Video Game Settings

""The first board would be the jungle board, and maybe the second board is ice world, and then there's probably a desert world in there and a fire world...""

- Strong Bad

As much a trope in and of itself as it is a category.

Videogames, especially Platform Games, take place in a wide variety of different environments. As time has gone by, some of these environments tend to get used quite regularly. Many are more common to one genre than others, while some are almost universal, taking different forms depending on the genre. These almost always have their own style of music to match the level theme.

See also Law of Cartographical Elegance. Not to be confused with the kind of settings which alter some aspects of the game.

The deeper you go into the lab, the more likely you will find the horrors of unethical science Amazing how little poop you see in these large, airy underground spaces. The inescapable prison that the protaganist will inevitably break out from. When the game's levels come Back for the Finale. A level where the roller coasters are obstacle courses, the stands are mini-games, and the haunted house is the villain's hideout. A level that plays itself. A level in a Platform Game where the screen continually scrolls and you must keep up with it. A level where you must constantly outrun a threat, or even the left side of the screen! A game level where you have to keep going up to avoid some substance that keeps rising below you. A haunted or otherwise creepy level. It's spooooooky! A huge labyrinthine castle with far more rooms than seems physically possible. A level where the lighting is inconsistent or flashes on and off. A level where everything's scarier or more depressing. An optional level where the enemies and challenges are typically harder than the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. A level where you get to beat up angels and possibly God. An optional, often hidden level with lots of Power Ups or treasure, sometimes involving a Mini Game. A level that consists entirely of a Boss Battle. An easy level between two hard ones. An incredibly difficult "extra" level not required to beat the game proper. A level which takes place in the sky. Didn't you know clouds are solid? Anyone can walk on them! The swamp level. Soggy. A big, old, sandy pyramid. The biggest city in the game, the center of everything. Where are the secrets hiding? Look behind the waterfall. Can be a small feature in another level type or a level in and of itself. A dungeon that must be passed through in order to continue on to other areas. You thought clowns were scary before? How about where they throw knives at you? And where the lions aren't stuck in cages? A labyrinth of crates or containers in a warehouse, storeroom or dock. The internet as a physical level. A stage that takes place on a high, rocky mountain. Watch for falling rocks. Two cities side-by-side which are Different As Night and Day. A place with a lot of burned-out, ruined, rusty, or generally abandoned ships or trains. A dungeon that pretends to be the last one in the game, but is nowhere near it. A side area that looks like it's part of the current level, but actually can't be reached except via a long way around. The hero's home town is most probably going to be destroyed in a fiery blaze, generally by the Big Bad. A level that's based on a landfill or a scrapyard. The sewer level. A level that's devoid of powerups or equipment, making you ration your loot. A mine filled with evil! An item shop subsisting somewhere in the dungeon. For when the monsters bring the fight to your front door instead of conveniently waiting for you to enter the World Map. A world comprised of dreams...or nightmares. Underground is the best place for villains to hide. When you find yourself on a big, spacious elevator, rest assured you're going to have an extended multi-combatant smackdown. A vast factory complex or machine that can fill up a building, a city or even a whole planet. A zoo, wildlife reserve, or other home for supposedly extinct or mythical creatures. You have to enter a different "dimension" to fight the final boss. Lookit all the pretty stars and streams and blinky things! The city you start out in, a fairly large and central area. An otherwise-normal place that's floating in the sky, often for no adequately-explored reason. Hopefully when you finish one, your princess is not in another castle. A Pirate-themed area. ARR ME MATEYS! A level where some aspect of the game is radically changed, but the overall gameplay/genre stays the same. A Gimmick Level which messes around with gravity in some way. An urban area with chain-link fences and lots of colorful graffiti. A calm, colorful (usually green), vibrant land that may have tropical elements; often the first level. A level with winds or currents that push you around to make things more difficult. A level that has two settings in one, e.g. half of the level is full of ice, the other half is full of fire. A village filled with slightly mystical beings who don't really want anything to do with the outside world. A level filled that takes place inside of a beehive like setting. OH GOD THE BEES! The space between the levels, sometimes as elaborate as a level itself. At some point in your quest, you will have to climb a tower. A level that feels out of place from the entire rest of the game, and is usually silly. Tropical jungles. Flora and fauna are most probably dangerous. A stage taking place in a volcano or factory with red-hot metal involved. A level taking place in the air on a flying vehicle, animal, etc. Spooky haunted lighthouse. A level inside a train. A huge, shadowy, sometimes creepy forest. An area where either the enemies are giant or you are tiny. An incredibly long level that takes a huge amount of time to complete. You will get lost here. The walls are covered with flesh. Fantasy stories inevitably take place in a pastiche of medieval Europe. You ride a minecart and have to avoid obstacles. An area in a videogame that is host to a number of minigames where the player can win items or cash. Areas of the map a player can reach only by glitching or hacking. A level in a video game which is an