Studiopolis

There's no business like show business!^note In standard reading order: Sonic Mania, Overwatch, Undertale, PriPara, Luigi's Mansion 3, A Hat in Time

"Lights, Camera, Action!"

— Sonic Mania

Ah, the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. The bright lights, the cameras, the red carpet...

...and the perfect place to set your video game levels.

Studiopolis settings tend to be dominated by flashing lights and cameras, marquees and billboards advertising the latest In-Universe movies, and are often set in the game's equivalent of Los Angeles. Sometimes, this level will use other video game settings as film sets (e.g. Big Boo's Haunt for a horror movie, Space Zone or Eternal Engine for a sci-fi movie). This also includes live theatre stages; there might not be the camera, but there's action, often with elements such as a visible audience, stage lights, backstage scenes, and curtains.

Expect enemies to be Paparazzi, Loony Fans, or related to the genre of film being made.

Compare Casino Park, when the level is set in a casino-themed area, Band Land, when the level is music-themed, Toon Town, and Wackyland. Also compare Trapped in TV Land, where characters go through the literal manifestations of TV shows and movies in another dimension.

Please note games like movie-making simulators such as The Movies are set in this setting naturally and would be self-explanatory, thus should not be added.

Not to be confused with the voice acting studio.

Examples:

Action-Adventure Game

• Luigi's Mansion 3: The eighth floor of the haunted hotel is Paranormal Productions, a movie studio themed floor which is the residence of a creatively blocked movie director ghost. Each room is a separate movie theater set modeled after a different genre of film with plots that must be acted out by the player in order to progress.
• Princess Peach: Showtime! takes place entirely in a closed off theatre, with Peach performing on different stages and putting on costumes for each. There's also access to the backstage areas, depending on the level; for example, Patisserie Peach can go backstage in her first level to assist four hungry Theets.

First-Person Shooter

• Bloody Good Time takes place entirely on movie sets, being used as the stage for a Deadly Game where actors must kill each other under various different rule sets as part of a bizarre audition process.
• Overwatch: The Hollywood map takes place in a facsimile of the famous tinsel town, with the first part of the map being a Chinese theater and the entrance of a movie studio. Upon getting into the next section, both teams then do battle in a fake Old Western town, with high-tech equipment and lighting hidden throughout. The attacking team needs to seize the control point so that they can secure and start escorting the limousine of Hal-Fred Glitchbot, an Omnic (i.e. robotic) movie director with a rude streak towards his crew. Then, the final phase of the map starts in the back end of the studio, with old props and other things stored aside. The end goal (for the attacking team) is to reach the director's trailer that's parked right outside another theater. Reportedly, the art team was deliberately reaching for a "theme park version" of Hollywood; following an actual visit to the place for reference, they began making it more realistic, which they were directed to stop doing.

Hack And Slash Game

• No More Heroes: The Rank 7 stage has Travis travel via subway train to the Bear Hug Studio, a large film studio within a warehouse. It is there where he meets John Harnet, a seemingly-humble man who likes to act as a superhero. But that man is an assassin, and after fooling Travis twice with an Electric Joybuzzer he enters into character and changes his clothes to those of his superhero persona, Destroyman. This initiates the boss battle between the two. The studio returns in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle as a Nostalgia Level, and Destroyman is the boss once again (but since Travis cut him in half, now there are two of him), but it's played by Shinobu instead of Travis.

Party Game

• Mario Party 7: The board Neon Heights, which takes place in a movie studio. The movies being filmed are a western film, a Sci-fi film, and a baseball film. This level's gimmick is that the Stars are hidden in one of three treasure chests, which Koopa Kid will open for ten coins. Other prizes in treasure chests will include extra coins, Bob-ombs that will take your coins away, and Dark Stars that will take your Stars away.

