FATAL ATTRACTOR: The Art & Spirit Of ATTRACT/TITLE/GAMEOVER

[BIL]

What are some neat things you have seen at the beginning and end of your credits? Artwork, music, text, anything that resonated. Not limited to arcade stuff, or even console stuff!

GUN FRONTIER (AC)

Blast off:


BOOM

>Seamless cinema, and a galvanising segue into the rising fury of st1's BGM.

FINAL MISSION (FC)

Attract demo:

ELEGIAC BGM is ESSENTIAL COUNTERPOINT TO HORRIFIC CARNAGE ♫

>Deleted from overseas versions for the sake of Western children. I ain't surprised! Pretty remorseless pixel genocide.

THE SUPER SHINOBI (MD)

Attract intro, title:

BAKAAAOW

>Spartanly done with thundercrash impact. Won't age.

R-TYPE III: THE THIRD LIGHTNING (SFC)

Blast out:


>Another killer STG kickoff, and a grim reminder of NO REFUGE from unhallowed biofuckery.

MERCENARY FORCE (GB)

Title:


>Powerful title screen! Not only is the pixel art strikingly characterful, its Garegga-esque concept and composition are faultlessly done.

SOLAR STRIKER (GB)

Game Over:


>Shot down in flames.

DEAD CONNECTION (AC)

Attract Intro:


"SADNESS, AND REVENGE"

>"Christine... Christine!" Son of a bitch. I'LL KILL MARLON BRANDO.

WILD FANG (AC)

ATTRACT:


OVER:


>BEAST WAR OF NO MERCY. Yo you ripped my boy's arm off and ate his head, I gotta whip your ass while my tiger tears your throat out.

MAGNUM KIKI IPPATSU: EMPIRE CITY 1931 (FC)

Game Over:


>Game, and funeral, is over! Out for revenge! Oddball home interpretation of Seibu's 1986 Dynamite Duke precursor.

BATMAN (FC)
Game Over BGM

>Show-stopping downbeat intensity. Naoki Kodaka & co never die.

WOLF FANG (AC)
GREATEST KNIGHTS (Name Entry BGM)

>Galvanic requiem. Instantly remotivating, even moreso than my poor lieutenant's despairing "NAWWW!" whenever I bite the dust!

[FinalBaton]

Will make/post the gif later cuz I gotta go but :

Mega Man 2 attract
it's minimalist but the classic combination of doomed future setting, skyscrapper pan and raging power metal has always worked for me. gets me everytime

Crystalis attract
also very nice post-apocalyptic future vignette

Streets of Rage 2 attract
because come on man... classicly classic. City scape + big glowing crime syndicate boss' face literally "grabbing" said city + doom-laden house music. Need I say more?

Double Dragon (NES)intro
One of the top most vicious premise of oldschool video games. uber short and uber thug-ish. It gets the point across in record short time the conciseness of it is actually hilarious

[BIL]

Crystalis's is fucking rad. :O I was pleasantly surprised by the post-apocalyptic element when I tested it out a few months back - had always assumed it was straight medieval fantasy.

[Marc]

Intro to Gynoug still makes the hair on my neck prickle. Badass avenging angel settling on the title screen as that music and drumbeat kick in... incredible.

[BulletMagnet]

When you get down to it it's about as generic a shmup opening as one could fathom, but dangit I still like the way Axelay pulls it off; the way the blast-off screech transitions into the static as the logo crackles in still sticks with me after a quarter-century.

If you're talking launch sequences I have to give it to Metal Black (about 1:30 into the video); for Game Over/Continue screens Pulstar comes to mind.

On a more recent (and completely different) note, I've been playing a bit of Sushi Striker on the 3DS, and it's gloriously ridiculous; rightly, so is its theme song.

[BIL]

Axelay's is almost a microcosm of the genre itself; well-worn stock parts elevated by skilled arrangement and timing.

Oh, and because I'm an EXPERT BENDER when it comes to threads ;3 I'm gonna give dispensation to stuff that technically occurs right after you hit start, and start alone! Already implied by Gun Frontier and R-Type III, but now its CANON

That established, Cambria Sword's intro is one of the more astonishingly bloodening things I've seen in the genre lately. All the usual good stuff (shattered peace, planet under siege, vengeful ALONE BATTLE) in a mode reminiscent of the goofy but unmistakably heartful New Zealand Story and Mizubaku Daibouken. Plus mournfully pummeling metal death roar.

