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As much a trope in and of itself as it is a category.
Videogames, especially Platform Games, take place in a wide variety of different environments. As time has gone by, some of these environments tend to get used quite regularly. Many are more common to one genre than others, while some are almost universal, taking different forms depending on the genre. These almost always have their own style of music to match the level theme.
See also Law of Cartographical Elegance. Not to be confused with the kind of settings which alter some aspects of the game.
- Abandoned Laboratory
The deeper you go into the lab, the more likely you will find the horrors of unethical science
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer
Amazing how little poop you see in these large, airy underground spaces.
- The Alcatraz
The inescapable prison that the protaganist will inevitably break out from.
- All The Worlds Are A Stage
When the game's levels come Back for the Finale.
- Amusement Park
A level where the roller coasters are obstacle courses, the stands are mini-games, and the haunted house is the villain's hideout.
- Automatic Level
A level that plays itself.
- Auto Scrolling Level
A level in a Platform Game where the screen continually scrolls and you must keep up with it.
- Advancing Wall of Doom
A level where you must constantly outrun a threat, or even the left side of the screen!
- Rise to the Challenge
A game level where you have to keep going up to avoid some substance that keeps rising below you.
- Big Boo's Haunt
A haunted or otherwise creepy level. It's spooooooky!
- Big Fancy Castle
A huge labyrinthine castle with far more rooms than seems physically possible.
- Blackout Basement
A level where the lighting is inconsistent or flashes on and off.
- Bleak Level
A level where everything's scarier or more depressing.
- Bonus Dungeon
An optional level where the enemies and challenges are typically harder than the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
- Bonus Level of Heaven
A level where you get to beat up angels and possibly God.
- Bonus Stage
An optional, often hidden level with lots of Power Ups or treasure, sometimes involving a Mini-Game.
- Boss-Only Level
A level that consists entirely of a Boss Battle.
- Breather Level
An easy level between two hard ones.
- Brutal Bonus Level
An incredibly difficult "extra" level not required to beat the game proper.
- Bubbly Clouds
A level which takes place in the sky. Didn't you know clouds are solid? Anyone can walk on them!
- Bubblegloop Swamp
The swamp level. Soggy.
- Build Like an Egyptian
A big, old, sandy pyramid.
- Capital City
The biggest city in the game, the center of everything.
- Cave Behind the Falls
Where are the secrets hiding? Look behind the waterfall. Can be a small feature in another level type or a level in and of itself.
- Chokepoint Geography
A dungeon that must be passed through in order to continue on to other areas.
- Circus of Fear
You thought clowns were scary before? How about where they throw knives at you? And where the lions aren't stuck in cages?
- Container Maze
A labyrinth of crates or containers in a warehouse, storeroom or dock.
- Cyber Space
The internet as a physical level.
- Death Mountain
A stage that takes place on a high, rocky mountain. Watch for falling rocks.
- Decade Dissonance
Two cities side-by-side which are Different as Night and Day.
- Derelict Graveyard
A place with a lot of burned-out, ruined, rusty, or generally abandoned ships or trains.
- Disc One Final Dungeon
A dungeon that pretends to be the last one in the game, but is nowhere near it.
- Disconnected Side Area
A side area that looks like it's part of the current level, but actually can't be reached except via a long way around.
- Doomed Hometown
The hero's home town is most probably going to be destroyed in a fiery blaze, generally by the Big Bad.
- Down In The Dumps
A level that's based on a landfill or a scrapyard.
- Down the Drain
The sewer level.
- Drought Level of Doom
A level that's devoid of powerups or equipment, making you ration your loot.
- Dug Too Deep
A mine filled with evil!
- Dungeon Shop
An item shop subsisting somewhere in the dungeon.
- Dungeon Town
For when the monsters bring the fight to your front door instead of conveniently waiting for you to enter the World Map.
- Dream Land
A world comprised of dreams...or nightmares.
- Elaborate Underground Base
Underground is the best place for villains to hide.
- Elevator Action Sequence
When you find yourself on a big, spacious elevator, rest assured you're going to have an extended multi-combatant smackdown.
- Eternal Engine
A vast factory complex or machine that can fill up a building, a city or even a whole planet.
- Fantastic Nature Reserve
A zoo, wildlife reserve, or other home for supposedly extinct or mythical creatures.
- Final Boss, New Dimension
You have to enter a different "dimension" to fight the final boss.
- First Town
The city you start out in, a fairly large and central area.
- Floating Continent
An otherwise-normal place that's floating in the sky, often for no adequately-explored reason.
- Game Level
Hopefully when you finish one, your princess is not in another castle.
- Gangplank Galleon
A pirate-themed area. ARR ME MATEYS!
- Gimmick Level
A level where some aspect of the game is radically changed, but the overall gameplay/genre stays the same.
- Graffiti Town
An urban area with chain-link fences and lots of colorful graffiti.
- Green Hill Zone
A calm, colorful (usually green), vibrant land that may have tropical elements; often the first level.
- Gusty Glade
A level with winds or currents that push you around to make things more difficult.
- Hailfire Peaks
A level that has two settings in one, e.g. half of the level is full of ice, the other half is full of fire.
