History Main / HubLevel

* ''Videogame/TazWanted'', a GCN game about Taz the Tazmanian Devil destroying wanted signs and trying to rescue the She-Devil from Yosemite Sam, has 3 hubs. One hub is for the 3 "zoo" levels, with various tutorial books. The second hub is for the 3 town level, and the third is for the 3 Wild West levels. While there is a 10th level, it hasn't a hub.

* ''Videogame/TazWanted'', a GCN game about Taz the Tazmanian Devil destroying wanted signs and trying to rescure the She-Devil from Yosemite Sam, has 3 hubs. One hub is for the 3 "zoo" levels, with various tutorial books. The second hub is for the 3 town level, and the third is for the 3 Wild West levels. While there is a 10th level, it hasn't a hub.

** ''VideoGame/LeoMarvelsAvengers'' features New York City, just like the first game, as its large Hub Level, but also features 6 smaller areas. These include the S.H.I.E.L.D. base from the opening of ''The Avengers'', the area around Klaue's ship in South Africa, Sokovia, launched into the sky thanks to Ultron, Washington, DC, Tony Stark's house in Malibu, and Asgard.

** ''VideoGame/LEGOStarWars'':

** In ''VideoGame/LEGOIndianaJones'', Barnett College, where Indy teaches archaeology, acts as the hub, with various classrooms serving various purposes, such as the Art Class housing the character creator and the Mail Room being where you could purchase cheat parcels acquired in the levels.
** In ''VideoGame/LEGOBatman'', the Hub is the [[ElaborateUndergroundBase Batcave]], where you can access settings and mini-games from the Bat-Computer, and explore the [[SuperheroTrophyShelf Trophy Room]]. Villain Mode comes with its own Hub: [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]].
** ''VideoGame/LEGOPiratesOfTheCaribbean'' has the Port as its hub. Extra areas are opened up eventually, but the central area is where all the levels are accessed from.
** ''VideoGame/LEGOHarryPotter'' (both versions) has Hogwarts Castle as a big labyrinthine area with most of the collectibles in it, with the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley as smaller hubs that hide all the bonus content, purchasables, and level replays.
** And in ''VideoGame/LEGOTheLordOfTheRings'', this is taken to the ultimate extreme of having ''the entirety of Middle-Earth'' in the form of an open, contiguous landscape as the hub--well, the parts relevant to the movies anyway. The same holds true for ''LEGO The Hobbit''.
** ''LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes'' and ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelSuperHeroes'' have massive cities as their hubs (Gotham City and [[BigApplesauce New York City]], respectively). They're so full of stuff to do that there's as much, if not more content than the main story! Flying around is mandatory to get everything.
** ''VideoGame/TheLEGOMovieVideogame'' has four mini-hubs (Bricksburg, the Old West, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and the Octan Tower), each with a good amount of collectibles and characters in each one.

** ''VideoGame/LEGOJurassicWorld'' has four hubs- one for each ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' movie.
** ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelsAvengers'' features New York City, just like the first game, as its large Hub Level, but also features 6 smaller areas. These include the S.H.I.E.L.D. base from the opening of ''The Avengers'', the area around Klaue's ship in South Africa, Sokovia, launched into the sky thanks to Ultron, Washington, DC, Tony Stark's house in Malibu, and Asgard.
** ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelSuperHeroes2'' has Chronopolis, a PatchworkWorld created by Kang the Conqueror from various locations from across time and space.

** ''VideoGame/Diablo1997'' had the town of Tristram, where you were given quests and sold loot. Also, every four or five dungeon levels, a portal directly to that level would open, making backtracking easier.

** The original ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' had the town of Tristram, where you were given quests and sold loot. Also, every four or five dungeon levels, a portal directly to that level would open, making backtracking easier.

* The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games have never been keen on implementing hub stages; perhaps the closest they get are the "adventure fields" in the original ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', which function like a series of interlinked hub stages characters are free to explore between accessing the regular levels.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioParty'': Once the players select their characters, they are thrown into the Party Plaza, where player 1 can walk around freely with the other three characters in a line behind them. The other playable characters appear around the plaza, and can replace CPU players if the player chooses to talk to them. There are other NPCs that the player can talk to, and they can also approach various places to select the mode they want to play.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}} II: The Chosen'' attempts a rather primitive version of this in its first and third chapters by having three levels each which [[CutAndPasteEnvironments comprise of basically the same map]], blocking off previous exits and opening up new ones as you pass through them subsequent times; it's even possible, at least in the one from the first chapter, to skip from the second level straight to chapter's end by noclipping through a vent which is connected to the path that leads to the exit the last time you come through that level.