Get Fired Up Motherfuckers THIS GAME IS NOT PALEONTOLOGY GUIDE

[Zen]

Daytona USA Attract Mode
Attrack Mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BI0Autcfhs

Far more simple than 2 and 3. Very nice, though.
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams
Attract mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpu0epcwtSM

(Not a game but an epic opening/attract)
PlayStation Intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAhvQoLpvsM

Not an attract Mode (it could be argued that the table itself is an Attract Mode)
The awesome sounds of this fucker, dominated lesser machines, back in the day.
Bally Centaur Table
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEGMh__9pXo

Opposite end of the spectrum, the awesome Tempest (silent Attract Mode)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcOaOxgkDPk

The greatest (well, at least the most melancholy) credits. I have no hesitation in calling this for what it is; God-tier, gaming music composition. God bless Kenta Nagata.
Mario Kart 64 - Credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQoVroqV08I

Another N64 game. Intro had that quirky, charming WTF-ness, about it.
Mischief Makers intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4VxOr31kzI
and with the J vocals, cause its catchy, cheesy goodness.
https://youtu.be/lpl9uLUe0DM?t=49

ChaosField - select track . . . SWEET MOTHER OF GOD! Rise up, ye Valkyries!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atjBzOF ... 7fVVkbzN0H

Fast Stiker - stage 3 tracklights
Once it kicks in at 1:10, its very difficult to hold your Agetec stick while dancing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkPlBYLeGGU

Epic Star Fox Intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1QzW9hS1oo
also, I'd buy this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXLmDRwxAUU

Another opening. Katamari Damacy. Because;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpI5uI6bMm0


I remember being quite taken with a few Saturn Attract Modes down a local game store, back in the day. I had gone with the PlayStation, so it was a case of "the grass is greener".


And the Oscar goes to; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGFuvK6ay9E

[BIL]

Ah yes, excellent call on the N64. I noticed a certain craftsmanship in that console's intros and outros, I imagine compelled by the lesser availability of space-costly CGI. AKI's WCW/nWo Revenge was stunning at the time, and although the pop cultural epoch it so lovingly recreates is long gone, the sense of celebratory intensity is impossible to miss.

SADNESS, AND (WCW/nWo) REVENGE

>WCW/nWO Revenge Attract Intro

The subsequent games' intros certainly made an effort and are good for a laugh, but never had the benefit of the mantastic tv soap odyssey that was WCW circa '97.

DON'T TRUST ANYBODY


Castlevania 64's intro is nothing nearly as striking visually, but the violin rendition of Bloodlines still holds up. Was a fairly enigmatic kickoff at the time too. The Game Over screen's minimalist redux has aged far better - a disarming rejoinder to violent death, the ambience of a stormy night heard from the safety of indoors as someone artfully toys with a piano in the next room. Wait on it a while.



PS1 bootup is inarguable too, that one is a cultural treasure.

[Squire Grooktook]

I'M NOT AUTHORIZED TO GIVE YOU THAT INFORMATION

Stylish information overload to the max.

[Durandal]

Absolutely mesmerizing

[Sumez]

Let us go out this evening for pleasure

Spoiler

I also thought this one was way ahead of all its sequels:

Spoiler

With sound

[BIL]

Actually now I wonder if Castlevania 64's Game Over screen is a vampire-at-the-window POV of Malus's home, around the time of the supposed kidnappings of village children he mentioned. Brr. That thing really has kept its value.

Let us go out this evening for pleasure

Spoiler

Classic, right down to the trackname (LAND OF BENEDICTION) and the voiceover ("Game... OVA! BWAAAHAHAHAHAAA...")

[Ebbo]

Knight Arms: The Hyblid Framer

The timing of the music, especially during the title crawl always gets me *shivers*
Too bad the sequence ends sort of abruptly. At least you get to see the player mech spinning/awkwardly change direction right before exiting the screen. Bonus points for the cute "Please wait!" boot up screen at the beginning.

[gameoverDude]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrmSO4WZH6k
Super Chase (arcade) intro, demonstration
This is someone's cheated playthru, but it's got the full intro at the start.

The nice BGM from Yack takes this one to 11... nah, make that 12. Love the synths & bass guitar on this. It's that damn good.

