When playing a videogame, the second thing you see (after the intro, developers) is a main menu screen. What games do you think have the best screens in term of color, layout and so forth?
Definitely Persona 4. It's all yellow and cool and shit. I have no idea how they thought it up but bright (but not too bright) yellow is the main aesthetic of the game. It's totally awesome.
I mean it's brilliant in several other sorts of ways as well (like how all the characters are silhouettes in the background, I think they aren't even there depending on how far you are into the game and you have to REALLY squint to get a glimpse of Naoto)
Oh and that's the second screen. The first screen is the Swagtagonist being swaggy running in slow motion on the left and a giant P4 on the right.
Hmm, that's one thing I rarely take note about games.
I guess the first thing that hits me is Fallout 3.
With that old projector feel.
The music and that iconic BoS member taking up the whole screen. I liked it.
Then there are other examples like Visual Novels.
They change when you complete certain routes and it is a pretty nice feeling when you see it. (Especially in Clannad and Rewrite)
While I did like Fallout 3's, my top favourite would have to be Katawa Shoujo.
Mostly this is because of the music that plays there [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOo55jYJlV8]. It's serene and peaceful, and really helps with your reflection of the story when you finally complete a character arc. But also I love how the screenshots gradually full up the screen, and just glancing at them can give you flashbacks of those characters and how they grew and developed.
Yeah it's clearly low budget, but I have a great fondness for it all the same.
Coupled with this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNR-wsFAfiU] song, it really got me in the mood for the game and its adventure.
Then, there is also the Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault menu:
For the genre, Pacific Assault had a very human, character-driven story that emphasized the relationship your character had with his squad. Seeing them all at the base camp, which changed over the course of the game depending on the battle you were in, doing random things while listening to a radio just brought the human nature of the story out more.
It has the white/ red theme that runs through the game which I think looks good, has the backdrop of the whole city which also looks really good, but the kicker is definitely the music.
I do have a soft spot for Age of Empires III, mainly for how the main menu screen changes depending on what civilization you have selected at that moment.
Otherwise...
A combination of just how close I got to those three characters, and the fact that <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCw8xbAsJZ0>the most peaceful music ever plays during it.
Not sure if this counts, but I got a real kick out of the first inFAMOUS's one-time only main menu. Pressing start when prompted only to be treated to the amazing spectacle that is the whole freaking city blowing up (setting the whole game into motion) was quite the cool twist.
I also quite liked DiRT 2's main menu, was pretty cool navigating my way through the trailer and all.
One of my favourite is The Last Story (only one of the few things good about that game)- The music is relaxing and the menu is minimalist in a good way, it kind of like watching some design presentation. Since that video doesn't show the rest of the menu, when you hit A is show a scene from the chapter you're on (or what you will be seeing when you start playing it for the first time) and hitting A again (load game, new game and etc) will move the camera forward to a new perspective of that scene.
Armored Core 3's main menu, but that was mostly for the music.
And Ace Combat 5: Unsung War. Nothing too special about it, but firing up a new game or your current game in that screen always felt so warm and fuzzy inside.
Metroid Prime, Fallout 3 and Mirror's Edge are definitely way up there, but my absolute favorite has to be Medal of Honor Frontline (for the Gamecube, if there's a difference between them), the dossiers on the desk, the old video reel and stuff, and that fantastic musical score playing. Just great.
Ninja'd. Even scrolling through Batman's action poses in Arkham City, listening to the epic choirs of Star Wars: Republic Commando or a Halo game, and, for that matter, staring headlong at the encapsulated Baby Metroid in Super Metroid don't hold a candle to exploring the interior of a Metroid. Especially with that music. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfGsArRQjKE]
The menu itself isn't really anything special (save for the screen just before it, which displays the text "somewhere in the heavens... they are waiting" alongside an ominous musical chord), but the cool part is in navigating through it, because the accompanying sound effects do a rather bewilderingly good job of making you feel like you're interfacing with an actual sci-fi computer terminal.
Also, Spec Ops: The Line. That image [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CQ4GyCTwFoM/UKOnQVszTJI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/MiaQq4ZQrEs/s1600/SpecOpsTheLine+2012-11-14+13-03-24-26.jpg] combined with that music [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6pgkMXHf-k] may well surpass the aforementioned Super Metroid example [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPT8GBdRCWE] as the most chilling menu I've yet seen.
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