Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Prime Day Deals
  • Superman
  • Donkey Kong Bananza
  • Switch 2 stock
Recommended reading
A shiny, red Gyarados seen in the Pokemon anime.
Pokemon Shiny Pokemon are absolutely raining in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet after Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades: "I legit couldn't believe this many spawned"
A screenshot shows Hello Kitty staring off into the distance.
Xbox The $10,000 Hello Kitty Xbox Crystal is one of the rarest consoles in the world, and my search to find it 20 years later ended in complete disaster for video game preservation
A blue shiny Psyduck seen in the Pokemon anime.
Pokemon Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's free Switch 2 update promises to steal hundreds more hours from me as shiny hunting looks easier than ever with more wild encounters
The Witcher 4 tech demo trailer screenshot of Ciri chatting in a market
Games The Witcher 4 design lead says the problem with yellow paint in games is subtlety: "Someone went into this specific spot and painted a yellow line ... at that point it's not necessarily believable"
Metaphor: ReFantazio
JRPGs We asked Metaphor: ReFantazio's lead UI designer about RPGs that inspire him, and he name dropped a surprise PS2 sleeper hit from 25 years ago
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 hero Gustave in a striped swimsuit
JRPGs Turns out you can ruin some of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's most impactful moments and fights with a funny costume secret – or enhance them, depending who you ask
Shinies in Pokemon TCG Pocket
Pokemon All Pokemon TCG Pocket Shiny cards and full Shinies list
  1. Games

A history of shiny things in video games

Features
By Justin Towell published 31 July 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Ooooo... shiny!

Ooooo... shiny!

Right. Better pull the curtains closed or hide your mobile device's screen from view or you're gonna get mobbed by magpies. I know iPhone screens are relatively scratch-resistant, but those beaks are damn sharp.

Why are we taking such precautions? Because this is the history of shiny things in video games. And by that I mean things in games that feature sheen or sparkle or generally anything a bit bling. Though I personally hate that word. Always makes me think the phone's ringing. So let's do this. Let's start at the DAWN OF TIME. Now you've done that, fast-forward to the mid-1980s when games actually became 'a thing' and we'll continue from there. Here we go...

Page 1 of 21
Page 1 of 21
Star Wars' laser shots (1983)

Star Wars' laser shots (1983)

This Atari classic features beautiful wireframe graphics. If you think they look old and crap, then well, frankly they think you're young and crap. That's what I heard, man. Yeah I know, they should try saying it to your face. I know, they ain't got shit. I hear you.

But anyway, the point here is that wireframe sparkles. When modulating through a spectrum of colours rapidly it can look like horrible sparkly lasers of death. Yes, they do look like snowflakes. No, that wasn't the intention. They're meant to be terrifying. But they're arguably the shiniest thing early '80s gaming gave us, so let's not laugh too hard. Solemnity, please.

Page 2 of 21
Page 2 of 21
Super Mario Bros' coins (1985)

Super Mario Bros' coins (1985)

Super Mario Bros. may have single-handedly revived the entire video game market after Atari pretty much killed it (didn't realise he had a defibrillator under that moustache, but hey-ho), but did you ever stop to think why? It was the shiny coins. Ba-ding! Ba-ding!

Random actually-unrelated onomatopoeic words aside, collecting the shiny coins in Mario is fun. And if you collect 100 of them, you get an extra life, which essentially means you get longer to play the game. Longer to collect the shiny coins. It's the perfect cycle.

Page 3 of 21
Page 3 of 21
Magicland Dizzy's diamonds (1990)

Magicland Dizzy's diamonds (1990)

When you've got 7 colours at two levels of brightness (plus black--wooooo), and only two colours can occupy the same section of the screen at once, shininess is difficult to convey. Obviously, this being a feature written by me, I have chosen a Dizzy game to illustrate how that can be done. Not just functionally, but with panache.

Magicland Dizzy features collectible diamonds, many secreted in hard-to-reach areas. These diamonds may be yellow and more pixellated than nudity on You've Been Framed, but they sparkle. Boy, do they sparkle. There's a little animation on each one that glints every couple of seconds with a few pixels of immaculate sheen. Gorgeous. Who needs fancy modern graphics?