alternate version of an area you were in earlier. Arena, often in the first or second big city visitable, where the party can fight slightly more advanced monsters at their leisure. Baby monsters have to grow up somewhere, after all. The first place where players actually begin Dungeon Crawling. Level architecture that forces the player down a linear path. A level or area is designed in such a way as to evoke memories of a previous game in the series. There is no such thing as a leisurely trip down the slopes. A villainous base floating in the middle of absolutely nowhere. A location that can't be revisited. A level on the beach. Sit back and relax, as long as you don't get killed by the Goombas. A location with powerful enemies which lets you speed through Level Grinding. Not only do you have to get to the end...you'll probably be soaked by the time you're done. A level of fire, brimstone and men with pitchforks. A location in a video game that serves as a base of operations. It's a city that's got boats to get on. Oogah! This place with cavemen! And dinosaurs! When the computer generates a random map, dungeon, or level. A place which is not the main hub or boss area in a series, but which appears over and over again within the same series. A level that suddenly is full of artillery, bombs, and fighter planes. A level you've already been to, but which has changed in some way. An optional level that isn't required to finish the game, and often has some gimmick involved with its design. A transparent underwater tunnel. Common in Racing Games. The desert stage, where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense... Sneak or blow your way through the narrow corridors and tight spaces of a ship, which may or may not still be floating by the time you're done with it. It's a subway, but haunted and spooky and dripping with stale water and monster-infested. You can skate anywhere, everywhere, and in fact must do so. The ice level. Less friction, more penguins. A big, shiny palace made out of ice. Look out for ice spikes. The space level. Needless to say, does not follow actual laws of physics. They go into a swamp...but they never come out. A dilapidated high tech zone. An ancient temple or city, complete with ancient traps designed to anciently behead or disembowel you. Okay, they're ruins...but why are they there? What are they ruins of? An inexplicably technologically-advanced area in a place where it obviously doesn't belong. Lots of rocks and stalactites and stalagmites and critters with glowy eyes. And of course we never run out of air, because that would ruin the fun. Majestic, decrepit ruins of something or other surviving under the sea for millenia. Probably with fully-functioning treasure chests. OK, given how far you're into the game, and the vibe you're getting from that skull-shaped fortress...yep, this is the final dungeon. When the location where the game ends and the location where the game begins are one and the same. An especially whimsical, surreal, or nonsensical area in a videogame. A music-themed wacky land. A casino-themed wacky land. A food-themed wacky land. A wacky land that revolves around pinball. A wacky land with living toys. In the good ol' frontier, alongside the Wutai of Ninjas and Gang Plank Galleon or Pirates You're inside a big monster. Watch out for the spleen - it spits acid. A map drawn to much smaller scale than the main areas of the game, used to allow the player to travel between areas faster than "real time", as well as (sometimes) explore. Obligatory East Asian pagoda-filled analogue. Expect to see ninjas, Samurai, kung fu masters, geisha, and/or The Thing That Goes Doink.
 * Abandoned Laboratory
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer
 * The Alcatraz
 * All the Worlds Are a Stage
 * Amusement Park
 * Automatic Level
 * Auto Scrolling Level
 * Advancing Wall of Doom
 * Rise to the Challenge
 * Big Boo's Haunt
 * Big Fancy Castle
 * Blackout Basement
 * Bleak Level
 * Bonus Dungeon
 * Bonus Level of Heaven
 * Bonus Stage
 * Boss Only Level
 * Breather Level
 * Brutal Bonus Level
 * Bubbly Clouds
 * Bubblegloop Swamp
 * Build Like an Egyptian
 * Capital City
 * Cave Behind the Falls
 * Chokepoint Geography
 * Circus of Fear
 * Container Maze
 * Cyberspace
 * Death Mountain
 * Decade Dissonance
 * Derelict Graveyard
 * Disc One Final Dungeon
 * Disconnected Side Area
 * Doomed Hometown
 * Down in the Dumps
 * Down the Drain
 * Drought Level of Doom
 * Dug Too Deep
 * Dungeon Shop
 * Dungeon Town
 * Dream Land
 * Elaborate Underground Base
 * Elevator Action Sequence
 * Eternal Engine
 * Fantastic Nature Reserve
 * Final Boss New Dimension
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield
 * First Town
 * Floating Continent
 * Game Level
 * Gang Plank Galleon
 * Gimmick Level
 * Gravity Screw
 * Graffiti Town
 * Green Hill Zone
 * Gusty Glade
 * Hailfire Peaks
 * Hidden Elf Village
 * Hornet Hole
 * Hub Level
 * It's All Upstairs From Here
 * Joke Level
 * Jungle Japes
 * Lethal Lava Land
 * Levels Take Flight
 * Lighthouse Point
 * Locomotive Level
 * The Lost Woods
 * Macro Zone
 * Marathon Level
 * The Maze
 * Meat Moss
 * Medieval European Fantasy
 * Minecart Madness
 * Minigame Zone
 * Minus World
 * Mirror World
 * Monster Arena
 * Monster Town
 * Noob Cave
 * No Sidepaths No Exploration No Freedom
 * Nostalgia Level
 * Obstacle Ski Course
 * Ominous Floating Castle
 * One-Time Dungeon
 * Palmtree Panic
 * Peninsula of Power Leveling
 * Pipe Maze
 * Planet Heck
 * Player Headquarters
 * Port Town
 * Prehistoria
 * Randomly Generated Levels
 * Recurring Location
 * Remilitarized Zone
 * Remixed Level
 * Secret Level
 * Shark Tunnel
 * Shifting Sand Land
 * Ship Level
 * Sinister Subway
 * Skate Heaven Is a Place on Earth
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World
 * Ice Palace
 * Space Zone
 * Swamps Are Evil
 * Techno Wreckage
 * Temple of Doom
 * Ruins for Ruins Sake
 * Tomorrowland
 * Underground Level
 * Under the Sea
 * Underwater Ruins
 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon
 * Where It All Began
 * Wackyland
 * Band Land
 * Casino Park
 * Level Ate
 * Pinball Zone
 * Toy Time
 * The Wild West
 * Womb Level
 * World Map
 * Wutai