Because too much work made my brain feel like mushed pudding (can pudding be mushed?), here are the top 5 video game intros I prefer, in no particular order. The fact that most of these are old games can give you an idea how few games I played in the past decade, and how much those are played are unlikely to have much opening cinematics anyway.
Coinbox Hero (Armor Games, 2011), a simple Flash game, has a quite shocking, to-the-point and poignant intro I've seen. It is so unexpected, yet it affects the rest of this short game. The game is essentially about you trying to break this allegedly unbreakable "coin box" from a Super Mario game. The first time I've played it the intro impressed me so much that I just had to finish the game. The less said, the better.
Secret of Mana (Square, 1993) for the SNES had a simple yet epic introduction. The graphics are better in the original Japanese version's introduction (Seiken Densetsu 2), but even on the US version the beautiful music is the same. I liked it a lot because it is simple, introduces well the story and characters, and yet is just incredibly beautiful, nostalgic yet epic at the same time. The closest I can imagine is The Neverending Story, but in medieval Japan.
Megaman 2 (Capcom, 1988) has the coolest, 80s style introduction ever made. It's cinema-like title screen animation slowly builds up into 80s rock, hair floating in the wind, and TRON-like teleportation all in one. The fan-made HD remix show how much, with a bit of touch-up here and there, it could stand the test of time.
Super Metroid (Nintendo, 1994) has a title screen and intro that not only had recorded speech, but a daring, dark Alien-like sci-fi feel to it. To think about it, it was the first (and maybe last) game by Nintendo that shows dead humans in its title screen.
Sam & Max Hit the Road (LucasArts, 1993) is the indie game before there were indie games. The game had a weird style of humour inspired by Steve Purcell strange comic book series about a pair dog and rabbit private investigators. Its game intro should be enough to hook you in this unique humour, if you "get" it. Against all odds (and LucasArts), thirteen years later three sequels were made for PC, a testament to how much a cult classic this game became.
Published on July 8, 2012 at 20:39 EDT
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