History Main / NostalgiaLevel

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Lon Lon Ranch from ''Ocarina of Time'' appears as well as several locations from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', all in ruin.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'': "Shining Falls Special - Triple Threat Deluge" starts with a brief recreation of World 1-1 from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''... that quickly ends up being obliterated by the trio of Lakitus pelting you with giant spike balls.

** ''Franchise/MarioKart'': Generally speaking, old tracks make reappearances down the line in later games in the form of "Retro Cups", but even then, there are some special cases.
*** ''Super Circuit'' includes all twenty tracks from the original SNES game.
*** From ''DS'' on, the Retro Grand Prix. Four cups (Shell, Banana, Leaf, and Lightning, in that order) with four assorted tracks from previous games, usually tweaked for the new game's mechanics. ''7'' and ''8'' even finish off the Lightning Cup with an old Rainbow Road (''Super Mario Kart''[='s=] and ''64''[='s=], respectively).
*** ''7'''s DK Jungle is practically a love letter to ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'', since Retro Studios designed it.
*** ''7'' 's Shy Guy Bazaar is a major shout out not only to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', but to ''VideoGame/DokiDokiPanic'', considering the Arabian setting.
*** Airship Fortress, Figure-8 Circuit, and Desert Hills all contain references to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' (the airship levels, the platforms, and all of World 2, respectively).
*** Piranha Plant Slide is one giant homage to [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 the original game]].
*** All the retro tracks in ''8'' take the trope to the next level by remaking the old tracks with updated HD visuals, new set pieces and remastered music. Not only do the retro tracks look and feel new with the upgrades, they also still play in a way most old fans would remember them for. On top of all this, some retro tracks use the anti gravity and glider mechanics to give the old tracks a fresher feel to them without deviating from the original design of the tracks.
*** ''Tour'' featured a variety of retro tracks. Some tracks, like Mario Circuit and Choco Island from ''Super'', also received "Remix" versions.

* ''VideoGame/MarioSuperSluggers'': Luigi's Mansion is unlockable and playable at night. The spooky mansion and music greatly remind of, well, ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion''.

* The Citadel [[ScenicTourLevel prisoner pod ride]] in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' is designed to be reminiscent of the introductory tram ride of the original ''[[VideoGame/HalfLife1 Half-Life]]''.
** The tech-demo, non-canon ''Lost Coast'' is said in the commentary to be a gameplay callback to the cliffside fight with the marines from the ''Half-Life'' chapter "Surface Tension", in that much of the combat involves you looking almost vertically at enemies.
** Some of the level architecture from the first game's cliffside fight was ripped fresh into Nova Prospekt. When you get past the beach bunkers and start climbing the cliff, note the similarity of the pair of pipelines coming down. The only difference is that you approached it from the side and passed above it in the first game instead of climbing along it from the bottom up. Even the stinger that lurked just inside the exit tunnel was brought back (as a fast zombie instead of an ordinary headcrab, though).

** The second mission of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'' takes place at the Vodka club, the same place where the climax of the first chapter in the original ''Max Payne'' took place (only then it was called Ragnarock), after Vladimir Lem bought it out, renamed it and started renovating.
** ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'' does away with the dark, stormy New York setting of the first two games in favor of levels set in tropical, sunny Sao Paulo. There's two chapters, however, that pay homage to the earlier aesthetic by taking place in New Jersey during a snowy night.

* The final area in ''VideoGame/Mother3'' is largely intended to be a nostalgia trip to ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' and ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', with one of the very last areas the player goes through containing a museum filled with items and characters (or replicas of them) from ''Earthbound'', with the sprites being directly ripped from the previous game. Between the proportions and the palette differences between the SNES and GBA sprites, a lot of the sprites were particularly [[{{Retraux}} jarring]] (most notably a certain someone's spider mech being sized to match [=EarthBound=]'s battle sprites rather than the overworld's). The music in the looooong hallway preceding that particular room is the same as the title screen of [[VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings the first game]], [[BookEnds the very first tune you'll hear in the entire series]]. There are also a theatre screening a movie made of the major events of the second game. A snack bar has robot female servants modeled after a certain Dung Beetle-hating rich cold-hearted woman, complete with the same quotes! The villain room in the Thunder Tower has the Teddy Bear, and various other easter eggs. You can even engage in an OptionalBoss battle for an equippable "Friend's Yo-Yo"!

** ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'': Two of the first person levels are taken from ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' (by the same company).

* ''VideoGame/DriverSanFrancisco'' has the "Blast From the Past" EasterEgg level, the [[TutorialFailure incredibly hard]] tutorial of the original ''VideoGame/{{Driver}}''. It's unlocked by going 88 miles an hour in a [=DeLorean=], a la ''Film/BackToTheFuture''.

** ''VideoGame/Pikmin4'': Kingdom of Beasts is a throwback to two caves from ''Pikmin 2'', Bulblax Kingdom and Hole of Beasts, down to its name being the names of the latter caves put together. Like both caves, it is heavily themed around the Grub-Dog family of enemies and has the Bulblaxes as boss fights. The Empress Bulblax is fought in a long room just like in the Hole of Beasts, and a pair of Emperor Bulblaxes are fought in a round room that leads to a puzzle with water and fire geysers just like in Bulblax Kingdom (except the latter only had one Emperor).
** Also from ''Pikmin 4'' is the Engulfed Castle. It's basically an abridged remake of the Submerged Castle from ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'', with many of its sublevels being recreated down to the placement of enemies and hazards (with a few exceptions and substitutions). And, of course, the infamous [[StalkedByTheBell Waterwraith]] returns as well.