Page 4 of 21
Page 4 of 21
Sonic the Hedgehog's rings (1991)

Sonic the Hedgehog's rings (1991)

You can't have a list of shiny things without mentioning the rings in Sonic. The original 16-bit game may have speed, excellent level design, classic iconography and wonderful music, but the mystique comes from these beauties. Gold rings that hang in the air, silently rotating. Just think about that. If you happened upon some of those in real life, how transfixed would you be? Exactly.

When you collect them, they leave behind a momentary sparkle. But the reason they're on this list is because they pre-date environment mapping, but are all about the shiny. Perfectly uniform rings of gold. Magic.

Page 5 of 21
Page 5 of 21
Streets of Rage 2's ingots (1992)

Streets of Rage 2's ingots (1992)

These collectibles aren't even animated like Dizzy's are, but they're still remarkably shiny. Look at the burnish on that. Mmmm. That's good burnish. That gleam effect isn't even gleaming off any particular surface of the gold bars. It's just there to illustrate that they are extremely shiny.

But it works, does it not? Whenever you smash open a cabinet in the arcade (using the head of some goon, of course) and one of these appear in its place, you know it isn't going to give you anything but a nice noise and some extra points. But I know what you think in your mind. 'Ooh! Shiny gold! Must pick it up...' Tell me I'm wrong.

Page 6 of 21
Page 6 of 21
Donkey Kong Country's ice caves (1994)

Donkey Kong Country's ice caves (1994)

Donkey Kong Country was, briefly, the best-looking game you could buy. The reason was simple. The SNES couldn't render the graphics it was actually displaying. So instead an ultra-powerful computer rendered out amazing images and then they were fed into the SNES to make scenes like this.

These ice caves are animated with sparkles and even flashes of light as the camera catches the right angle of pre-rendered crystal. Looking at it now, it still makes me say things like 'ooo'. Pixellated still images don't do it justice. On a standard-def TV in the 1990s, this was phenomenal.

Page 7 of 21
Page 7 of 21
Tomb Raider's save crystals and 'Midas' death (1996)

Tomb Raider's save crystals and 'Midas' death (1996)

If you ever want to highlight the difference between a Sony PlayStation and a Sega Saturn (and I know that's still a daily conversation everyone has these days), you just have to say 'the save crystals in Tomb Raider'. Because on Saturn, they are blue, gouraud-shaded diamonds, but on PlayStation, they are translucent crystals that refract the environment. Bluely.

But if that's not enough to prove your knowledge (and it should be), then bring out the big guns, namely the 'Midas Death'. If Lara jumps onto the palm of the 'Midas' statue's hand, she turns to gold (something I stupidly did even though I knew the legend and got warned by my dad seconds previously). On Saturn, she just turns yellow. On PSone? Proper shiny. But not truly reflective--look closely and you'll see that the word 'Midas' is not mirrored on her surface, which implies she's actually transparent, like the save crystals. Yes, that's pernickety. Even so, I reckon someone at Polyphony Digital must've played this and had an idea

Page 8 of 21
Page 8 of 21
Virtua Fighter 3's shiny trousers (1996)

Virtua Fighter 3's shiny trousers (1996)

Kage-Maru is a ninja. In VF2 he wears blue ninja clothes. His 'ninja-yoroi' outfit includes a headband that can be knocked to the floor. But, despite looking metal, it's not very shiny. No, Kage (pronounced 'car-gay', not 'cage', which surprised the hell out of me too when I heard the announcer in VF5 on 360) had to wait until VF3, at which point he procured shiny trousers.

This was a Big Deal in 1996. I'm not kidding when I say these trousers offered everyone a glimpse of the future. The gloss effect is so shiny, it immediately raised doubt in my mind as to whether VF3 could in fact come to the Saturn, as was said to be happening at the time. "Sega Saturn can't do trousers that shiny", I said to my friends with a grim expression of extreme concern. Sure, the effect was not true 'environment mapping' (more on that later), but it was super-advanced. Trousers of a wizard. It's the only explanation.

Page 9 of 21
Page 9 of 21
Gran Turismo's pseudo-reflective cars (1997)

Gran Turismo's pseudo-reflective cars (1997)

When you look at the likes of Forza today, you see showroom-sheen paintwork. Gran Turismo is the reason for that. Before Gran Turismo, everyone was happy just to have matte-finish paintwork. But then GT came along with the shiniest virtual cars anyone had ever seen, and everyone was transfixed. Like a moth to a flame, or a fly into an erm bug-zapping blue light thing. Whatever they're called, I don't know.

