The best fireworks in games

Recent July 4th celebrations made me wonder, and subsequently realize, how many games have fireworks in them.

The Paper Mario credits come to mind:
https://youtu.be/i1Q2141yAxc

As well as the general level ending fireworks for Super Mario Bros:
https://youtu.be/Kl3d2HAGElE

There was even a whole rhythm game about blowing up fireworks:
https://youtu.be/eO7Nc69lgCY

What are your favorites?

All of the special single-use weapons in Jumping Flash are fireworks-themed!

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/XA3P6yx.jpeg]

The underloved and unremembered US PS2 launch game Fantavision was what immediately came to mind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da7RYUSU5-8

https://youtu.be/cnjie2G7_gQ?t=2820?

The ending of the last race in R4 always gives me goosebumps.

was just talking about these in the helpline thread

the fireworks festivals across my favorite Animal Crossing games :slight_smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyFhdYKIoRM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U79-DWfu7lQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XleGU5Y5QkY

also can I just say that I love non-direct capture handheld videos

I always thought the fireworks at the beginning of Chrono Trigger were cute. You see them on the world map, not in the field so they are just a few pixels and muted in their sound effect, but still seem very festive.

Another easy answer is [When You Go On A Date with Yuffie in the Golden Saucer](https://youtu.be/W3Zdqipa3js?t=178).

Ooh, good answer—I really like how these sound effects were mimicked by the orchestra that recorded the arrangements released a few years ago:

I often make jokes about equating real life beauty to video games, after I took a friend camping one time and she looked up at the stars for the first time in her life and said “just like animal crossing” and I lost my shit.

Couple days ago on the 3rd, up in malibu beach I was with a couple good homies that I can make deep cut video game jokes with.


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Wow, just like the fireworks game in Rhythm Tengoku

Wow, just like Fantavision

But what comes to mind immediately is Sasuke's firework attacks in the Goemon series. There's also a fireworks challenge in _Ganbare Goemon 3_ and _Goemon's Great Adventure_.
I'm not really a big fan of fireworks, it goes against my nature as a peace-loving hippie. I don't like smoke or fire or explosions. Fireworks in video games have always been more satisfying cause it usually accompanies a major feat!
Although, being in LA last weekend was a trip. It's always like that, year round. But if you saw footage of what it was like this year after fireworks were outlawed, the city was a surreal image of fireworks in all directions.

I like Super Mario RPG’s fireworks… it plays after a Disneyland parade and actually goes CHUUUUUUUE (maybe around the 5:30 minute mark)

ENDING CREDITS SPOILERS
https://youtu.be/4EAzUDRSlFA

And Chrono Trigger especially with To Faraway Times playing!

ENDING CREDITS SPOILERS

https://youtu.be/f3Dsp2XZ-uE

…Ah. https://youtu.be/dID6bQmur_4

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I like how the enemies in Galaga '90 explode like fireworks

https://youtu.be/L_E1nrbtQEE

Oh also, the Mecha Broodal fireworks from Mario Odyssey are really charming! Cute way to end the fight

https://youtu.be/D-48rIWl0VA?t=309

Right, as mentioned in different posts above, it’s a motif of Super Mario games. They are prominently used in Odyssey’s famous nod to where it all started. They are used in 3D World’s coolest moment. Its notorious final stage Champion’s Road also ends with fireworks. They can be seen in N64 Rainbow Road, in Mario Kart 8. I wonder if we’ll see fireworks in the Illumination movie?

Outside of the Mario IP, I think my most memorable gaming moments tied to fireworks have all been mentioned already, save three.

① I probably love **Dark Savior** more than any human being reasonably should. Most of the game occurs on an island turned into a prison, imaginatively named Jailers Island. You might not realize on your first playthrough that the whole socio-economic construct, rules, power dynamics and urban planning of the island is completely bonkers. There is that amazing moment at the very beginning of the game's first scenario (I think I tagged it properly below) where the warden of Jailers Island, Kurtliegen, celebrates his own birthday and allows inmates to get visits from their relatives, among many other weird events that don't make sense for a high security prison. The scene starts with fireworks commissioned by Kurtliegen to celebrate himself. It puts you into the vibe of that weird place immediately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXr_pBVs54o&t=725s

② Fireworks are rarely used in the background of fighting games. [Ray's stage](https://youtu.be/BDO5uA8JAvg?t=82) in Fighter's History Dynamite comes to mind (they appear in the second round). You can also make fireworks appear in [Lawrence's stage](https://youtu.be/C01nZUDOSlQ?t=1098), under specific conditions, in Fatal Fury Special. But my favorite implementation of fireworks in a fighting game is the Cihco de Mayo (_sic_) stage in **Art of Fighting 3**. You are fighting in a back alley, more or less missing the entire show, and the fireworks illuminate the walls and sky periodically. The sound direction also does a great job with the muffled sound of the parade and distant fireworks' sounds, blocked and distorted by the buildings behind you. The whole scene feels like what Michael Mann would come up with if he was tasked to design fighting game stages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc5_NkNJFIc&t=141s

③ There are some firework scenes in a least a couple Final Fantasy games. Chrono Trigger, mentioned above, is another great example. But you know which legendary RPG got the most compelling and original fireworks? PC Engine's very own **Tengai Makyō II**. Yet it's not your typical nice visual scene in the background, or millenial fair about to be disrupted by evil afoot. In Tengai Makyō II, Fireworks are literally a character called "Fireworks". Well, the entire game is in Japanese and set in a fantasy version of Japan, so she is actually called Hanabi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKI_LL17m5o

Hanabi and her two sisters are some of the major secondary characters in the game. You meet them pretty early on (seen above). I don't want to spoil how they interact with the protagonists because there are some memorable beats in the adventure that will be worth discovering on your own when you get the chance. However, I can at least explain Hanabi (the blue-haired one) is the eldest of the three ninja sisters and acts as the mature, graceful leader of the band. Unfortunately, as her name foreshadows, Hanabi is extremely short-tempered and prone to lose her composure, in which case she will not hesitate to use her feudal bazooka on everything and everyone, sometimes at the player's or even her own peril.

Hanabi, Matsuri and Mikoshi bring a lot to the comedic tone throughout the game. The dubbing and visual cutscenes obviously added a lot to their personality at a time when you could barely recognize what RPG character sprites were supposed to represent, and they are really well used in the handful of scenes they appear to push the plot forward.

https://i.gifer.com/3gdH.gif

Sunset Overdrive has some great fireworks and pryo particle effects

https://youtu.be/z_mcWmbSOIw?t=404