Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
Upcoming PS5 games: A picture showing screenshots of Resident Evil 9, Monster Hunter Stories 3, Black Ops 7 and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2
Adventure Games Upcoming PS5 games: New PS5 games for 2025 and beyond
Ghost of Yotei gameplay showing Atsu sitting on her horse between bright pink cherry blossoms, looking at a distant fortification built against a mountain
Open World Games Best open world games to play right now and completely forget real life exists
A header images for the Best Games of 2025, so far, showing images for Keeper, Hades 2, Ghost of Yotei, and Donkey Kong Bananza
Games The best games to play in 2025, so far
A picture of a Nintendo 3DS console next to several of the best 3DS games and Nintendo cards.
Games The 25 best Nintendo 3DS games of all time
Red Dead Redemption 2
Adventure Games 25 best adventure games to get swept up in right now
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Action Games The 25 best Metroidvania games you can explore today
The 50 Most Iconic Video Game Characters
Games The 50 most iconic video game characters of all time
Stray memories
Adventure Games All Stray Memories for B-12 and how to find them
Games like Skyrim: Gerlat giving a thumbs up during the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
RPGs The best games like Skyrim that'll satisfy your need for adventure
Mass Effect Legendary Edition screenshot of femme Shep outside the normandy space ship
Adventure Games 25 Best sci-fi games to travel into the future with
Wild Blue Skies
Games Star Fox spiritual successor from one of the SNES classic's original creators gets "re-reveal" gameplay trailer, and it looks even better than before
Best anime games: Oliver and Drippy looking at a book during the game Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
Games The 20 best anime games to play in 2025
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Platforming Games The 10 best games like Hollow Knight to play after you beat Silksong
Best Sonic games - Sonic the Hedgehog title card
Sonic the Hedgehog The 25 best Sonic games of all time
Killer animatronic Freddy Fazbear stalks the streets in Five Night's at Freddy's 2
Movies Every upcoming video game movie you need to know about
Trending
  • Fallout Season 2
  • New Games for 2025
  • Gift Guides
  1. Games

9 iconic video game skies, 'artistically' improved with wolf-moons

Features
By David Houghton published 14 January 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

A modern classic

A modern classic

Of all the new art spawned by human minds over the last decade, the legendary three-wolf moon is perhaps the most affecting. Powerful, poignant, rousing, and not at all tacky enough to make a person's eyes burst, its early, not at all ironic success as an Amazon top-selling t-shirt has spawned a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Everyone worships the moon-wolf. All aspire to its natural, raw emotion and endlessly yearning purity.

So many games these days claim to be artistic, to contain depth and meaning beyond the mere pushing of buttons and killing of baddoes. But without moon-wolves and wolf-moons, all are mere charlatans. Shallows jokes in comparison. So I've decided to improve them by adding that which they lack. Click on. You'll see. Spellbound, you'll be, spellbound.

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Because sometimes, standing alone on a rooftop, staring grimly into the night just isn't poignant enough on its own.

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
Grand Theft Auto 5

Grand Theft Auto 5

A skyline to make any Mirror Park-listening hipster weep with ironic joy.

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Twilight Princess cross-over confirmed!

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
No Man's Sky

No Man's Sky

I sort of hate to do this to such a beautiful game, especially before it's out, but any game whose screenshots contain so damn many moons is asking for it.

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat

Perform a double-flawless followed by a Fatality when a wolf howls at the moon in order to unlock secret character, Lupine. Don't worry though, he'll be in the main roster in part two.

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
Portal 2

Portal 2

Still alive. And howling.

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Destiny

Destiny

Because even if you're an ambiguous, silent, interstellar entity of unknown origin, hovering in vigil above the last human city in the galaxy, you can always be a bit more poetic if you put in the effort.

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
To the Moon

To the Moon

Surely a wolf-moon can only make such a game even more heartfelt and emotional? Oh sorry, it can utterly wreck it too? Oh right. Let's click on then...

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Ghouls 'n' Ghosts

Ghouls 'n' Ghosts

LOL THE OTHER KIND OF MOON LOL IT IS A JOKE

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
That's no moon...

That's no moon...

So those are my current efforts in making video games more legitimately artistic. But what about you? Are there any other video game skies you think are just begging for the awe and majesty that only a wolf-moon can impart? Let me know.

And while you're here, why not check out some of our other, ridiculous, Photoshop whims. I'm a particular fan of 12 game characters face-swapped with Nic Cage, myself, and I'm also rather partial to Solid Snake doing mundane, everyday jobs.

