The Top 3 Video Game Hospitals We Want to Visit
Hospitals get a bad rap in video games. Often they are used as part of the setting for horror games or high-stakes drama. We started to think about what hospitals in gaming that we would actually want to visit and experience for ourselves.
Two Point Hospital
In the heart of Two Point County sits one of the most important buildings around: Two Point Hospital. The eponymously named game tasks players with building the best hospital they can imagine, catering the facility to the unique needs of the nearby residents. The developers behind the game recognize that real symptoms and ailments can be distressing, even in a game setting. To inject humor into their game and distance it from the real world problems people might be facing, Two Point Studios came up with a humorous list of fictional health problems plaguing the citizenry. For example, patients will enter Two Point Hospital to get treatment for Lightheadedness, meaning that their head has turned into a giant light bulb. There’s a long list of unique and cartoony ailments and players can build the solutions to all of them.
Dr. Mario
Did you know that the Mushroom Kingdom from Nintendo’s Mario franchise has an official hospital? Appropriately named the Mushroom Kingdom General Hospital, the facility has only appeared in the game manual for the original NES game and a story that appeared in the Nintendo Comics System story “The Doctor Is In… Over His Head.” It was here that Dr. Mario accidentally released the viruses that players defeat throughout the game. While most of the patients treated at Mushroom Kingdom General are native to the Mushroom Kingdom, villains also receive treatment and are asked to sign pledges to do no harm when they leave.
Rakuen
The hospital in the 2017 indie title Rakuen holds many secrets. The protagonist of the game, a young boy, struggles with being in the hospital and the strangeness of his new surroundings. However, his mother begins telling him a story and reveals that the two of them can travel to a wonderful world of magic and mystery. As the two begin exploring, the boy learns that the forest spirit Morizora can grant wishes. With the help of his mom, he begins a journey to complete the challenges of the forest spirit in order to earn his heart’s desire. Exploring the fantastical world of Rakuen leads the boy to discover that the denizens of this colorful story mirror the people he has met during his time at the hospital. Rakuen beautifully shows how hospitals overflow with the stories of people from all walks of life – and makes them just a bit less scary.
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