Your Quintessential Games of Summer

[Julius]

Well, somehow we're already at the tail end of June, and officially a few days into summer.

The recent heatwave across Europe has been a firm reminder that this is the time of year for most to don the sunscreen and hats before hitting the beach, but for those of us playing games, it's also a time to draw those blinds and curtains, find a way to cool your room by any means necessary, and dig into some more gaming escapades, new or old. 

This year I've found myself saving my first playthroughs of Super Mario Sunshine and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the summer, because these games undeniably have some of the qualities of a quintessential summer game: sweeping sandy beaches, tall tropical trees, and rolling azure waves. 

And it got me thinking: what are those quintessential summer games? 

While I definitely think there's a temptation to lean towards tropical islands, a sandy beach and rolling waves alone a summer game does not make. There's a certain vibe, jolly and frivolous, that I think can capture a summer game, but I also find that more casual adventure games can also hit the spot. And I'm sure we all have that one game we associate with summer which probably has no business being associated with summer, beyond our own personal experiences with the game, whether it be because of an E3 trailer, or even just digging into a horror game for the first time in the dead heat of summer, but I want to hear about those too. 

For me, one of the first things to come to mind is the Uncharted series. They're the video game definition of a summer blockbuster - a modern recapturing of films like Indiana Jones - sending us off on globetrotting adventures to track down treasures lost to time, all the while firing from the hip, ducking for cover, and lunging for that next ledge. 

Another type of game I strongly associate with summer is a kart racer. We can jump into specific games - I've made no secret over the years for my fond summer memories of drifting around Shibuya Downtown as Opa-Opa or Billy Hatcher in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing! - but the pick-up-and-play nature of a good kart racer makes them a perfect type of game to play in the summer for me. Races aren't particularly long, meaning that when you're not having chaotic fun screaming obscenities after going from 1st to 6th at the finish line, you can sneak in an ice lolly (or two) and have a fan blasting cool but recycled air at your face the whole time. 

N-E, I turn it over to you: what are your quintessential games of summer? And better yet, are there also any gaming memories which immediately jump to mind when you think of playing games in the summer? 

[drahkon]

4 hours ago, Julius said:

And better yet, are there also any gaming memories which immediately jump to mind when you think of playing games in the summer? 

Been talking about my childhood/teenage summers with one of my oldest friends recently, and we actually remembered that we didn't play a lot of games in the summer times back then.
We just...went outside, played basketball, went for a swim, rode our bikes  

And when we did play video games, it was either Super Smash Bros Melee, Diablo 2 LoD or CS 1.6 for most of these years.

But if I had to choose one of my summer games from back then...it's probably:

Played this to death.

I remember pre-ordering this in a local store...I guess this was my first pre-order ever. We got a call once it was available for pickup and I nagged my dad to pick it up that day (I wasn't 16, yet, then). He just came back from work and was not pleased.  But because he was a good dude, he picked it up for me  

That was my summer sorted.

So yeah...there are really no "summery" games for me. I just play whatever I feel like  

Edited June 26, 2022 by drahkon

[nekunando]

There aren't really any games I think of as 'Summer' games but the only one that immediately springs to mind is 1080 Avalanche

Yes, a game filled with snow!

The reason I have gone for this is that I remember my friend up the road had only recently passed his driving test back in whatever year it was and we ended up going into town in his car on a very hot day that Summer. We, of course, paid a visit to GAME and, to my delight, 1080 Avalanche was on sale at half price and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to take advantage of that deal!

Interestingly (in a not really that interesting kind of way) I associate the original 1080 Snowboarding with Halloween!

Again, a good deal in GAME was involved but I picked it up the same day that we were buying our box of fireworks for Halloween.. back when that was allowed

 

[darksnowman]

If the answer isn't OutRun then the question's wrong.    

I didn't get Link's Awakening in summer but I got into it in summer. I remember replaying it time and again with Wimbledon on the box. Great times.

Bit of a weird one probably: I remember borrowing and getting into Street Fighter II at the start of the summer holidays one year. I'd played it in 2-player before that but it was the opportunity to borrow it that allowed me to get into it decently. I specifically remember going through the sound test. LOL. What was Guile's theme? 014 or 016? Something like that?  

Other than that, no strong summer gaming associations are leaping out. Wario Land 1 and 2 kind of. Splinter Cell and SSX 3 maybe? Or was it Splinter Cell and Viewtiful Joe? I took advantage of some summer 2 for £30 combination in Game on Gamecube third-party stuff one year anyway. Think I got Mario Kart 64 in July (stock kept getting snapped up) but I don't think of it as a summer game. Think the same goes for Smash Bros. Melee. Konami Krazy Racers was a June release as far as I mind and I don't strongly associate it with summer either.

Wind Waker came out during exam season (oops) and Mario Sunshine after summer so I don't associate either specifically with the summer holidays.  It's a season that gets short shrift for gaming memories to be sure. It was just the time for OutRun and the arcades.

Nowadays the summer months are well covered for gaming releases but back in the day it was always the drought before the dark nights would return and the years' big releases would come.  

[Jonnas]

I somehow missed this thread before.

I don't have any "typical" summer games, or a ritual, or anything. I more easily remember the books I read on a trip than the games, usually.

But there was this one June at the age of 14-15 where I had surgery on my foot and had to stay home for a couple of weeks. I spent that time replaying a game I beat before, this time with the intent of completing it 100%. In the process, I properly fell in love with it, and it forever cemented itself as the perfect summer game for me. And that was...

Yeah, looking for that treasure with the real sun in the background is something else, believe you me. And in truly exploring the game, I finally understood it. Great couple of weeks, those were.