What is the favourite time of day for video game programmers? Definitely sunset. This is confirmed by Videogame Sunset, the Instagram profile featured in this week’s All for the Gram.
Ever since the first consoles, from PlayStation 1 to Super Nintendo, there was always a mission to be accomplished or a pixelated car race with a blazing sunset as its backdrop. Ryu, a character from Tekken, according to the game’s original booklet, won the first world tournament at sunset, and a red and orange horizon could not be missing from the Super Mario saga, probably the video game par excellence.

Sunsets are often used for the last missions of video games, an example being the beginning of the last battle in Metal Slug, in which a soldier throws a paper hoop at sunset instead of a grenade.
As consoles have evolved, the sunsets have become more and more beautiful, Fallout: New Vegas, A Plague Tale: Innocence, New Pokémon Snap, all set partly just before nightfall, with blinding beams of light and the constant of a giant round sun ready to disappear behind the sea line or between rocky mountains through which supercars zoom. As well as providing interesting anecdotes about the games, Videogame Sunset is a trip down memory lane for gaming fans and beyond.