It’s been more than 20 years since the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1999 album Californication was first released, and thanks to the work of developer Miquel Camps Orteza, its title track has been turned into a video game. Finally!
In 2000, the album’s title track was released as a single, and it came with a music video full of janky, 3D rendered animated scenes that resemble an old PlayStation game. Californication (the video game) re-creates the spirit of these scenes, except now, you can actually play through them as if the song was a video game.
The original music video is a delirious fever dream, with a shirtless character facing bears and chainsaw-wielding maniacs, running through forests and taking a mining car through a mine, and grinding a snowboard on the piping of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. The game trailer looks a whole lot like that original video, and shows gameplay of the characters soaring above city skies, running from giant boulders, and swimming through the ocean.
According to Orteza, the game started as a two-day challenge and snowballed into a full game, with seven levels that all have their own setting and game mechanics. Those looking to relive the glory days of the Red Hot Chili Peppers can download the game for free on Itch.io now, for Windows PC and macOS.
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