military corporation owned and operated by an old friend. It's exciting stuff, though it doesn't exactly play off the city's strengths for Fisher to be skulking around in the shadows. Hence its high place on the list.

2003

XIII begins when the eponymous protagonist, the amnesiac XIII, wakes up wounded on Brooklyn's Brighton Beach. From there it's a campy tale of intrigue and conspiracies, mostly following the plot of the 1984 Belgian graphic novel series of the same name.

And NYC provides the perfect backdrop—after all, it is an intriguing city.

2005

New York has easily got to be the most popular setting for open-world, sandbox-style crime games. Maybe it's the city's reputation, the recognizability of its landmarks, or just the vibe that makes developers want to include it in games like True Crime.

Then again, True Crime: NYC did follow True Crime: Streets of LA, and its gritty metropolis provided a nice contrast to the first game's version of sunny southern California.

2007

We're no stranger to the city's shady underbelly and its resident kings, the Italian mob.

But when Jackie started roaming the streets at night with a pair of demonic snake-limbs growing from his shoulders in The Darkness, we saw a side we never even knew existed.

2004

The Def Jam series has more hip-hop cameos than any other games out there, and the second game features Lil' Kim, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, Redman, Fat Joe, Ice-T, Xzibit, N.O.R.E., Ludacris, and Busta Rhymes, as well as actors Omar Epps, Christopher Judge, Danny Trejo, Carmen Electra, and Kimora Lee Simmons.

What does that have to do with New York, you ask? The game is all about establishing various gangs taking over turf throughout the city through brutal brawls and even cage matches. It gets pretty insane, but all those real-world faces lend it a great deal of cred.

2011

Between the Chimeran invasion and the enormous wormhole that opens up over the WWII-era city, New York sure takes a beating in the Resistance series.

The city is entirely in ruins, though—spoiler alert—it doesn't stay that way if you watch the final cut scenes.

1998

Parasite Eve is a classic PlayStation title with one of the weirdest plots we've ever experienced. Suffice to say it involves an opera-singing animorph named Eve who causes onlookers to spontaneously combust by manipulating their cells' mitochondria.

It's also the only game we've ever played in which Central Park gets covered in the lovely goo that results from a crowd of people being abruptly turned inside-out on a cellular level.

2010

Given this list is about games set in New York, it's not surprising that there are so many mob-focused titles here. Mafia 2 is the most recent (and arguably the best), and it's the time period—not the setting—that really makes it stand out.

2K's version of 1940s NYC was alluring, if a little plain. Also, we didn't mind the 50 or so retro Playboy centerfolds that were floating around in the game.

2009

Like The Darkness, The Godfather 2 focuses on the seedy Italian mob that anyone who's seen a movie in the last thirty years knows is prevalent in New York.

But what TG2 lacks in supernatural demonic snake arms it makes up for in story and open-world fun.

2002

Manhattan Project wasn't your typical Duke Nukem game. Instead of a gory, chauvinistic, hilarious first-person shooter, it was a gory, chauvinistic, hilarious third-person side scrolling platformer.

In it, Mech Morphix (who bears a starling resemblance to the original Duke's Dr. Proton), unleashes radioactive slime to mutate the creatures of Manhattan in a bid to take over the island. Needless to say, the pigeons get even more annoying.

2008

Turning Point wasn't a fantastic shooter by any means, but it did have one explosive opening set at a dizzying height atop the scaffolding surrounding an unfinished skyscraper.

Nazis invaded from the sky in an alternate version of World War II in which Churchill died early. It was hokey, but Miss Liberty looked good on the horizon—until they destroyed her, that is.

2005

Fitty allegedly decided to create Bulletproof as a response of sorts to Rockstar approaching him to voice the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which prompted him to decide that he'd only ever voice himself in a game.

It may not be a great game, but it does provide us a glimpse into 50's life in New York as his virtual self gets revenge on the hitmen who try to take him out. The sequel moved the game from the Big Apple to the Middle East, where 50 literally killed terrorists.

2012

New York has been fictionally demolished hundreds of times, but barring meteors and tidal waves, never more so than in Prototype 2. The boroughs are divided into red, yellow and green zones, indicating how infected they are with the devastating Mercer Virus.

On top of that, as the player you'll do literally everything you can to demolish entire city blocks and fuck up as many innocent people as you can. It's twisted, but fun.

2003

NYPD detective Max Payne's unique perspective could hardly exist anywhere but the Big Apple. New York is often portrayed as a gritty, noire metropolis, but never more so than in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.

And if the atmosphere of the city isn't enough to attract you to this series, we have two words for you: bullet time.

2013

In Crysis 3, an evil mega-corporation somehow places New York under martial law and erects the enormous "Liberty Dome", turning the city into a literal urban jungle.

The third game in Crytek's series of shooters will hopefully return to the first game's open-world style, as Crysis 2's version of NYC was a little too linear in comparison.

2011

Despite the complications of guerilla fighting street-by-street in a metropolis the size of NYC, it always seems to be the first place that gets invaded when the Russians or the Chinese start acting up in games.

The Modern Warfare games have gotten pretty over-the-top, but we still loved fighting it out on fifth in number three.

2012

The upcoming movie tie-in looks like it might actually defy movie tie-in conventions, by which we mean it might not suck balls.

That's mainly because the game is capitalizing on Spidey's tendency to explore New York as a vertical space, swinging from skyscrapers like it's not even a big deal.

2009

There are few more iconic New York scenes than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man wreaking havoc on Manhattan in Ghostbusters. The game recreates that and other great scenes, along with adding many of its own, admirably.

That's mostly because the bulk of the original voice cast returns in style, making this the closest thing to a Ghostbusters 3 that we've yet seen.

2010

In Ninja Theory's sci-fi version of the ancient Chinese novel Journey to the West, two escaped slaves journey across a far-future US that's been pretty well decimated by some sort of apocalypse.

But it was New York City in particular, ruinous and reclaimed by nature, that stuck out to us. It was like what the city in I Am Legend would look like in another 500 years.

2000

Deus Ex was one of the most advanced games ever made at the time, and its incredible recreation of a futuristic New York was one of the many impressive tenets of its design.

The sequel, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (we don't count Invisibile War), moves things mostly to Detroit and Shanghai, and while the change of scenery was nice, we sort of missed NYC.

2012

AC 3 promises to go where few games outside the PC strategy genre have gone before: The American Revolution (or, as the game's creative director Alex Hutchinson calls it, the British Civil War).

So its version of up-and-coming New York is going to be unlike any we've ever seen. We'll even get to see important historical events—and it probably won't be nearly as boring as that sounds on paper.

1991

Turtles in Time was one of our favorite games to play in the arcade or on Super Nintendo at home back in the day, and it proved that even in 2D New York could look good.

But seriously, Shredder? Stealing the Statue of Liberty? What the hell is even the point of that?

We're sure there are plenty more games that feature New York in all its glory, but there are a few others that we couldn't help mention that don't exactly fit with the list. That's because they're not technically set in NYC, though their virtual metropolises (metropoli?) are surely based off the Big Apple.

Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City was the most fully-realized version of the series' iconic and satirical take on New York. Infamous's Empire City did a decent job of imitating NYC as well, while Earthbound's Fourside (or the "Big Banana") did its best with the Super Nintendo's cute (but limited) capabilities.