History Main / PortalEndpointResemblance

* ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'':

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack'' uses these for the portals into the various levels, although it's more fitting to say that they're themed after the various biomes the levels share as there's not much to distinguish the levels in each set. The only exceptions are those in the fifth Warp Room (which are very industrial) and the secret Warp Room, which uses a single set of rings.
* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'' features a unified warp room that branches into various paths, each having a portal that can take Crash (sometimes Coco) onto five levels. The portal's surroundings are each modeled thematically after at least one of the five levels available (except for the portal of the third path, as the walls are decorated in the style of the Chinese levels, but there are no levels set in China there).
* ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'' plays with it: while four of the five {{Hub Level}}s thematics are centered around one or two of their four tracks, subtle details around these tracks' portals refer to them ([[SharkTunnel Roo Tubes]] being on a dock, [[AthleticArenaLevel Tiny Arena]] being inside an igloo, etc.). The most blatant example is CitadelCity which rooms are decorated [[MadScientistLaboratory to fit]] [[BigFancyCastle three tracks]] [[SpaceZone thematics]] while [[LevelsTakeFlight the fourth]] is placed at the exterior with a blimp above the portal, and the "boss garage" is right in front of it to show where it will happen.
** ''VideoGame/CrashNitroKart'' takes it further, as ''all the tracks'' have this around them in a more or less obvious way. For example, [[JungleJapes Terra]] (as you can see [[https://crashbandicoot.fandom.com/wiki/Terra?file=CNKterramap.png here]]) has its [[PalmtreePanic beach track]] on the littoral, its [[JungleJapes jungle and ruins track]] surrounded by greens and totems (and the boss level in front of it to show it will happen on it), and its [[RuinsForRuinsSake temple track]] surrounded by what appears to be a temple (and the arena track in front of it to show it will happen in a similar location).

* ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'' plays with it: while four of the five {{Hub Level}}s thematics are centered around one of their four tracks, subtle details around these tracks' portals refer to them. The most blatant example is CitadelCity which rooms are decorated [[MadScientistLaboratory to fit]] [[BigFancyCastle three tracks]] [[SpaceZone thematics]] while [[LevelsTakeFlight the fourth]] is placed at the exterior with a blimp above the portal, and the "boss garage" is right in front of it to show where it will happen.

The reasons for this aesthetic similarity vary. Sometimes the long-gone creators of the portal deliberately put a facsimile of the destination at that end so that visitors would have a better idea of what that destination was for the sake of RagnarokProofing. Other times this is the result of it ''not'' being a NoFlowPortal: sand, water, magical energy, or whatever else is on the other end will leak through and reshape the area. And sometimes, the eccentric owner of a portal-filled lair just wants to spruce up the décor around the portals.

** At one point, the character Gobi cryptically announces that he's going to a [[LethalLavaLand "lava world"]], which never actually appears in-game. The line likely intended as simply a joke on common video game settings. However, Gruntilda's Lair ''does'' feature one room with a big lava pit, so a lot of players [[UrbanLegendOfZelda felt certain]] that the lava world must be accessible through that room somehow. The rumour was eventually put to rest in ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'' with HailfirePeaks, which is half a lava world, and Gobi is indeed there.

* ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'' plays with it: while four of the five {{Hub Level}}s thematics are centered around one of their four tracks, subtle details around these tracks' portals refer to them. The most blatant example is CitadelCity which rooms are decorated [[MadScientistLaboratory to fit]] [[BigFancyCastle three tracks]] [[SpaceZone thematics]], while [[LevelsTakeFlight the fourth]] is placed at the exterior with a blimp above the portal and the "boss garage", which happens on this track, is right in front of it.

Much more common in video games than other media, especially in the CollectAThonPlatformer genre, as this lets players know what to expect from upcoming levels in a ShowDontTell manner. See also WhenDimensionsCollide, where aspects of one reality are more generally brought over into another world.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'': Most galaxy domes in Rosalina's observatory avert the trope, as they're based on the specific areas of what was originally her house (a bathroom, a kitchen, a bedoom, etc.), instead of the galaxies you can access from them. However the Engine Room plays it straight, because many active mechanisms and gizmos can be seen in it, with a Gearmo maintaining it, and one of the galaxies you can be launched onto from it is the mechanical ToyTime Galaxy (it being inhabited by multiple Gearmos also helps).

* ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'': In the first game, the nine worlds accessible from Gruntilda's Lair are entered from rooms that look like them, often complete with fake painted skies resembling those in the worlds. So [[PalmtreePanic Treasure Trove Cove]] is entered through a beach-like room complete with a fake pirate ship, [[ShiftingSandLand Gobi's Valley]] is entered through a palm tree on an outcropping in a room full of quicksand, [[BigBoosHaunt Mad Monster Mansion]] is entered through a steepled building in a gloomy graveyard, etc. Interestingly, this destination resonance is also true of the areas around the Jiggy murals you must fill in to open the entrances, even if the murals and entrances are far from each other; for instance, the mural to open [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Freezeezy Peak]] is in a very icy room.