One of my absolute favourite things about playing video games has, for all of my life, been exploration. The construction of these imagined spaces, fantastical and whimsical or gritty and realistic, is a marvel to me, and it’s something that video games as a medium offer in particular. I’ve always enjoyed just mapping out these spaces, checking what lies around the corner, or simply…existing, in these virtual worlds.
Imagine my joy, then, when I discovered Noclip.website; a free tool which can be accessed via the modern conveniences of the world wide web and opened in your internet browser, packed with in-game maps which can be freely explored from over 90 games from across eight different systems. These are not the games themselves; no – much simpler than that. These are simply the map files and skyboxes – the 3D environments – fully explorable through your browser with a flying camera that you can control with your mouse and keyboard.
Classics like Half-Life. Pikmin. Halo. Super Mario Galaxy. Ratchet & Clank. Dark Souls. Wind Waker. Team Fortress 2. The entire map of World of Warcraft! So many great games’ entire map libraries are available to roam here at your leisure.
Perhaps most interesting of all though is the freedom that NoClip offers. Unbound from the constraints of running around as a character, you are freed from the pesky laws of gravity. NoClip enables you to zoom around into positions never intended to be accessible by the original designers, so it makes for a great tool to satiate curiosities you may have had about places in games that were inaccessible or too far off.
In particular, I think it’s really cool to explore the backgrounds of spaces like Mario Kart tracks or Super Smash Bros. stages. These are 3D environments that were only meant to be experienced from a specific perspective or angle, so it’s cool to poke around these places in full with free 360 degree access. It’s a great tool for getting screenshots or clips, too, especially if you want animated backgrounds or ambient loops.
I’ve not got too much more to say about this one – I just wanted to highlight it and encourage you to spend some time yourself exploring some of your favourite spaces. Whatever your tastes, if you grew up playing video games in the late 90s and 00s, I am sure there will be something here that you remember… Grand Theft Auto, Crazy Taxi, Ocarina of Time, Quake, Spyro, Crash, Banjo-Kazooie, Metroid Prime, Portal, Kingdom Hearts… there’s a treasure trove to explore. I’d recommend firing up your favourite video game soundtrack and taking a trip down memory lane with a few of your favourites.
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