Much like in a casino, success is always on the line in video games. Players and protagonists strive to reach their goals and make it to the next area. Even with the possibility of failure, they stake their time, items, and lives on the feeling of victory. While many stages can emphasize a protagonist or player’s gambles, few do it with the style and clarity of casino levels.
With slot machines, roulette wheels, poker chips, card games, and other gambling classics, casino levels draw attention like little else. However, among casino stages, these areas won the gamble for popularity.
10 Shamal Casino - Hitman: Blood Money
In the 10th story mission of Hitman: Blood Money, the assassin Agent 47 visits the Shamal Casino in Las Vegas to take out three targets with connections to an illegal drug trade. Due to the casino's security staff and specialized key cards, Agent 47 maneuvers around the hotel in various disguises to set up and execute perfect kills.
As one of the final missions in Hitman: Blood Money, the skill needed to complete the mission and the importance of its targets become more apparent in the flashy and well-guarded Shamal Casino.
9 Calypso Casino - Rainbow Six Vegas
The Rainbow Six series follows an international anti-terrorist organization known as Rainbow and its mission to make the world a safer place. As the second mission in Rainbow Six Vegas, Calypso Casino introduces a new unit of Rainbow, using the casino’s high-pressure hostage situation to emphasize the importance of teamwork within the organization.
While the stage is essential in the plot, it also became a fan favorite for its ambiance and well-balanced level design with plenty of advantageous locations to strike. For its popularity, Calypso Casino was a multiplayer map in Rainbow Six Vegas’ sequel.
8 Gilded 7 Casino - Professor Layton And The Unwound Future
Rather than being broken into traditional levels or quests, the Professor Layton series tells a story through puzzles. In the series’ third entry, Professor Layton and his self-proclaimed apprentice, Luke, travel into the future to break up gang activity terrorizing London. Once in the future, a handful of iconic puzzles take place back to back in the Gilded 7 Casino, including the series’ first puzzle battles and a puzzle where Professor Layton builds a coin gun out of slot machine pieces.
The Gilded 7 Casino introduces some of the most central characters in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future while reaffirming the value of the Professor’s critical thinking in one of the most awe-inspiring ways possible.
7 The Strip - Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas is one of the most well-known Fallout games. It takes place in the Mojave Wasteland years after a nuclear apocalypse seemed to destroy the world, following a courier on a quest to retrieve a valuable package from a mysterious figure who tried to murder and bury them alive.
Several of the main quests in Fallout: New Vegas occur at the Strip, a restoration of Las Vegas with casinos, hotels, and a former Vault-Tec vault. Since the Gomorrah, Tops, and Lucky 38 casinos on the Strip play a central role in both the main quest and various side quests, the Strip, as a whole, deserves recognition as a notable casino location.
6 Casino Palace - F-Zero GX
F-Zero GX is notorious for its high-speed races and unforgiving tracks, and Casino Palace maintains this legacy by challenging players with complex turns on a double-branch course. Alongside other famous levels, Casino Palace has a place in F-Zero GX’s storyline, giving it an unavoidable prominence in the game.
Initially, Casino Palace may not seem as gaudy as many other casino stages for its less vibrant color scheme and clown motifs. However, its soundtrack and difficult turns add the high stakes that the background tries to establish as racers rush past.
5 Waluigi Pinball - Mario Kart DS
Waluigi Pinball first appeared in Mario Kart DS, but it has since appeared in three other Mario Kart games. The memorable stage primarily features a giant pinball machine with balls that roll across the level. Although pinballs are not generally associated with gambling as some other games, a slot machine with flashing lights above the most challenging portion of the stage gives it the feeling of a casino.
Since its appearance in Mario Kart DS, the popular level has doubled down on its casino imagery by adding coins, palm trees, and a vibrant nighttime city around the slot machine.
4 Hollis’ Hot Streak - Psychonauts 2
In Psychonauts 2, each level visualizes a character’s thought processes, trauma, and core beliefs. Hollis’ Hot Streak, in particular, represents the mind of one of Raz’s mentors after he manipulates her thoughts to let him and the other interns on a dangerous casino mission.
Although Raz’s efforts succeeded, manipulating Hollis’ thoughts made her act irrationally, turning the inside of her mind into a casino with rigged games with titles that begin to unravel her past as a medical student. In traditional Psychonauts fashion, the level has an exquisite design, giving the game a memorable start.
3 Inkwell Hell - Cuphead
Cuphead begins with a winning streak while Cuphead and Mugman are playing Craps at the Devil’s Casino. However, after they wager their souls to the Devil and lose, they plead for another way to pay off their debts. Tasked with collecting the souls of others, they travel across the world, overcoming complex battles until their journey comes full circle.
As the final overworld in Cuphead, the battles in Inkwell Hell take place in the Devil’s Casino. Everything the brothers have accomplished is on the line once again, and the final stages beautifully capture the game’s gambles.
2 Casino Of Envy - Persona 5
Similar to Cuphead, Persona 5 starts with the leader of the Phantom Thieves trying to escape from a casino pursued by security and police. He battles and sneaks his way to an exit. Ultimately, the police catch him and question him, and he explains how the Phantom Thieves began to steal hearts.
By beginning in a casino, Persona 5 shows how willing the team is to put everything on the line for their beliefs. Reentering the Casino of Envy toward the end of the game and confronting its owner is an intense moment because players know what happens next without knowing how the story ends.
1 Casino Night Zone - Sonic The Hedgehog 2
The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has multiple casino levels, from Casinopolis in Sonic Adventure to Casino Forest in Sonic Forces. With so many memorable casino stages, the series gives fans of casino levels much to enjoy.
However, Casino Night Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 stands out from the rest as the franchise’s first casino level. Its aesthetic, slot machine minigame, and high-pressure level design helped Casino Night Zone gain popularity and notoriety. The stage’s success and well-known successors show that casino levels have a niche place in the series.