- Hidden Elf Village
A village filled with slightly mystical beings who don't really want anything to do with the outside world.
- Hornet Hole
A level filled that takes place inside of a beehive like setting. OH GOD THE BEES!
- Hub Level
The space between the levels, sometimes as elaborate as a level itself.
- It's All Upstairs From Here
At some point in your quest, you will have to climb a tower.
- Joke Level
A level that feels out of place from the entire rest of the game, and is usually silly.
- Jungle Japes
Tropical jungles. Flora and fauna are most probably dangerous.
- Lethal Lava Land
A stage taking place in a volcano or factory with red-hot metal involved.
- Levels Take Flight
A level taking place in the air on a flying vehicle, animal, etc.
- Lighthouse Point
Spooky haunted lighthouse.
- Locomotive Level
A level inside a train.
- The Lost Woods
A huge, shadowy, sometimes creepy forest.
- Macro Zone
An area where either the enemies are giant or you are tiny.
- Marathon Level
An incredibly long level that takes a huge amount of time to complete.
- The Maze
You will get lost here.
- Meat Moss
The walls are covered with flesh.
- Medieval European Fantasy
Fantasy stories inevitably take place in a pastiche of medieval Europe.
- Minecart Madness
You ride a minecart and have to avoid obstacles.
- Minigame Zone
An area in a videogame that is host to a number of minigames where the player can win items or cash.
- Minus World
Areas of the map a player can reach only by glitching or hacking.
- Mirror World
A level in a video game which is an alternate version of an area you were in earlier.
- Monster Arena
Arena, often in the first or second big city visitable, where the party can fight slightly more advanced monsters at their leisure.
- Monster Town
Baby monsters have to grow up somewhere, after all.
- Noob Cave
The first place where players actually begin Dungeon Crawling.
- No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom
Level architecture that forces the player down a linear path.
- Nostalgia Level
A level or area is designed in such a way as to evoke memories of a previous game in the series.
- Obstacle Ski Course
There is no such thing as a leisurely trip down the slopes.
- Ominous Floating Castle
A villainous base floating in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
- One Time Dungeon
A location that can't be revisited.
- Palmtree Panic
A level on the beach. Sit back and relax, as long as you don't get killed by the Goombas.
- Peninsula of Power Leveling
A location with powerful enemies which lets you speed through Level Grinding.
- Pipe Maze
Not only do you have to get to the end...you'll probably be soaked by the time you're done.
- Planet Heck
A level of fire, brimstone and men with pitchforks.
- Player Headquarters
A location in a video game that serves as a base of operations.
- Port Town
It's a city that's got boats to get on.
- Prehistoria
Oogah! This place with cavemen! And dinosaurs!
- Randomly Generated Levels
When the computer generates a random map, dungeon, or level.
- Recurring Location
A place which is not the main hub or boss area in a series, but which appears over and over again within the same series.
- Remilitarized Zone
A level that suddenly is full of artillery, bombs, and fighter planes.
- Remixed Level
A level you've already been to, but which has changed in some way.
- Secret Level
An optional level that isn't required to finish the game, and often has some gimmick involved with its design.
- Shark Tunnel
A transparent underwater tunnel. Common in Racing Games.
- Shifting Sand Land
The desert stage, where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense...
- Ship Level
Sneak or blow your way through the narrow corridors and tight spaces of a ship, which may or may not still be floating by the time you're done with it.
- Sinister Subway
It's a subway, but haunted and spooky and dripping with stale water and monster-infested.
- Skate Heaven Is A Place On Earth
You can skate anywhere, everywhere, and in fact must do so.
- Slippy Slidey Ice World
The ice level. Less friction, more penguins.
- Ice Palace
A big, shiny palace made out of ice. Look out for ice spikes.
- Space Zone
The space level. Needless to say, does not follow actual laws of physics.
- Swamps Are Evil
They go into a swamp...but they never come out.
- Techno Wreckage
A dilapidated high tech zone.
- Temple of Doom
An ancient temple or city, complete with ancient traps designed to anciently behead or disembowel you.
- Tomorrowland
An inexplicably technologically-advanced area in a place where it obviously doesn't belong.
- Underground Level
Lots of rocks and stalactites and stalagmites and critters with glowy eyes.
- Under the Sea
And of course we never run out of air, because that would ruin the fun.
- Underwater Ruins
Majestic, decrepit ruins of something or other surviving under the sea for millenia. Probably with fully-functioning treasure chests.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon
OK, given how far you're into the game, and the vibe you're getting from that skull-shaped fortress...yep, this is the final dungeon.
- Where It All Began
When the location where the game ends and the location where the game begins are one and the same.
- Wackyland
An especially whimsical, surreal, or nonsensical area in a videogame.
- Womb Level
You're inside a big monster. Watch out for the spleen - it spits acid.
- World Map
A map drawn to much smaller scale than the main areas of the game, used to allow the player to travel between areas faster than "real time", as well as (sometimes) explore.
- Wutai
Obligatory East Asian pagoda-filled analogue. Expect to see ninjas, samurai, kung fu masters, geisha, and/or The Thing That Goes Doink.
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