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The Colour Of Video Games

Colour can be a strange and wonderful thing. Sometimes, all it’s used for is to fill in the lines, or make something appear more “real”, or more interesting. Yet other times it can be as powerful a force in our identification of a game as any character or soundtrack.

So we got to thinking: can a single colour really sum up (or stir up) our feelings about a video game? Turns out they sure can.

We’ve picked a few here as examples. Sometimes they’re the prevalent colour in a game’s background (Pac-Man), sometimes they’re a colour used for memorable effects (Halo) and sometimes they’re barely seen in the game at all, but from being on its box art and promotional material becomes synonymous with the game anyway (Half-Life 2).

And other times, well, they’re not strictly a game at all.

I’m sure you’ve got ideas on similar tones from games we’ve missed, so if you do, share them below!

Discuss

(6 Comments)
  • [–]

    Sughly

    Friday, April 22, 2011 at 11:07 AM

    Zelda would have to be some kind of forest green, amirite?

    Reply
  • [–]

    ed

    Friday, April 22, 2011 at 12:38 PM

    very nice! And very true.

    Immediately when reading this article I thought of Mirror’s Edge. The use of colour in the level design just blows my mind every time I play it.
    Still fingers crossed for number 2 :p heh heh

    Reply
  • [–]

    warcroft

    Friday, April 22, 2011 at 1:09 PM

    Metal Gear Solid and Metroid are both Pantone 4, but different colours.

    The only Pantone 4 colours are Black 4, Warm Grey 4 and Cool Gray 4. None of them are the colour you have for Metal Gear Solid.
    Theyre definitely not Metroid orange.

    Sega is 191?
    No, 191 red. Not blue.

    And Half Life? 123?
    123 is yellow. I think you want Orange 021.

    Actually, reading through the list, Im sorry to say but I dont know where you got your colours from. Most of those PMS colours dont exist. The ones which do have a proper PMS number you have completely the wrong colour.
    Eg: Shadow of the Colossus is PMS183?
    No, 183 is a light pink, not grey.

    Reply
  • [–]

    HeyJD

    Friday, April 22, 2011 at 1:38 PM

    Nah Pacman shouldn’t be Blue, It should be bright yellow. It’s the main colour that stands out. Not the walls.

    Reply
  • [–]

    v4next

    Friday, April 22, 2011 at 5:48 PM

    Mirrors Edge is White to me. Super Mario is Red. SEGA is Blue. Pacman is Yellow. Cant think of anything else… very interesting really, would be great to find out what different colours represent each game to different people…

    Reply
  • [–]

    bapslap

    Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 8:03 PM

    Grey – Half of the shooters released this gen
    Brown – The other half

    Reply

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