![]() ![]() It could have been any one of them, right? No, it couldn’t have. Before the scourge of social media sharing, that small but meaningful moment feels like a happy accident there are, after all, dozens and dozens of classic ’80s gems stitched into the virtual stereos of GTA: Vice City. After getting into your first car in Vice City the very first thing you’ll hear is the sonically unmistakable intro of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. To this day, the opening moments of GTA: Vice City remain one of my most memorable gaming experiences. That is, we weren’t just looking through it – we were living it. However, even though it didn’t singlehandedly invent the retro lens, it did give us a unique way of experiencing it. No, GTA: Vice City didn’t pioneer the period approach. That’s before we even consider the likes of Dazed and Confused, 54, Detroit Rock City, Almost Famous, or That ’70s Show, all productions that used the 1970s as their backdrop. ![]() 200 Cigarettes from 1999 is set in 1981, and 2000’s American Psycho is set in 1989. 1998’s The Wedding Singer is set in 1985. Hell, half of 1997’s Boogie Nights is set in the ’80s. Yes, GTA: Vice City was a phenomenon – and its period approach was powerfully influential – but it really should be looked at as a piece of a larger puzzle. It’s been put by some that GTA: Vice City was the driving force behind the whole subsequent wave of ’80s nostalgia – the prototype for pop culture’s fascination with the decade fashion forgot – but that isn’t really a view I subscribe to. It was all of those things working together to form an irresistibly immersive time capsule. It wasn’t the pastel pants, the palm-lined streets, or the pulsating period soundtrack. It wasn’t the blend of beachside glamour with a cocktail of chainsaw carnage, cocaine, and cheap porn. It wasn’t the fleet of angular exotic supercars and wallowing American land whales on the roads. GTA: Vice City famously transported players back to the neon-drenched excess of 1986, and it was fabulously successful at it. More specifically, though? It was the when. All of these things were meaningful improvements but, in terms of what really makes GTA: Vice City so special, they all pale in comparison to the setting itself. ![]()
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