Main Menu Innovation

[stikku]

Its the most typical part of most games. Most of the games have the same main menu layout. The old:
Resume Game
New Game
Option

with a picture as a background.Yet a few games found was to create ... different ... menus.
So i ask the escapist forum, what are the best and most creative main menus you have seen?

My vote goes to the FreeSpace 1 and 2 (1998 and 1999), where the menu was practically viewing the inside of the mother ship under which you are serving (which changed multiple times in each game)
With each corridor being an option. (And the Control Panel being the options menu).

FreeSpace 1
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/18848-descent-freespace-the-great-war-windows-screenshot-main-menu.jpg

FreeSpace2
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/315893-freespace-2-windows-screenshot-main-menu.jpg
(yes i dont know how to put images in the post)

why dont we see this in today's games?

 

[RA92]

Its the most typical part of most games. Most of the games have the same main menu layout. The old:
Resume Game
New Game
Option

Allow me to introduce you to Introspective's 'Darwinia'.

<youtube=BCxo_Y-Q27s>

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

GTA doesn't even HAVE a main menu. It just loads you right into the game.

That's a pretty kick-ass menu, imo.

 

[Radeonx]

GTA doesn't even HAVE a main menu. It just loads you right into the game.

That's a pretty kick-ass menu, imo.

Indeed. Very nice, and straight to the point.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I like Codemasters menus, they're always fancy. Dirt 2 is my favorite, it's quite cool how you can look around, zoom in and stuff. Although, I agree with the above too, GTA IV's lack of a menu is awesome. I can turn it on and go get a drink. Dope!

 

[Kajt]

Spoiler: Heroes of Might and Magic V comes to mind. The menu itself isn't impressive, but the background is. It shows an inquisitor fighting an arch devil on a corpse laden battlefield.

 

[Irridium]

While not the "main menu", Halo 3's pause menu is pretty kick ass. I love how it just swishes in from the side, then swishes out.

As for Main Menu's, well can't really think of any. Except maybe God of War, where you press "New Game" and suddenly Kratos in the background comes to life, then BAM!, game is on.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Black Ops' menu was pretty clever, especially since you get up and whatnot. I liked MW2's menu setup, too.

Bioshock gets an honorable mention for allowing me to make crude piano music.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Black Ops' menu was pretty clever, especially since you get up and whatnot.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting Blops to have a menu system that simple but cool.

 

[necromanzer52]

GTA doesn't even HAVE a main menu. It just loads you right into the game.

That's a pretty kick-ass menu, imo.

Really? I find it to be very annoying.

 

[thedeathscythe]

GTA doesn't even HAVE a main menu. It just loads you right into the game.

That's a pretty kick-ass menu, imo.

Indeed. Very nice, and straight to the point.

It uses the cell phone when in the main game though, which I found awesome, and very clever. Dead Space uses a live menu that pops out of your chest, which I loved. You can innovate main menus, but for the most part, Socom Confrontation's main menu is fairly unique, but it makes everything load slowly, so yeah, I do like innovation, but only when done right (like the first two games I mentioned).

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

honestly i think main menu's need to have more ooptions, sometimes they put them into too generalize of statemements into it, and it ends up having similar optionsion and i end up picking the wrong one to findosm something.

Off topic, captchas suck for when you've had some drnksls

 

[SturmDolch]

GTA doesn't even HAVE a main menu. It just loads you right into the game.

That's a pretty kick-ass menu, imo.

That always annoyed me when I wanted to play multiplayer... I had to load singleplayer first.

I think Assassin's Creed 2's menu is pretty cool, although it gets annoying. Especially the in-game menu... Gah. I mean, it looks awesome. But navigating it is a major pain in the ass.

I prefer just simple menus. Perfect Dark 64's was cool. You could exit out of it and walk around the entire Carrington Institute.

 

[Ldude893]

The Black Ops menu was really novel compared to standard menus in other games. The Lego games were also in-game spaces as well.

 

[hittite]

Well, I know some of the Mario games, the saves are blocks you hit to load them. Also, I seem to remember that Banjo Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day had the menus be a 1st person view of the characters' house and favorite bar respectively.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

GTA doesn't even HAVE a main menu. It just loads you right into the game.

That's a pretty kick-ass menu, imo.

That always annoyed me when I wanted to play multiplayer... I had to load singleplayer first.

It's bad for multiplayer, sure.

But for the PS2 games, without online play, it's perfect.

 

[Scabadus]

The pictures in the OP remind me of the old Tie Fighter and X-Wing games from the 1990s. Their graphics were worse, but it was a sort of hub in the starbase and when you clicked on a mission it would take you to a room with a shuttle or when you clicked on the replays option it would take you to a room with a video player.

Fable 3's in-game menu also deserves a mention for being pretty unique. Not exactly bad either; the rooms were small enough and close enough together that I only rarely got annoyed at having to run between them to change options, much the same way it would annoy me to navigate down four different menu and options screens to change a few things at once.

 

[Stealthygamer]

Psychonauts, you walk around on a brain and there are three doors, New Game, Continue and Load Save, Also Profiles were different Bunk Beds in your cabin