Platform Game

• The entirety of the Animaniacs licensed games for the SNES and Sega Genesis take place in the various film stages of the Warner Bros. studio. Each stage films a different movie genre. In the SNES version, there's a Fantasy Stage, an Adventure Stage, a Sci-fi Stage, an Aquatic Stage, and an Editing Room. In the Genesis version, there's the stages for The Adventure of Dirk Rugged VII, Space Wars, Swing em' low, Hang em' High, Bloodmask: Part 32, and Once There Was a Man Named Oscar. Each of these stages have spotlights and movie cameras present throughout them. In the SNES version, the Warners are collecting scripts to make their own movie, and in the Genesis version, the Warners are collecting movie props for their collection. Both games end with a final battle against Pinky and the Brain, who are trying to Take Over the World through means of the scripts or props.
• In the Bonkers licensed game for the Super Nintendo, one of the levels takes place at Wacky Studios. In this level, Bonkers travels through the stages of a Sci-fi film and a Western movie, and there are spotlights and movie cameras present throughout. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck also make cameo appearances as film directors. The bosses of this stage are Wooly and Bully, who operate an Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt. Defeat them and you'll recover Aladdin's magic lamp.
• Bug Too!, the sequel to the Sega Saturn game Bug, is set in a film studio with an Excuse Plot to film six movies in one day. The levels are given Pun Based Titles based on different movies: Weevil Dead 2, Lawrence of Arachnia, Antennae Day, Flea-Wee's Big Adventure, Swatterworld, and Cicada Night Fever.
• In Daffy Duck in Hollywood, Daffy is tasked with getting Yosemite Sam's golden movie award collection back from Professor Duckbrain, who is holding them for a $1,000,000.00 ransom. The game's stages are all the sets of films; "Scalp Trouble", "The Duxorcist", "Robin Hood Daffy", "Assault and Peppered", "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century", and "The Quacker Tracker".
• A Hat in Time: The premise of Chapter 2: Battle of the Birds is about two competing movie directors (the Conductor and DJ Grooves) attempting to out do each other for the 42nd Annual Bird Movie Award, with Hat Kid infiltrating production and becoming a movie star in order to retrieve her lost Time Pieces, which are being used as props. The main gimmick is helping either director score review points by taking part in their sets, and whoever wins the award by scoring the most points becomes the chapter's main boss and Arc Villain, with the losing director becoming your helper in said boss fight.
• In Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit!, Tim Taylor has to recover his stolen power tools, each of which has been hidden in a different set on the lot his show is shot in.
• Katana ZERO features "Studio 51", which doubles as the hideout of V, a sadistic Russian mobster that enjoys making snuff films. The studio has separate sets that each reference a different movie/genre: Chapel of Doom (a nod to the mine cart scene), 3001: A Space Uncertainty, which actually deals with Sci-Fi in general, and Quiet Hills (technically a game first and foremost, but it does have a movie franchise).
• The Amiga game Oscar is about the titular Mascot with Attitude trying to win Oscar awards. Level numbers are shown on clapboards at the beginning of every level, and each level is themed after a movie genre.
• Another Amiga platformer is Premiere, where a film editor has to recover six film reels from the sets and backstages of a rival film company. The sets are based on the usual film genres such as western, horror and medieval fantasy, plus some more unusual ones like black-and-white silent films and cartoons (apparently this universe works like the Roger Rabbit one).
• In The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World, the fourth and final stage is Hollywood. The first act of the stage takes place on a pirate ship where Bart has to dodge pirates and cannonballs. The second act takes place on the stage of a horror film, where Bart has to dodge bats, gargoyles, zombies, spiders, skeletons, and ghosts that resemble Mr. Smithers. The third part takes place on a giant animator's table, where Bart has to dodge ink blobs, drafting compasses, pens, erasers, The Happy Little Elves, Itchy, Scratchy, sandbags, and clapper boards. The Final Boss is Eric Von Burns, a film director who is also one of Mr. Burns' relatives. Bart has to attack Eric Von Burns, who is riding a movie camera, and dodge the megaphones he tosses.
• The Trope Namer is Studiopolis Zone in Sonic Mania, which has a bright city skyline, production light platforms, Airborne paparazzi robot mooks, giant televisions, billboards advertising "Egg TV," and even Wheel of Fortune-style panels that spell out phrases such as GENESIS DOES and LOCK ON when flipped. It has some Casino Park elements in Act 2 when your player character enters a giant lotto ball machine, and a giant popcorn machine based on the real SegaSonic Popcorn Shop machine made for Japanese arcades in the '90s.
• Spot Goes to Hollywood, the sequel to Cool Spot, revolves around the titular character being trapped in a movie projector after floating around in Hollywood to a movie theater. The levels are based on a pirate movie, an Indiana Jones-style adventure movie, and a horror movie. The True Final Boss takes place in a Space Zone level called "It's Full of Stars", fitting for such a setting.
• The fifth and final level of Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Montana's Movie Madness is the studio where all four of Montana Max's movies (The Western, the Samurai Saga, the Future Flick, and the Monster Movie) were filmed. In this level, Buster travels through four mini-stages (literally and figuratively; there are spotlights and movie cameras scattered around them) themed off of the previous four levels before going up against the Final Boss. The final boss is Montana Max, who operates a movie camera that fires lasers and drops film reels. When lowered, it will fire an Extendo Boxing Glove. Monty will throw clapperboards at Buster, and when the switch is down, Buster has to kick it to lower the camera so he can attack Monty.

Racing Game

• Samba Studios, the Samba de Amigo-themed course in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, has the theme of a movie studio and goes through various segments themed to different genres. In order, there's a King Kong Copy-themed sound stage, a Port Town-themed set with pirate ships, a Wild West-themed set with gunslingers, and finally an Alien Invasion-themed sound stage that loops back to the beginning.

Rhythm Game

• The "What A Wonderpri World!" song from PriPara takes place throughout several movie sets.

Role-Playing Game

• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: As part of their quest to recover the four Beanstar pieces Mario and Luigi visit the Yoshi Theatre, a cinema that has movie posters put up in its lobby by its owner, Boddle. Fortunately for the brothers, Boddle agrees to give them the Beanstar piece if they can find seven Neon Yoshi eggs to replace it.
• The Paper Mario series in the first two games, Paper Mario 64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, have the battles take place on a theatre stage, complete with an audience of Goombas and Koopas watching and cheering Mario on during the "performance."
• Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: The final labyrinth of the world, Theatre District, has elements of this. Complete with gimmicks such as walking on roads of actual film (that contains negative memories), gates made out of film reels, portals to other floors in the form of a screen projector.
• Undertale: Hotland is this combined with Lethal Lava Land. It's the setting closest to the CORE, which powers the entire Underground. It's also where Mettaton, the Underground's sole celebrity, lives and films his various TV shows. While most of his fans mean you no harm, he's gunning for you so he can rip out your SOUL and cross the barrier... but while he's working on that, he'll also have you on his shows as an honored guest. Pretty much everything in Hotland is named and themed after Mettaton, and there are cameras everywhere.

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