Shack Chat: Which video game has the best fireworks for the holidays?

It’s 4th of July weekend, and with that comes a lot of explosions. We hope you all remain safe and remember that there are plenty of good fireworks in games as well! Fireworks and celebrations based around them have been an evolving part of video games for decades, and you don’t even lose a finger or eye with them! With that in mind, we look at some of our favorite video game fireworks when it comes to the stuff that would light up the holidays.

Question: Which video game has the best fireworks for the holidays?

Boom Boom Rocket – Ozzie Mejia, Senior Fireworks Enthusiast

The first game that comes to mind here is a deeper cut. Around the time I started getting back into video games after college, I was in the midst of the Xbox Live Arcade’s glory days in the mid-2000s. I was enjoying smaller-sized games, pick-up-and-drop experiences that were easy to get into. One of those games that I vividly remember was a game called Boom Boom Rocket, an under-the-radar and underrated gem from the Project Gotham Racing/Blur team at Bizarre Creations.

Boom Boom Rocket was a rhythm game that was about setting off fireworks to the beat of the music. It operated on the style of games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero, but players only needed to press a single button to set off each individual rocket. The final result would be a pyro show for the masses. There weren’t a lot of tracks, only ten at launch, but it was a really cool idea and provided a fun fireworks show.

If you’re interested in giving it a look, Boom Boom Rocket is still available digitally and playable on modern Xbox hardware.

Magellan’s Fireworks (Death Stranding 2) – TJ Denzer, Senior Coffin Board Enthusiast

Death Stranding 2 is full of interesting equipment with which you can make your deliveries and move the story forward, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a bit of fun as you go. For instance, if you help The Pioneer near the Motherhoood enough, he’ll give you schematics for the Magellan ship to shoot fireworks. 

Technically, the purpose of the Magellan’s fireworks is to distract hostiles and help you escape from them in combat, but get yourself a good vista, a Coffin Board, a Jump Ramp, and make the call to the Magellan and you can set up some pretty sick displays in tricks and festivities. Sure, it’s an absolute squandering of precious resources, but why not have a little fun at the end of the world?

F-Zero 99 Festival Event – Asif Khan, Best in the universe

Just listen to that song. If it doesn’t make you want to drive through a wall with a Fire Stingray, I don’t know what to tell you.

Sea of Thieves – Sam Chandler, Party Boat

Sea of Thieves is one of those games where the sandbox is truly incredible. It offers similar shenanigans you see in the likes of GTA Online and other massive games, and it’s all thanks to the tools (not rules!) that Rare is able to inject into the formula. One of these new tools is fireworks. They might have been added ages ago now, but they’re still as fun today as they were back then. Leave those cannonballs, cursed balls, and mast-obliterating chainshots in the barrel, and instead grab out the fireworks.

You’ve got simple colors to detonate and wild pictures that paint the sky. With a galleon, you can get dozens of these out and into the sky in a matter of seconds. And unlike other video games where fireworks take place in a realm you cannot reach (the sky), in Sea of Thieves you can launch yourself out of your ship’s cannon and take to the skies and dance among the explosions.

Fortnite – Donovan Erskine, Has 1200 hours in Fortnite

Fortnite does the best live events in gaming, and one of the earliest ones revolves around fireworks. In the game’s early days, Epic Games started hosting a fireworks display in-game on New Years. Starting at midnight and then at every hour (to accommodate all time zones), fireworks exploded in the skies of Battle Royale Island as players fought for a Victory Royale. There was even a massive countdown in the sky leading up to the next show. It was one of Fortnite’s early communal experiences and a taste of how live events could be bigger than the game itself. Fireworks are typically reserved for New Years, but Fortnite could make one hell of a 4th of July show if Epic Games was ever feeling particularly patriotic.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Steve Tyminski, Island living!

This is a tough one for me to answer. The first game I thought of for fireworks was Super Mario Brothers on the NES. Whenever I can pick a Nintendo/Mario game for Shack Chat, I try to do that. The fireworks in Mario 1 are nice and all but I think I can do better. I am going with Animal Crossing: New Horizons for my Shack Chat answer. Animal Crossing brings the whole village together to celebrate with fireworks and gives me the option to design them with images that I’ve created. It allows me the chance to play god, bringing life to fireworks. Perhaps that is a slight overreaction but I am in charge of the Animal Crossing island so I can rule with an iron fist and that includes putting my face on a firework for all to see. Anyway, Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets my vote with Mario 1 a close second. Happy 4th of July everyone!

That covers our favorite video game fireworks, but what are your favorites? Let us know and have a great holiday weekend!