The 10th Hour 10.10.08: Top 10 Best Game Intros

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 10.10.2008

The introduction to a game can be a great indicator of what's to come - which games do it the best?

Hello and welcome to the 10th hour. Your regular (he just loves that bran) columnist, Derek Robbins, isn't available this week. While crying like a little girl, he asked me to fill in. Something about the Cubs, I think, or maybe he's trying to wean himself off a crippling meth addiction. Either way - pain ahead for that poor guy.

Derek normally starts with some rambling, so let's go with that.

• The NHL kicks off this week, with the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs and unveiling their championship banner. Gotta suck to be Toronto, who is looking forward to overachieving this season - maybe even to the point where they just barely miss the playoffs. Apparently Alanis Morissette sang the national anthems, so that just made it suck even more.

• AIG executives, obviously excited about getting their share ($85 billion) of the bailout, had themselves a party costing nearly $450,000. Not bad for a company that had to be bailed out...

• The Big Bang Theory continues to be one of TV's top shows. Now in its second season it's bound to be cancelled any day now. Smart writing and engaging characters have no place on television - maybe we'll get another version of Big Brother or Survivor instead. If they really want to get ratings, dump them up here in Canada in the winter - maybe in Manitoba, God knows there's nothing else there.

Reader Feedback

Last week was the 10 best cliché levels, here's what people had to complain about:

I pointed out Derek doesn't know his barrels from a hole in the ground:

Those barrels aren't the deadly ones. The red ones are. - You are absolutely right, sir. I don't know if I've ever seen a non-red barrel blow up in a video game. Maybe he meant they could fall on you?

Brad then pointed out the lack of a 'rainbow' themed level, with Rainbow Road actually taking time out from annoying people in Mario Kart to chime in as well. You're both right - that's a cliché classic.

RavenTazECW pointed out a couple of other ideas, including the 'walls closing in' and 'ok, time to sneak' levels/areas from recent games. He must have hated the Hulk game where you turned into Banner and had to stealth through.

Raptor and Triple J hate sky, ice, water, and fire. There's probably a joke to be made there, maybe he'll give a prize to the person who can come up with it.

Toddo the Everpresent wants to know why people in futuristic shooters always wear bulky armor. Because they're getting shot at, Toddo. Form-fitting jumpsuits stayed on Star Trek, where Captain Kirk jumped more aliens than he ever shot.

Soulpower wants to know how the Cubs are doing. Wow, that was harsh.

David continues his unbroken string of 100 straight days of trying to get one over on me, but just winding up looking like an obsessed dick. Good job, Dave. Keep up the good work. I bet you can make it to 500 days, easy.

M:-X hates ice levels because they're slippery. Good point, Mr. Symbolface.

Aussiegamer hates sewer levels, except when he doesn't mind them. Drew, who is affectionately known as "fake Derek" around here, also hates sewers. He has no conditions on his hate.

Daniel loves Derek, but hates the column. I wonder how he feels about Drew?

Truth hates jumping. He blames video-game vertigo, a condition which I don't believe anyone is currently raising money, via a telethon or elaborate David Blaine "stunt" of some kind, to cure. Hang in there, buddy.

BK never heard of Thumper's mom, while Homie wrote an essay about why Picard was way better than Kirk. I think anyway, I kind of nodded off after the first paragraph.

Wait...what the hell? Derek chimes in a little later to say the list wasn't serious. That's it, from now on he's "fake Drew" instead, and that means it's time for:



Normal disclaimer here - this is my list, and if you don't like it that's too bad. If you really cry about it, maybe I'll make fun of you for being too stupid to understand the difference between my opinion and yours.

Also, this is only the ones I could think of and find via a YouTube search. I figured there was no point putting one on the list if I couldn't SHOW it to you. Plus it stood to reason that if I couldn't find it on YouTube, it probably wasn't as good as I remembered anyway.

I also had to eliminate Blizzard games, as the list was going to be dominated by their titles. Screw that, we're all about variety here on the 10th Hour!

Top 10 Best Game Intros


Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

10) As I said in last week's Achievement Unlocked, I'm not a huge fan of the Warhammer IP - I just haven't been exposed to it all that much. One exception to that is this game, which a friend was a huge fan of.