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming Wii-u Nintendo PlayStation PS4 Xbox Xbox One Platforms
David Houghton
David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.
Read more
Atsu riding her horse in Ghost of Yotei with the black bars disabled
Ghost of Yotei's art director wanted the RPG to look like a "living painting," but the detail required stresses even me out: "When the wind blows, the trees know how strong the wind is"
 
 
The 50 Most Iconic Video Game Characters
The 50 most iconic video game characters of all time
 
 
Wild Blue Skies
Star Fox spiritual successor from one of the SNES classic's original creators gets "re-reveal" gameplay trailer, and it looks even better than before
 
 
Fall is my favorite season and these are the 10 autumnal games I just can't stop coming back to at this time of year
 
 
Meeting the yeti-like puppet creature Monoco in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 congratulates Team Cherry on launching Hollow Knight: Silksong, which coincidentally might include a nod to the French JRPG and GOTY rival
 
 
Best video game heroes
The 25 best heroes in games of all time
 
 
Latest in Games
Windswept screenshot
After a 97% "Very Positive" Steam launch for his platformer about a tortoise and a duck, indie dev says it took fans 1 week to pay for his wedding and dog's future medication, but it's barely been enough to break even
 
 
Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 boss says morale at Arrowhead is "much better now" following Into the Unjust blowback as "Steam score is trending upwards" and "development is progressing"
 
 
A woman in leather armor with large black horns
Romancing Saga, a Square Enix JRPG released in 1992, remade in 2005, and remastered in 2022, gets yet another re-release: "I had always wanted to make a grand fantasy RPG in the style of The Lord of the Rings"
 
 
World of Warcraft: Midnight
World of Warcraft Midnight "brought me to the verge of tears," says MMO's production director, and it's not only "our best expansion ever," but maybe one of the most important ones in 10 years
 
 
Baldur's Gate 3 character Nocturne
Baldur's Gate 3 actor reveals Shadowheart's pal Nocturne was more of a "sexy demon" until she "found Nocturne on the spot" in a "girl next door" vibe
 
 
Elden Ring Nightreign character Undertaker in a brick room
FromSoftware, you appear to have broken Elden Ring Nightreign: the new DLC class Undertaker is an ult-spamming, boss-melting monster
 
 
Latest in Features
The Big Preview art of Fallout season 2 showing Kyle Maclachlan's Hank in a suit of power armor - showing the Cover Story tag
Fallout season 2 is "taking some swings", but isn't committing to any canonical ending from New Vegas: "It's what we would want to see as fans"
 
 
A king on horseback overlooking an army camped outside of a fortified city in concept art for Total War: Medieval 3, framed with The Big Preview branding from GamesRadar+
With 25 years of Total War under its belt, the future of Creative Assembly's iconic strategy series looks brighter than ever: "We've got the best roadmap we've ever had"
 
 
Art from Octopath Traveler 0 showing Ludo with a big sack of coins, celebrating
Octopath Traveler 0's devs see it as "new game" despite its mobile origins: "We wanted to go back to the beginning – to start from zero"
 
 
Warhammer Emperor's Children models, vehicles, boxes, and books on a circular wooden table
Warhammer, I am begging you for an apothecary in my Emperor's Children army
 
 
Walmart Plus delivery by a front door with Princess Peach in the foreground
These Walmart Cyber Monday deals are an absolute slay with record-low prices on consoles, games, accessories and more
 
 
PS5 and Nintendo Switch games on a green background with Cyber Monday deals badge
I've found some fantastic Cyber Monday video game deals so you don't have to
 
 
  1. Art from Octopath Traveler 0 showing the hero being haunted by the images of those who burned his hometown, with ghostly images of the three surrounding an image of a town on fire behind him as he walks forward
    1
    Octopath Traveler 0 review: "The strongest entry in this retro-styled JRPG series yet, I love the greater focus on tactical battles"
  2. 2
    Sleep Awake review: "An all-timer horror premise is let down by tired stealth that I feel like I'm sleepwalking through"
  3. 3
    Metroid Prime 4: Beyond review: "The series' atmosphere has never been better, while being dragged down by a boring overworld and clunky psychic powers"
  4. 4
    Routine review: "This imperfect but wonderfully atmospheric moon-based horror leaves a strong impression"
  5. 5
    Marvel Cosmic Invasion review: "Excellent '90s-tinged superhero brawling across a punchy campaign falls just short of arcade bliss"
  1. Freddy Fazbear in Five Nights at Freddy's 2
    1
    Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review: "We have waited two years for a Five Nights at Freddy's 1.5"
  2. 2
    Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"
  3. 3
    Wicked: For Good review: "Builds to an incredibly cathartic conclusion, but isn't quite as captivating as Part 1"
  4. 4
    The Running Man review: "Some fun action and Glen Powell's star power aren't enough to energize this disappointing Stephen King adaptation"
  5. 5
    Predator: Badlands review: "Die-hard fans may be disappointed, but as a blockbuster action-adventure, Badlands kills it"
  1. Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things season 5
    1
    Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 review: “Can the Duffer brothers stick the landing? It’s sure looking like they will”
  2. 2
    Pluribus season 1 review: "Easily one of the year's best dramas"
  3. 3
    The Witcher season 4 review: "The Henry Cavill-less fourth season is the best yet"
  4. 4
    IT: Welcome to Derry review: "A supremely confident step back into the history of Stephen King's cursed town and killer clown"
  5. 5
    Splinter Cell: Deathwatch review: "A pale imitation of the long-dormant stealth franchise"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...