Top 5 Iconic Retro Game Intro Movies

If there was ever one requirement to a game developed in the 1990s, it was a jaw dropping intro sequence. From full blown FMV intros to minute long sprite battles, RetroCollect looks into the Top 5 Iconic Retro Game Intro Movies.

By 1993, the world was gripped with the rise of 3D graphics and Full Motion Video sequences in games. With the likes of Night Trap offering nothing but FMV gameplay throughout, it became almost commonplace to at least dabble in motion graphics for a section of an upcoming game.

However, as many will tell you the FMV Games such as Sewer Shark, Microcosm and Fahrenheit all fell flat on their faces once gamers had hold of them. Once the initial wow factor had left gamers, they were left with an empty shell of a game housed in pretty packaging.

Yet some game developers managed to get the balance right. Using the new technology available, many games were soon accompanied by a short introduction before heading back into the tried and tested gameplay. Let's look into the best of the bunch around.

Flashback

Although only lasting a minute, the introduction to Flashback set many standards to come where animations were concerned. Delphine Software proved that you didn’t need the latest technology nor a huge budget to set the scene of a game.

Featuring some of the most fluid pixel based animation known to date, the introduction to Flashback became incredibly iconic and often spoken about between gamers. So much so, it was one introduction you were happy to watch again and again, every time you booted up the game.

View Flashback in the RetroCollect Rarity Guide & Release List Game Database

Sonic CD

It was October 1993 in Europe when Sonic CD arrived on the scene, just months after the Mega CD had been released in PAL regions. The world was still gripped with Sonic the Hedgehog at this point, with the incredible Sonic the Hedgehog 2 being the last installment to hit the Sega Mega Drive.

Considering gamers had only seen the blue hedgehog in pixel format at this point, the animated introduction featuring Sonic tearing up Mobius at extreme speed, before travelling his way up to Robotnik’s Death Egg, was the point when many 10 year olds had to pick up their jaws from the floor.

View Sonic CD in the RetroCollect Rarity Guide & Release List Game Database

Theme Park

While this introduction may not be the most impressive of all, it certainly holds a few qualities of it’s own. In 1994, Bullfrog unleashed what would soon become one of the most addictive simulation games of all time. Whether you were making your chips salty and soft drinks packed to the brim with ice, or building the most dangerous roller coasters known to man, it’s safe to say we’ve all had our fun with Theme Park. That is of course you managed to sit through the introduction...

What must have been a fantastic idea in Bullfrog’s head, only turned into the most horrific and haunting game intro of all time. Set in a rather morbid living room, the only child of a TV absorbed family declares his boredom to his father. Unaware of what he just said, a rather unsettling man emerges from the TV luring the small child into his ‘world of fun’.

By now it might be safe to say that the hit horror film ‘The Ring’, may have taken a bit of inspiration from Theme park on how to travel between TV sets. However it remains yet to be told which one is creepier...

View Theme Park in the RetroCollect Rarity Guide & Release List Game Database

Final Fantasy VII

If there is one thing Squaresoft could do, it was telling epic stories that had gamers gripped from start to finish (At least prior to the thirteenth installment). Considering the last Final Fantasy game on the Super Nintendo; Final Fantasy VI was a 2D based RPG, many gamers were still unaware of how much finesse the series had gained with the leap between consoles.

With Aeris calmly selling flowers in the slums of Midgar, while the more reckless Avalanche group were storming into town on the train,  you knew were back in the safe hands of Squaresoft for yet another thrilling time sink of an adventure.

Street Fighter II

Where game intros are concerned, you’d be hard pressed to find a gamer who doesn’t get excited at the sight of this intro. While it doesn’t push any boundaries nor challenge the technology it sits on, the intro to Street Fighter II offers more than enough to arrive in this list.

Featuring two no name, forever unknown fighters battling it out in front of a skyscraper, the intro to Street Fighter II was one often gazed at by those out of credits and 20p coins. However once the game made it’s way to the Super Nintendo, the iconic sequence from the arcades was nowhere to be seen. While it may have been disappointing to some, many didn’t mind as the arcade classic had finally come home.

View Street Fighter II in the RetroCollect Rarity Guide & Release List Game Database