The graphical technique in GT1 isn't true reflectiveness. It's actually a second layer of polygons wrapping a translucent 2D image over the car. That's why the cars in GT always seem to be reflecting street lights. Nobody cared back in '97. These cars were shiny and that meant everyone had to buy them. Never underestimate the commercial power of shiny things. I swear the series is still riding on the initial impact of its shininess.

Page 10 of 21
Page 10 of 21
Goldeneye's RareWare logo (1997)

Goldeneye's RareWare logo (1997)

August 1997 saw the seminal Goldeneye 007 released on N64, with some 8 million households across the world simultaneously banning Oddjob from multiplayer matches. But the game wouldn't have sold half as many copies if it hadn't featured an example of extreme shininess within seconds of loading the game up. No really, it's a scientifically proven fact. No, I er... don't have the link (cough) so you'll have to trust me on that.

The silver, spinning Nintendo logo that precedes this marvel is reflective enough, sure. Impressive, even. But then that fades away and what fades in is nothing short of remarkable. A RareWare logo so polished it looks like it's made of REAL metal. Real metal that's cold to the touch. Like the unfeeling gunmetal of a loaded Klobb. Suffice to say, any game that follows this logo was always going to be awesome. Nobody would spend that long polishing a developer logo if the game was made of turdcrap.

Page 11 of 21
Page 11 of 21
Sonic R's spinning Sonic head (1997)

Sonic R's spinning Sonic head (1997)

Sonic R was developed by Traveller's Tales, who went on to make a little game called Lego Star Wars. But back in 1997, the team created a magnificent, bespoke game engine for Saturn that was *only* used in Sonic R. I am convinced this engine was developed solely to prove that Saturn could do shiny things comparable to those of PSone, or that RareWare logo at the start of Goldeneye. The results? Some of the shiniest things you'll ever see.

The title screen features a shiny, 3D 'R'. It's mesmerising as it bobs and twists until you realise you can move it yourself with the d-pad. Mind = blown. But then you start a game and the loading screen features a shiny, silver, rotating Sonic head, reflecting the word 'Loading'. I don't care that the real 'loading' must be written in mirror text to appear the right way round on its surface. This is amazing. All three major consoles now had true shiny things to brag about.

Page 12 of 21
Page 12 of 21
Omega Boost (1999)

Omega Boost (1999)

Polyphony's pseudo-environment mapping technique can be pinpointed as the tipping point in history for shiny things. There's 'PPST' (Pre-Polyphony's Shiny Things) and 'PPST' (Post-Polyphony's Shiny Things'). But because the acronym reads the same both ways, people don't use it. True fact.

Basically, if a game didn't have shiny things in it from here on, it was chastised for being backward and old-fashioned. But Polyphony still had the best in-game shiny things, so the world grew excited when Polyphony Digital, developer of Gran Turismo, announced it was working on a mech shooter: Omega Boost. Yes, it is amazing to think the team hasn't only made Gran Turimso games since 1997. The mechs are wonderful. The game... not so much.

Page 13 of 21
Page 13 of 21
Sonic Adventure's Ice Cave (1998)

Sonic Adventure's Ice Cave (1998)

So what we needed was new technology. The 128-bit era kicked off with Sonic Adventure at the tail(s)-end of 1998, and with it came the next-generation of shiny things. Kage's trousers received the home conversion they deserved, but by this point, even they had lost their sheen compared to natively-developed wonders, such as the walls of the ice cave in Sonic Adventure, or the massive 'Master Emerald'--surely one of the largest shiny things in all of gaming.

After the previous generation struggled to render a few objects with a dazzling degree of pseudo-reflectiveness, suddenly we were running through entire caves of faceted crystal. It's a shame Sonic isn't actually reflected in them. I suspect that was always the intention, butmagnificent though the new hardware wasit was still a little shy of the power required for true reflections. What gaming needed was PS2. Yes, cue dramatic chipmunk. Or hedgehog, if there is one.

Page 14 of 21
Page 14 of 21
Gran Turismo 3's reflections (2001)

Gran Turismo 3's reflections (2001)

Well, what a surprise. Polyphony Digital led the way yet again as Gran Turismo 3 introduced console gamers to true environment mapping. What this does is create a texture on a car door (or whatever) dynamically, based on the environment it is in. So as you drive over a kerb on the inside of a turn, the red and white flashes are reflected in the car's bodywork. Know what that's doing? Simulating real shiny.