[blackoak]

Mega Man 2 attract
it's minimalist but the classic combination of doomed future setting, skyscrapper pan and raging power metal has always worked for me. gets me everytime

haha, yeah, and i don't think any later entry matched MM2 in this regard. I love the ending sequence too, with mega man journeying through the seasons... I remember as a youngling of 10 or 11, spending summers at my grandmother's forested cabin north of Spokane and beating MM2 everyday just for the endgame music+visuals. It sounds silly, but stuff like that was hugely influential in shaping my aesthetic sense of journeying, hiking, nature, etc... and I still listen to those vgm osts (overworld rpg music too) when I do my long-distance hiking/walking today. I have a particularly nice memory of listening to the MM2 soundtrack as I walked through Big Sur on my SF-to-LA walk a few summers back.

bravo to this thread btw, bookmarked for future observations/contributions

[Stevens]

Some of my favorites already mentioned - R Type III, Mars Matrix, here are a few more I always liked.

The original gear up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzDcJqL-DQU

Sorry -

https://youtu.be/EuYpDEXfb4k?t=8s

At least they subscribe to some basic Geneva Convention shit and not smoke you when you're outta ammo -

https://youtu.be/EuYpDEXfb4k?t=26s

Too bad the arcade game sucks -

https://youtu.be/LVz9__a8x-I?t=3s

[Bananamatic]

What are some neat things you have seen at the beginning and end of your credits?

my score

[FinalBaton]

I love the ending sequence too, with mega man journeying through the seasons..

Oh man, so much this. I almost included that as well. blue bomber walking through the season changes + super bittersweet tunes is pure awesome, and a great childhood memory for me as well. truly soothing for the soul


Great pick with the Playstation boot screen Zen I'd add to that the extremely ominous sounds of the Sega-CD model 2 bios.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Waiting for something to load from cassette is the real way to get hyped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSMXRzLTU34
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NmknHO0J4I

Then there's the greatest intro music of all time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFgXGw_kXpc

[Squire Grooktook]

There was a time

In the era of great chaos

When the earth, and the moon, were at war with eachother



That title screen does things to me as well.

[BIL]

What are some neat things you have seen at the beginning and end of your credits?

my score

You mean like the font was really cool? Metal Black does that

A classic that lost some individuality when the sequels re-used it, but remained unalterably perfect and dead-on to Slug's black farce (BGM "GRAVESTONE"):

[Stevens]

Waiting for something to load from cassette is the real way to get hyped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSMXRzLTU34
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NmknHO0J4I

Then there's the greatest intro music of all time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFgXGw_kXpc

I've always found it amusing that the best sound chip of all time is in a 35 year old home computer.

[Herr Schatten]

ARE YOU GREAT?

[FinalBaton]

Fuck... can't believe I forgot to include Shatterhand attract

[JBC]

Attract modes are a lost art. Splatterhouse 2's scrolling pan of the West Mansion estate, corpses wrapped in burlap sacs hanging from the trees, dark clouds covering the sky, wicked Halloween funhouse music, and the sinister laugh of that awful mask.

[FinalBaton]

^^^^^^^^
Fuck yeah! Good call 8BA!

[Stevens]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnd1eN71q5U

How has THIS not been mentioned^?

And while Kunio is the more fun of the two it lacks the American versions insert coin sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plXCD0lqO4Q

[Jonny2x4]

Final Fight CD
Yeah, the voice actors don't fit the characters and I'm not too crazy about the timeline shift from 1989 to 1992 (especially considering they missed dateline by releasing this port in early '93), but I'll have to admit that part where Cody punches the mirror was pretty cool.

Super Contra
WHAT IS THIS PLACE? KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED! *hiss* rat-ta-ta-ta!

THE SUPER SHINOBI (MD)

Attract intro, title:

Spoiler

BAKAAAOW

>Spartanly done with thundercrash impact. Won't age.

I love the music that plays during the prologue too. The arrangement used for the Game Gear version is not bad either.

Double Dragon (NES)intro
One of the top most vicious premise of oldschool video games. uber short and uber thug-ish. It gets the point across in record short time the conciseness of it is actually hilarious

The arcade version plays out the same way, except you get to see Marian's tighty whities while she's being carried off.

[BrianC]

And while Kunio is the more fun of the two it lacks the American versions insert coin sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plXCD0lqO4Q

true, but the JP version has "ganbatte ne" instead.

[Zen]

I love the music that plays during the prologue too.

Alan Silvestri must be a fan too; https://youtu.be/TbeigFbPgrQ?t=109