Best Start Screens

[Specter Von Baren]

Based on something brought up in news. What are the best start screens you've seen in games?

Just for clarification, I consider anything you do before starting a game, the menu you navigate before getting to actual gameplay, the start screen.

So I'll just mention one but, the original Halo has a great one. Just shows you the giant ring with that epic music playing in the background. It really leaves an impression that you're going to be doing something amazing once you start playing.

 

[Absent]

Want to get in a james bond mood ?

Chill in front of the evil genius menu.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[BrawlMan]

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[Specter Von Baren]

I think the most important thing is having a good title screen theme to set the mood.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

These will always be highlights of the 7th gen to me -

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[Casual Shinji]

... Hello!

 

[BrawlMan]

Stranglehold has a great title screen and menu transitions, but I can't find any good videos of them yet.

I will give WET credit for having a great title screen. That is all I can give the game.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I will give WET credit for having a great title screen. That is all I can give the game.

WET is a bullshit game that I really like specifically because it's not good.

 

[BrawlMan]

WET is a bullshit game that I really like specifically because it's not good.

Fine by me. I like Oneechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers. That is actually decent, but it does use motion controls that are not optional. I'd still rather deal with that game. The later ones are much better.

 

[sXeth]

Let us not forget the greatest start screen of all time (before Dark Arisen DLC swapped it and ruined it, including in the next gen rerelease)


Was kind of full of minor spoilers if you watched the video behind the menus though
(also a decade ahead of BG3 for throwing anything not nailed down at the enemies, barrels, crates, corpses, allies, other enemies, and kicking them off cliffs)

 

[Trunkage]

This gives off the vibes of the game but is also a spolier

 

[Elvis Starburst]

This from Knights in the Nightmare and its accompanying title music... gorgeous

Wish there was less static in the only upload I could find on YouTube, cause it's too nice to be marred by low quality. Ah well

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Yeah, they get better each time -

 

[Hawki]

Alright, usual rules:

-One game per IP

-Have to have played the game

-Going to equate "start screen" with "menu screen" in some cases, but this doesn't include intros (which I'm pretty sure there's already a thread on)

-Advance Wars: Black Hole Rising ("move out!")
-Army Men: Sarge's Heroes (music)
-Banjo-Kazooie (Banjo's house)
-Batman: The Telltale Series (atmosphere/ambience)
-Battlefield 1942 (pumped up)
-Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (atmosphere)
-Conker's Bad Fur Day (humour)
-Diablo IV (atmosphere)
-Ecco the Dolphin: The Tides of Time (music/ambience)
-Fire Emblem (really any game I've played, the theme alone sells it)
-GoldenEye (turns out files and dossiers can be fun)
-Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (music, melencholia)
-Halo 3 (1-2 are close seconds, since they're all variations on the same thing, Halo 1 has grandiosity, Halo 3 has tragedy, Halo 2 is the best score by itself)
-Heroes of the Storm (pumped up)
-The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (stepping through history in a sense)
-Marathon 2: Durandal (solely because of that score)
-Metal Gear Solid (sheer atmosphere from the theme/graphics)
-Mission: Impossible (yes, the N64 game, and yes, the start screen got me to accept the mission)
-Perfect Dark Zero (theme/ambience)
-Pokemon Gen. 1 (theme/nostalgia)
-Section 8 (eh, sort of? Game is balls, start screen's okay)
-Sonic Adventure 2 (really, there's too many competitors, going with this one for OST)
-StarCraft (ambience)
-Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (if you equate start screen with mission and fighter select, then sure)
-Super Mario 64 (why yes, you CAN pull Mario's face around)
-Warcraft III (ambience)
-Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (OST)
-Xenoblade Chronicles (music, ambience)

I'm also going to give an honourable mention to Terminator: Salvation, in that while I haven't played the game, its riff on the Terminator theme is excellent.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

I vote the little know indie game Straco. Just look at this Menu



Perfect for quick analogue control but would also likely work well with a mouse.

Very low interaction cost.

Literally tells you additional information in the top right.

I'd argue this is followed by a close second for Brutal Legend