Your dream of “Californication,” the video game, is now a reality
Finally, a chance to be a blocky, 64-bit Flea on a snowboard

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, also known as the “Chi Peps,” released their 1999 album to an adoring public ready to welcome them back into their arms. It had been a few years since the Dave Navarro record, and the Peps were anxious to get back to their funky, California roots. Californication, the album that got them there, was a smash, and it offered several innovative music videos to boot (The “Otherside” video was undoubtedly a salve to Dr. Caligari’s patients around the globe). But only one took on the theme of a really cool-looking video game. Well, “cool-looking” for the time.
Directed by Little Miss Sunshine duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the “Californication” music video looked like several PS2 games crammed into one. There’s a little SSX, a little Gran Turismo, and, of course, that game where you fly on the back of a dragonfly as you avoid construction around a city. It looks like a proto Grand Theft Auto 3.