Marathon is a greatest hits of '90s futurism, according to Bungie lead, who says the shooter was "deeply inspired" by wild PlayStation ads and "translucent DualShocks"

Key art for Marathon showing a colorful cybernetic character with a gun taking cover
(Image credit: PlayStation, Bungie)

If it were a person, Marathon seems like it would spend the most time out of its house after 1AM. Its characters wear chunky, neon helmets that make them look like grasshoppers at Coachella, and its official music is all electronica that would sound better in a humid basement, because, according to Bungie global franchise director Philip Asher, the upcoming extraction shooter is largely influenced by late '90s debauchery.

He says so in a Twitter exchange with Michael Douse, publishing director at Larian, which is currently working on Divinity. That series is more concerned with the kind of debauchery that happened around the time of the Ottoman Empire, but Douse nonetheless writes in a post that Marathon "reminds me of the 90s and 00s PlayStation UK era which was dominated by club culture in their comms, bright colors and big speed. (A complement)."

Asher agrees, explaining, "We're deeply inspired by that era’s futurism and how we can pull it forward to today's fashion/club/design scene." In particular, the juicebox-colored 1995 racing game "Wipeout, the PS ads of the 90s/00s (Mental Wealth), translucent DualShocks are all huge influences."

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Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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