The intro footage, like that of Warhammer Online and Warhammer: Battle March, is just incredibly well rendered stuff that makes you want to fire the game up immediately. You get a decent idea of the units in play, and it's pretty clear that you're about to step into an all-out war.




Fallout

9) These guys do the 'atmosphere' of a game as well as anyone, and they use songs you just won't hear in any other games. I've been getting the same kind of vibe from the trailers used to promote Fallout 3, so I'm hoping the upcoming installment of the franchise has what it takes to win over the hardcore Fallout fans.

As a bonus - play the song from this trailer in an office and you'll hear people humming it for an hour or more. I also considered Fallout 2 but gave this one the nod for being older, and just as memorable.




Abe's Exoddus

8) I think they won an award for this one, though I might be thinking of a different game from the series. These guys make their ugly-as-sin characters lovable somehow, and the intro starts that off on the right foot.

This is one of those franchises that I hate to see shuffled off to the side, but I'm not sure that it could be guaranteed enough sales in today's market to survive. Maybe they could churn out a high-quality (and character-driven) platformer/action game for Xbox Live Arcade or PSN?




Super Smash Bros

7) It's got the old-fashioned bleeping and blooping for music, but it works! The camera cuts and effective split-screen techniques to introduce characters really helped make this one stand out.

And that final SUPER SMASH BROS scream? GOLD.




Resident Evil

6) Maybe this one could be higher, and I admit that I had it up higher initially, but the cheesy acting really knocked it down a notch or two. I mean holy cow, were these people paid in booze?

I'm just left with one question after watching that thing again and again. Did Chris Redfield have to take sneering lessons?




Company of Heroes

5) It's largely taken scene-for-scene from Saving Private Ryan, but when you're dealing with the same subject material...what are you supposed to do? In any case, it's a fantastic setup for the game, blending from CGI to in-engine very well.




Star Control II

4) I would bet that not many played this one, but the intro tells the tale pretty well. Yeah, it's kind of a Star Trek clone on the surface of it - but the surprisingly deep gameplay and the intertwining of combat and diplomacy made this one a winner.

The intro, as I said, sets up the story very well and gets gamers ready for what's to come. You could know nothing at all about the game, but by the time that intro is done you're probably willing to take a chance on it.




Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

3) War games are almost too easy to create a great into based off of. I bumped this one above Company of Heroes because it's not so reminiscent of a movie, and it really sets the scene for the game - including the emotional impact of combat.




Madden NFL 08

2) "CAN YOU FEEL THAT? That thing that's beating in your dog-gone chest right now? Can you feel it? Can you feel what's about to happen on this field, man?"

Well, it's the Eagles [Fixed, thanks for pointing that out - but they still probably lost!], so they probably lost the game - but that speech helped make this the best sports intro in history. Strangely, this year's Madden has no intro at all. Hopefully they come back next year with a killer one. This is the highest, and only, sports intro on the list, which is kind of strange. Sports games would seem to lend themselves to killer intros, but developers are apparently willing to let that opportunity slip away.




Mechwarrior 2

1) Just an awesome intro that will give all you mech fans chills and have you wanting to play.

Like other great intros the action is good, but it's the way the music keeps rising and falling that helps set the tone. It's an intro that keeps you watching until that tragic radio call at the end..."what is your situation?"



Well that's it for this week. I hope this was at least kind of entertaining. If not, complain to fake Drew. If you wish to leave a comment below, simply do so below. More than likely you'll be flooded out by Dave's incessant whining, but try to ignore him - he needs help learning how to do it. Or you can always e-mail fake Drew at [e-mail]

This is the part where fake Drew links to people. I figure we have a fully-functioning menu system, so why not let people use it? I'll humour the little deviant though, here's some stuff to read:

Check out Working Title this week, when Jordan's column idea runs short and he has to fill, fill, fill! When Jordan panics, hilarity ensues!

In the PC Centric Extravaganza, Chris talks World of Goo and Tension, plus mods! I haven't read it yet, as the PC column isn't compatible with the Mac. :(

In the PC Spotlight, another Chris (seriously, there's nobody into PC gaming who isn't named Chris) talks KOTOR MMORPG, which is more capitals than should be allowed in a sentence.

In the Hall of Shame this week is a plumber. Mario hit the skids? You'll have to read it to find out.

In the Review section, JLo takes a look at The Price is Right for the Wii.

Nintendophiles celebrates two years with news of the DSi.