The effect is imperfect, of course. While the track is reflected, other cars are not. But still, it was common practice to race through the tunnel on Trial Mountain in the external camera view just so you could see the lights above dance over the bodywork of a Honda NSX. Yum yum yum. Where's my spoon?

Page 15 of 21
Page 15 of 21
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (2003)

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (2003)

Crystal Chronicles here is famous for featuring four-player local co-op that can only be played with Game Boy Advances connected to the system via cables. But it made the most of both the 'Cube's graphical grunt and the game's fantasy setting to cement its place on this list as a prime example of the phenomenon.

After beating a boss, magical droplets of water form on the magically shiny leaves of magically shiny Myrrh trees. 'Magically shiny' is a good way to describe the whole game, really. But considering the Myrrh leaves also get a ripple effect as the drop forms, it easily wins a place in history. Which means a slide in this historic feature. Oh yes.

Page 16 of 21
Page 16 of 21
Super Mario Galaxy's Stars (2007)

Super Mario Galaxy's Stars (2007)

Hmmm... you know what? I think Mario Galaxy was a step backwards for shiny things. Sure, the stars you get (especially the big ones like this) are ridiculously shiny and have a sort of dazzle effect around them, but this is 'Midas Lara'-style fake reflections. I don't know about you, but I feel robbed.

Still, Galaxy and its successor are worthy of inclusion for its liberal use of the old spit and polish. Star bits have sparkle, faceted ice crystals refract Mario perfectly (though they're in the sequel, of course) and even the lumas have a glow. That 'Nintendo Magic' everyone bangs on about? It's basically just shiny.

Page 17 of 21
Page 17 of 21
Soulcalibur 4's Siegfried (2008)

Soulcalibur 4's Siegfried (2008)

A shiny sword had to make an appearance somewhere, but there's only one choice. This is Siegfried in Soulcalibur 4, wearing the very shiniest of suits of amour. Look--there's bloom lighting flooding off his shoulders. Is there bloom lighting flooding off your shoulders? Exactly. This is the big league.

I have, in the past, criticised the artistic design of Soulcalibur 4, pointing out that it's too detailed and intricate. Yes, it demonstrates the rendering power of the console it's running on, but it's a bit 'much', in my professional opinion. But I can't fault how shiny it all is. I tip my cap to you, Siegfried.

Page 18 of 21
Page 18 of 21
Killer is Dead (2013)

Killer is Dead (2013)

After all the hoo-ha about Gran Turismo back in the day, the glossy surface effect is now such a staple graphical effect, it can be used on everything. And so, as if to illustrate that very point, Killer is Dead is drenched in the stuff. It's like everyone washed their hair with conditioner and turtle wax, then took a bath in some baby oil (with their clothes on) and then waited for someone to press the Start Button, trying not to drip everywhere.

This is one of the shiniest games ever seen. But isn't it sad that it's merely indicative of the industry-wide shift away from shiny 'things'. Games used to be all about diamonds, coins and gems, but now it's about violence and gore and twerking, with added glossy surfaces.

Page 19 of 21
Page 19 of 21
Mario Kart 8's Pink Gold Peach (2014)

Mario Kart 8's Pink Gold Peach (2014)

I fear this is the moment shininess jumped the shark. I mean, if like me you think that Metal Mario from Super Mario 64 should be melted in a vat of molten steel in a style not dissimilar to the end of Terminator 2 (oh, sorry--spoiler alert) just to be sure, then this thing ugh. I would suggest firing it off into the depths of space, but then... what if space actually wraps like Towerfall Ascension and it ends up coming back again from the other side? I can't deal with that possibility.

So I vote that we bury all of the copies of Mario Kart 8 deep underground and hope that somehow tonnes and tonnes of earth keep Pink Gold Peach from ever rising up and stealing our souls with her flat, metallic eyes. It's all gone wrong. This is the end of history.

Page 20 of 21
Page 20 of 21
WHAT DOES IT WANT FROM ME?

WHAT DOES IT WANT FROM ME?

So there you have it, a (brief, non-exhaustive) history of shiny things in video games. But what's your favourite? And was there another turning point, milestone or watershed moment for shiny things that I neglected to place on this marvelous list? If so, let everyone know in the shiny, shiny comments.

