World Trade Center in Popular Culture - Video Games

Video Games

• America Oudan Ultra-Quiz 2 for the Gameboy has the twin towers on its game box cover
• In Aero Fighters 2 (1994), for the Neo-Geo, the first half of the U.S. level takes place in New York City, featuring the World Trade Center in the background. The player is able to destroy the buildings, along with all others in New York City.

• The 1990 arcade game The Combatribes features the World Trade Center Towers on the title screen as the game's action takes place across New York. The Super Nintendo port of this arcade game shows the characters heading back towards the Twin Towers in the ending cutscene.

• Shortly after the attacks, the now defunct Westwood Studios pulled all remaining copies of the 2000 real-time strategy game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, whose box contained artwork of New York City under attack by invading Soviet forces; notable landmarks depicted under attack included the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. The single player campaign of the game also contains a pair of missions in which the player was instructed to destroy The Pentagon and capture the World Trade Center as well as being able to destroy it. Westwood retooled the box art before re-releasing the game.

• The first level of the 2000 game Deus Ex, set in 2052, encompasses Liberty Island and a bombed Statue of Liberty. The section of the New York City skyline containing the Twin Towers is absent, to reduce memory requirements for the map. The reason that the developers gave, if anyone asked, was that they had been destroyed by terrorists: "We just said that the Towers had been destroyed too, and this was way before 9/11… years. That's kind of freaky."

• Driver (1999) features 1 and 2 World Trade Center, and The Sphere, in its depiction of New York – the final city unlocked. On "Take a Ride" mode, the player starts on a road just south of (and facing) the South Tower.

• Driver: Parallel Lines (2006) features a slightly modified World Trade Center complex in the game's depiction of New York City in 1978, lacking the Marriott World Trade Center hotel and 7 World Trade Center (since both were completed in the 1980s). The complex also features The Sphere sculpture, though unlike the real World Trade Center, a road divides the complex in two. In the latter half of the game, set in 2006, the entire area is replaced by a fenced-off building site.

• In Hybrid Heaven (1999), for the Nintendo 64, in the main title screen, it shows the World Trade Center at New York at night time.

• In The Incredible Hulk: The Video Game (2008), in Lower Manhattan, where the Twin Towers should be, is a large pit that is under construction

• The 1991 arcade game King of Monsters features monsters fighting in different destructible cities. Among them is New York City, where the World Trade Center can be destroyed.

• The 1988 arcade game Vigilante features a panaromic shot of New York City on the title screen. Included is the World Trade Center. This same title screen was included in the TurboGrafx-16 version. In the background during gameplay is the New York skyline, including the World Trade Center's twin towers.

• Max Payne (2001) features the World Trade Center in several billboards for the fictional company "Aesir". They are also visible in the background in the beginning of the mission "The American Dream". The buildings were visible in the PC version of the game, however they were removed from the PlayStation 2 and Xbox ports of the game, which were released three months after the September 11 attacks.

• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) featured a major plot on a ship going down the Hudson River in New York, with the World Trade Center included. The building was cut from the game, delaying both games' releases.

• In response to the events of September 11, Microsoft announced that future versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator would not include the Twin Towers in the game's New York City skyline. A patch was also made available to remove the World Trade Center buildings from the existing versions of the simulator.

• Midnight Club: Street Racing (2000) features the entire complex, where players can drive into the Austin Tobin Plaza in between the buildings. They can also gain access to the underground parking garage beneath the World Trade Center – the site of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

• In the 1998 Nintendo 64 game Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA, the entire World Trade Center complex is featured on the 'New York: Downtown' track. Buildings 1 – 6, and the western pedestrian bridge are all accessible to drive around. The stairways on both sides of the complex double as jumps for the racers.

• The 1999 PC game Sim City 3000 features the North and South Towers as buildable landmarks.

• The 2004 video game Spider-Man 2, the game adaptation of the movie, features a virtual Manhattan which included a large plaza, bearing resemblance to the Tribute in Light memorial, on the World Trade Center site.

• Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro (2001), featured the roofs of 1 and 2 World Trade Center in the final stage. The level involved battling Hyper-Electro and the antenna atop the North Tower was crucial in defeating the villain. The game was originally released in North America on August 26, 2001, though the game was pulled after the September 11 attacks and re-released on October 17, 2001, with a modified final stage so that the buildings less resemble the Twin Towers. The PAL version of the game was never released prior to the attacks.

• Streets of Rage, a game released in 1991 on the Sega Genesis, features the Twin Towers in the background of the final boss battle, which occurs in the Marriott World Trade Center hotel.

• Streets of Rage 2 (1992), sequel to Streets of Rage, features the World Trade Center in the opening scene of the game. They are also visible in the background of the second level.

• The 1994 action game Urban Strike, the third in the Strike series, features a scene where a giant laser deflects from a satellite, hitting the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. Further missions take place involving the effects of this, at the World Trade Center. Ironically, the game takes place in a fictional/alternate 2001 timeline.

• The 2005 video game True Crime: New York City features a fenced-off "Ground Zero".

• In Tycoon City: New York (2006), the World Trade Center is paid tribute to in the form of two very tall trees standing side by side, representing the Towers. Further into the park, there is a Pentagon-shaped base, with an American Flag at half mast. An inscription on the side reads We Will Never Forget.

• In World in Conflict (2007), the NYC teaser trailer for the game prominently features the World Trade Center in the NYC skyline during a U.S. Ranger assault on Governor's Island, which has been occupied by the Soviets in an alternate timeline in which the Cold War culminates into World War III between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The game is set in an alternate 1989, twelve years before the events of 9/11. In the tenth level Liberty Lost, the World Trade Center is featured prominently in the background during the player's efforts to recapture Governor's, Ellis, and Liberty Islands.

• The laser disc arcade game Cobra Command (1984) features the Twin Towers prominately in the New York City level. It is possible for the player to crash his/her helicopter into one of the towers.

• SimCity 4 (2003) the whole complex was not featured in the original game due to the game created after 9/11 but it was created as a 3rd party addon and can be downloaded through a SimCity fansite named "Simtropolis".

• Tekken 2 (1995) for the Arcade and the PlayStation features the World Trade Center in Paul Phoenix's stage.