Remember Red Hot Chili Peppers' early Playstation-style music video for their 1999 track Californication? Well, thanks to developer Miquel Camps Orteza, you can now actually play the game featured in said video.
Within the video, the four members of the LA band - vocalist Anthony Kiedis, drummer Chad Smith, bassist Flea and (now returned) guitarist John Frusciante - are presented as video game avatars. During the game play, they're tasked with surviving in various dangerous environments, such as swimming through shark-infested waters and snowboarding across mountainous peaks. And the idea of making this game a reality began to obsess one gifted developer.
"I wanted to play that game so bad! says Orteza."It's 2022 and I haven't seen anyone [make] the game, so I challenged myself to create it. I have selected some epic moments from the video and turned into 7 levels, each one with different game mechanics. I hope you like this game."
Californication the game is available to download on both Windows PC and mac0S, although it doesn't include any of RHCP's music, most likely due to legal restrictions. You can however find buttons in the game which link to YouTube to play Californication, the song.
To find out more about the project, along with how it works, visit the Californication game website.
Last week, the Chili Peppers released a new single, Poster Child, as the second offering from their upcoming album, Unlimited Love. The track follows Black Summer, which was released month.
Unlimited Love is the first RHCP album since guitarist Frusciante returned to the band in late 2019, replacing Josh Klinghoffer.
“Our only goal is to get lost in the music,” say the band. “We (John, Anthony, Chad and Flea) spent thousands of hours, collectively and individually, honing our craft and showing up for one another, to make the best album we could."
You can read the full story behind the band's re-birth in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine, which features the funky foursome on the cover.