And if Pink Gold Peach hasn't left you an empty husk of a human being and you're looking for more reading material, check out How does Lara Croft get her hair so shiny on PS4 and Xbox One? and our Shiny Pokemon guide.

Page 21 of 21
Page 21 of 21
CATEGORIES
Android iPad iPhone PC Gaming Wii-u Nintendo PlayStation PS4 Xbox Xbox One Platforms Mobile Gaming
Justin Towell
Justin Towell
Social Links Navigation

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.

See more Games Features
Read more
A shiny, red Gyarados seen in the Pokemon anime.
Shiny Pokemon are absolutely raining in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet after Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades: "I legit couldn't believe this many spawned"
A screenshot shows Hello Kitty staring off into the distance.
The $10,000 Hello Kitty Xbox Crystal is one of the rarest consoles in the world, and my search to find it 20 years later ended in complete disaster for video game preservation
A blue shiny Psyduck seen in the Pokemon anime.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's free Switch 2 update promises to steal hundreds more hours from me as shiny hunting looks easier than ever with more wild encounters
The Witcher 4 tech demo trailer screenshot of Ciri chatting in a market
The Witcher 4 design lead says the problem with yellow paint in games is subtlety: "Someone went into this specific spot and painted a yellow line ... at that point it's not necessarily believable"
Metaphor: ReFantazio
We asked Metaphor: ReFantazio's lead UI designer about RPGs that inspire him, and he name dropped a surprise PS2 sleeper hit from 25 years ago
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 hero Gustave in a striped swimsuit
Turns out you can ruin some of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's most impactful moments and fights with a funny costume secret – or enhance them, depending who you ask
Latest in Games
Hideo Kojima posing with Usada Pekora
Hideo Kojima's favorite vtuber found herself in Death Stranding 2, and her immediate reaction was a mix of happiness and self-cringe: "I'm so embarrassed. She's still yapping"
Ahoy
$700,000 in Kickstarter booty says Sid Meier's Pirates! sickos are fully on board with this first-person, open world, and "most importantly - authentic" take on nautical history that's lacking in Sea of Thieves and Black Flag
Team Fortress 2 soldier holding two grenades
Valve "cracked the problem that Netflix was struggling with" using diehard gamers and their backlogs, Steam expert says: "You get access to a bunch of drunken sailors who spend money irresponsibly"
Sigil 2 cover art of horned goat demon
"Romero Games is not closed": After reports of layoffs caused by Microsoft, Romero Games says it did lose funding but has now heard from "several publishers interested in helping us"
Concord
EU publisher group addresses Stop Killing Games movement in early double down: killing online games "must be an option," and this proposal would make them "prohibitively expensive to create"
Monster Hunter Wilds
With Monster Hunter Wilds "Overwhelmingly Negative" in recent Steam reviews due to optimization, Capcom cancels panel on "everything you need to know about optimization" following statement on dev harassment
Latest in Features
Kaizen: A Factory Story key art featuring a production line making a toy electronic
"Make games and die. That's my plan": Coincidence's Zach Barth on making games about making things, a year of teaching, and being in it for the long haul
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Cyberpunk Edgerunners season 2: Everything we know about CD Projekt Red's anime
David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Skyler Gisondo in Superman
Do I need to watch any movies or TV shows before Superman?
David Corenswet as Superman in James Gunn's Superman
James Gunn's Superman looks like a comics-accurate take on the Man of Steel at last – but will it be enough to revive DC at the box office?
A cropped screenshot from Undertale, showing Frisk and Sans standing in Grillby's in Snowdin.
17 years after it was released, I'm tracing Undertale and Deltarune's origins back to Toby Fox's spooky Earthbound mod
Superman movies ranked: Christopher Reeve as Superman flying through the sky during the 1978 movie Superman.
All the Superman movies ranked from worst to best, ahead of James Gunn's upcoming DC movie
  1. A Gundam style mech in Mecha Break
    1
    Mecha Break review: "This mech battler makes up for lacking customization with a varied roster that lets me live out my Evangelion fantasy"
  2. 2
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  3. 3
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  4. 4
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  5. 5
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  1. A T-rex in Jurassic World Rebirth
    1
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  2. 2
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  3. 3
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  4. 4
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  5. 5
    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina review: "Brilliant action, even if the plot gives you a sense of déjà vu"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...