The best July 4 video game is a 26-year-old PS2 cult classic

July 4 is a sacred holiday to me. Sure, I love getting a day off from work and going to barbecues as much as the next American, but it’s about something bigger than hot dogs. It’s a rare day when we get a moment to reflect on history together as one. Cultural divisions are set aside to celebrate a defining accomplishment in history, the impact of which still shines through the twilight’s last gleaming like a rocket’s red glare.

I am, of course, talking about the video game FantaVision for the PlayStation 2.

Yes, it’s this time every year when I stop to pledge my allegiance to one of the only video games in history brave enough to be entirely about setting off fireworks. No, it didn't actually release on July 4, but it’s as good a day as any to salute the great American pastime of blowing up multicolored explosives that freak the fuck out of dogs. I invite you to put your hand on your heart for a video game classic today, just as our ancestors have for the past 250 years.

Our story begins on March 4, 2000. The world was only a few months removed from the existential threat of Y2K, a widely rumored apocalypse event where the world as we knew it was to end on New Year’s Day 2000, because computers might have gotten confused about clocks. But our flag was still there at the stroke of midnight. With an anxious world now entering an age of renewed optimism, a technological renaissance was on the horizon. It would come in the form of a black obelisk as foretold by 2001: A Space Odyssey. The PlayStation 2 was coming, and it would create a digital land of opportunity.

Image: Sony

The PS2 launched with 29 first games. Armored Core 2, Dynasty Warriors 2, Tekken Tag Tournament, Q-Ball Billiards Master — it was a star-spangled lineup that would go on to shape video game history. Nestled in that elite group of founding fathers was Sony Computer Entertainment's own first-party killer app, FantaVision. As far as launch games go, it’s no stretch to say that it ranks somewhere between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Michael Jackson: The Experience HD in terms of cultural significance.

The premise is elegant: It’s a puzzle game where you set off fireworks by sending flares into the night sky. That’s about all there is to know about it. (No, there’s no connection to the soda brand.) The complexity comes in trying to daisy chain explosions together to get higher scores, creating more dazzling displays in the process. George Washington was pretty good at it, but Thomas Jefferson notoriously did not understand how the game’s Starmine system worked. Really dumb dude, in my opinion; all you have to do is collect enough white stars to spell out the word Starmine and detonate it to enter bonus time. How hard is that?

FantaVision was meant to serve as a technological show pony for the PS2, wowing new players with a shower of particle effects never before seen on a video game console. As you can guess by the decades of sequels that followed (including a VR follow-up that is definitely still available to play and not delisted from the digital storefronts), turning FantaVision into a household franchise that has been adapted into multiple HBO shows since, the hyper-niche puzzle game was a huge success that paved the way for revolution.

Image: Sony

Okay, it kind of bombed. But FantaVision stands today as a proud monument to PlayStation’s origins. It comes from an old world where Sony was willing to take more risks with its first-party games. The PS2 wasn’t a console founded on third-person action-adventure games; it was a land of equal opportunity. We have strayed further from that vision in recent decades, pushing aside all perceived “outsiders” and regressing towards a homogenized future. It has become impossible to remain patriotic when it feels like everything around us has been seized by incompetent goons who get off on destroying the future and practicing cruelty over compassion. I am exclusively talking about the state of video games in 2026, of course.

Today, I proudly continue to fly FantaVision’s flag. May it serve as a reminder that gaming is at its best when creative minds are allowed to step outside their comfort zones and make games about fireworks, or something. We used to hold this truth to be self-evident, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, and it’s high time we start believing it again. That very same document also said that it would be cool if there was another Ridge Racer game. So we should probably figure that one out.

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