* The Engulfed Castle in ''VideoGame/Pikmin4'' is basically an abridged remake of the Submerged Castle from ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'', with many of its sublevels being recreated down to the placement of enemies and hazards (with a few exceptions and substitutions). And, of course, the infamous [[StalkedByTheBell Waterwraith]] returns as well.

* ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven'':
** In ''Fever'' you can unlock remastered versions of four minigames from the first installment on the GBA. Since that game was never released overseas, this was the first time people in the West were able to play them. [[RegionalBonus The NSTC and PAL versions]] also include a remastered version of "Mr. Upbeat", an endless minigame from the GBA installment.
** ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven'' and ''Rhythm Heaven Fever'' both feature Karate Man, the first minigame from the original Gameboy Advance game, as their final regular minigame, albeit with a different song and new audio cues.
** ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven Megamix'' contains a whopping ''70'' Nostalgia Levels from the first three games, along with two new versions of Karate Man, one significantly easier and one significantly harder.

*** ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'' features "Empyrean" ("The Pit" from ''3''), "Salvation" ("Damnation" from ''Combat Evolved''), "Solitude" ("Plaza" from ''5''), "Kusini Bay" ("Zanzibar" from ''2''), "Vallaheim" ("Valhalla" from ''3''), and "Rat's Nest" (the same map from ''3'').

** Part of ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'''s Area D is a remake of the Central Highway stage from the first ''X'' game. Several of the stages in ''ZX Advent'' are based on ''ZX'' stages, notably Queenbee's stage, which has the same overall structure and appearance as the final stage in its predecessor.

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'': Three of the four mainlands explored are mildly modified versions of mainlands seen in the first game. Namely, Awakening Wood is Forest of Hope, Perplexing Pool is Distant Spring, and Wistful Wild is a combined form of Impact Site and The Final Trial. Olimar gets to notice this, even having nostalgic feelings towards them.

*** ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'' features "Empyrean" ("The Pit" from ''3''), "Salvation" ("Damnation" from ''Combat Evolved''), and "Solitude" ("Plaza" from ''5'').

*** ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'' features "Empyrean" ("The Pit" from ''3'') and "Salvation" ("Damnation" from ''Combat Evolved'').

** ''VideoGame/DoomII'': Its two secret levels are set in Castle Wolfenstein. The first one is [=E1M1=], complete with the same secret exit as in that game, which here takes you to [=E1M9=], the Boss Level - with a Cyberdemon replacing Hans Grosse. That level auto-ended when you ran across a certain spot in the last room in the original; that room is now where you must kill four VideoGame/{{Commander Keen}}s to finish the game.

* ''VideoGame/PacMania'' has Pac-Man's Park, which has the same maze layout as the maze from the original ''VideoGame/PacMan'', and its music makes use of the melody from the original game's intermission sequences.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'': Befitting its name, the game brings back a very large number of racetracks from all previous games (except ''Mario Kart 8'', likely due to the lack of the anti-gravity assets). Its biggest source of nostalgia is ''VideoGame/MarioKarty7'', as it not only brought back nearly all new tracks from it (the only exceptions are the ''VideoGame/WiiSportsResort''-based ones, Music Park and DK Jungle), but also all retro tracks that were present there.

*** One of the e-Reader levels in ''Super Mario Advance 4'' version of the game is a remake of World 1-1 from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros.'' The Japanese version (as well as the Wii U Virtual Console releases, worldwide) also released remakes of the rest of World 1 as well as 2-2.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'': The FLUDD-less levels require Mario to get through with only platforming. These stages use a remix of the original Super Mario Bros theme and some have nostalgic backgrounds to further add to this.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'': Some of the sample levels embedded in the game are remade versions of levels that first appeared in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', with some changes to suit the newer game's engine. Also, two of the official Event courses are based on the starting levels of ''Super Mario Bros.'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' respectively.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Lon Lon Ranch from ''Ocarina of Time'' appears as well as several locations from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', all in ruin.

*** Toad's Turnpike, Royal Raceway, Yoshi Valley and Rainbow Road appear in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8''

* Luigi's Mansion in ''VideoGame/MarioSuperSluggers'' is unlockable and playable at night. The spooky mansion and music greatly remind of, well, ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion''.

** ''VideoGame/PerfectDark Zero'' has DLC of a few ''[=GoldenEye=]'' and ''Perfect Dark'' maps, including Facility.
** For its part, ''Perfect Dark'' had a couple of ''[=GoldenEye=]'''s multiplayer maps, including - you guessed it - Facility. Although in ''Perfect Dark'', the name of the map is changed to Felicity... clever.

*** From ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'': The Courtyard, Goro's Lair, The Pit/The Pit Bottom, Shang Tsung's Throne Room.

** Ever since ''[[DreamMatchGame Trilogy]]'' and [[VideoGame/MortalKombat4 the fourth game]], the series tends to bring back older stages from [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 the]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombatII original]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 trilogy]], complete with remixed music. Sometimes these stages include [[CallBack Call-Backs]] to previous events, but they're usually there for nothing other than RuleOfCool. The usual offenders are [[VideoGame/MortalKombatII The Living Forest]] and [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 Goro's Lair]].

** You also visit Gekkoukan High from ''VideoGame/Persona3'' on a school trip, and every area uses music from the game.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* The first ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' has you return to the burned-down ruins of Nemeton Monastery, the site of the prequel game ''VideoGame/{{Koudelka}}''.