BY GROWNGAMING TEAM: The opening stage of a video game is arguably the most important section in the whole game. As with any medium, games have to capture their audience from the very beginning. As attention spans dwindle and great games are released seemingly every other day, game introductions have to hook the player in and encourage them to experience everything that the game has to offer.
Video games approach this in various ways. Some choose to shock the player, while others use an adrenaline-fuelled power-trip to get them addicted to the sensation. Some introduce the player to their new best friend, while others focus on the world. While many games use similar approaches, some games ultimately deliver more memorable and enjoyable openings than others.
These are our favourite video game openings.
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I’d have taken a few of those out. Prefer Sonic over Sonic 2. Outrun should be in there. Maybe even Pong as millions of people had fun with that even if it was repetitive. Final Fight pipped any Streets of Rage game, although Streets of Rage had the better soundtrack. Too many to list l guess. To me, retro gaming is the 1980s, maybe going into early 1990s.
Agree that the generational gap is too broad to really make a strong list. Need to tighten the years a bit. Hard to compare Pac Man with N64 games.
Now that Death Stranding has landed on iOS, here are five other PS4-era blockbusters that we'd love to have to play on our iPhones at any time.
Any one that gets me into the action ASAP, ive grown very weary of the games that take anywhere from 40mins to 4+hours to get to the meat of the gameplay. I love a good story but too many games are doing this despite their story not being interesting enough to pull it off.
The opening to Final Fantasy 7 always gets me.
Metal Gear Solid 3.
"Spread your wings and fly. God be with you."
One I'm genuinely surprised is not on the list. The last of Us pulled off an introduction that emotionally gut punched me, the likes I probably hadn't seen since the opening scene of Pixars UP
It definitely deserves to be recognised and it's why I think I'll personally never forget that game
For me the openings to the Ar Tonelico and Ar Nosurge franchises the music and the opening cinematics of the game. Then the openings to Wild Arms 4 and 5 and Xenogears are all my favorite openings.