** DQM 2 mixed things up with the kingdom of Greatlog, which allowed the player to use keys to warp to each of the main story levels- or they could use special keys to warp to randomized custom maps.
** Joker 1 had Domus Isle, a bustling seaside city with jetskis that would take the player to each level.

*** ''The Skywalker Saga'' features a total of ''twenty-three'' planets to explore, taken from throughout the 9 movies.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'': On first glance, the level select area looks just like the simple maps with branching paths from the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' games. But you are able to freely walk around the area like you can in all the pre-''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' 3D games in the series.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'': Princess Peach's Castle and the surrounding grounds, which is often cited as the TropeCodifier. Not only can you access all 15 main worlds from the castle's interior, but the castle itself also has 15 stars of its own, some of which involve navigating through bonus levels.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'': The Comet Observatory is rather small with relatively little to explore, but it still houses the astral domes from which the majority of galaxies (including the main 15) can be accessed. 12 stars can be gotten through the miscellaneous galaxies accessible from here, including both [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Bowser's Galaxy Reactor]] and the secret Grand Finale Galaxy. It also has five [[OneUp 1-Up Mushrooms]], a BottomlessPitRescueService, the room where Rosalina tells her backstory (divided by unlockable chapters), and can be flown around with the Red Star later in the game.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the {{Faceship}} Starship Mario, since the game returns to the world map format used in most 2-D games since ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''. It's a sandbox where you can practice all your moves and get basic advice on how to play the game--more like the Castle Garden from ''64'' than the castle itself. However, it has a few 1-Ups out in the open like the Comet Observatory, plus a Cloud Flower, Yoshi, an engine room where you can see all the power-ups you've collected in glass cases, and a place you can you can spend Star Bits and coins to roll dice for 1-Ups.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'': Uniquely among the 2D games in the ''Mario'' franchise, the overworld map acts as a hub connecting the main Zones from the center (as each Zone already has its own map). This map also has a few levels on its own (though some require completing a Zone's level via a secret exit to access it), and it's also there where the final level (Wario's Castle, only available once all main bosses are defeated) awaits.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'': Delfino Plaza gives access to all the other levels, most of them via magical M-shaped paintings or red pipes. A grand total of 40 (out of 120) Shine Sprites can be collected here (though 24 of them can only be purchased with the blue coins scattered on all levels in the game).

** ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'' features Waddle Dee Town, a small settlement in the New World consisting of primarily Waddle Dees, hence the name. The player can play some minigames, upgrade Copy Abilities, partake in the Colosseum, rewatch cutscenes, listen to the in-game tracks, visit Kirby's house, or go back to the world map to continue on with the story.

* Compared to purely linear levels in earlier installments, more recent ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games have featured this trope:

** Also, the two first rooms, "Leap of Faith" and "A Jump Too Far", are connected to lots of different rooms, more than any other room in the game. Together, the different branches allows fast access (if you know well the layout, that is) to every area of the game. This includes the top of TheTower (which contains the Red Matter Gun), shortcuts to the rooms with the Green and Yellow Matter Guns and the access to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjmIW7Oe9hY This]] SpeedRun video shows it's possible to complete the game without getting too far from those two rooms, thanks to their connections.

* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' has multiple hub levels. As you complete the levels within them, weird bloody growths come out of the walls and fountains fill with blood, but you're always safe from monsters.

* Whispering Rocks Camp in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' is a good example, since the actual levels are inside the brains of the residents.
** The Collective Unconscious serves as a mini-Hub of sorts, allowing you to access people's brains even when they are not present in the actual Hub.

** Each game has one of the shopping districts in a major city -- Inkopolis in the first two games, Splatsville in the third -- serve as game's main hub, from which one can access all the different modes and stores. It is filled with the Inklings and Octolings of other players, and drawings from the game's community appear as graffiti on the walls.