Lurker > Jesse_Custer

Tifa

100. Ys Seven - ninkendo
https://youtu.be/U-LsQq9y5jM

Like many intros still to come on this list, this one just depicts a bunch of characters I dont know without having played the game, which gives me no reason to care about them.

If the worst I could say about this intro is I found it boring, it would make the next tier. But it just barely misses the cut thanks to the lazy animation. The opening 15 seconds actually looks pretty good, but too much of the intro is just still shots of characters who seem frozen like theyre part of the background. Even when the characters are supposed to be in battle, theyre just stills being moved around the screen, rather than moving in a lifelike manner. And as if to make the intro more exciting, sometimes the perspective abruptly shakes, while nothing much is even happening on screen.

The music is the best thing about the intro. I wouldnt say I love the song, but its energetic and pleasant. But its not enough to give this intro some much-needed life.

Johnbobb posted...

Also TTT2 is the first intro I think is ranked way too low; one of the things that makes the TTT games so cool is that they're non-canon, so they can go as ridiculous as they want, which capitalizes here in True Ogre bursting through the ring in the middle of a match, which as a long-time fan of the series was simultaneously thrilling and hilariously absurd

Thats fair. The funny thing about the Tekken franchise is its at times incredibly grounded with characters that have no special abilities and employ actual fighting styles, while at other times completely over the top. And its more the characters like Lei Wulong that have always attracted me to the franchise. But youre right that characters like True Ogre are just as much inherently Tekken.

Sunshine

NFUN posted...

apparently jesse plays very few jrpgs

Probably the genre Ive played more of than any other. If youre referring to me saying its unusual to see that kind of camaraderie between the characters, theres an attempt to do that in virtually every JRPG, but it rarely feels that genuine. At least to me.

RyoCaliente posted...

Also, going back to the FF X-2 opening, I cannot agree with your statement on the FF X intro. I think that one is really bad and gives someone playing very little insight on what is going on. It almost feels like it was used just for the dialogue.

Don't get me wrong; I love the cutscene in the game when it plays, but as an intro, it's never done it for me.

Granted, I might be biased on that one by the rest of the game. But even thinking back to the very first time I played, before I understood the significance of that moment, it struck me as this powerful sense of camaraderie with each of the characters weapons left aside as they sit together. Its something we dont see often in games, that the characters are not defined by how they fight, but their bonds to each other. And even without knowing what its about, theres this sense of unspoken grief and hope all at once. To me, its the perfect example of an intro that conveys a strong sense of story, even without letting you know the plot.

101. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Raetsel_Lapin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcYZKokEqjE

Unlike Mortal Kombat, Ive long been a fan of this fighting series, but this intro didnt work for me for a few reasons. First we get the completely unnecessary moment in the taxi, which plays more like a scene from a sitcom than the intro to a fighting game. I would say they were going for comic relief, but it doesnt fit the tone of the rest of the intro.

Perhaps if I was a wrestling fan, what comes next would have appealed to me more, depicting a rowdy crowd cheering for battle. Regardless, I dont feel the setting is well suited to the Tekken franchise, which seems more at home with battles in the streets than in a sold out arena (with the obvious exception of King, who I didnt even see in this intro unless I missed him).

Another complaint I had was the intro didnt do a very good job showing off a range of characters, spending far too long on showing how OP Angel is at the expense of actual combat. Id say Tekken isnt supposed to be all about wrestling, but its especially not supposed to be Dragon Ball Z.

I will, however, say the intro looked great. No complaints whatsoever on the visuals.

Scrooge McDuck vs. Flintheart Glomgold
GLaDOS vs. Wheatley

One of the challenges with a topic like this is having to gauge a game very quickly without having actually played it. And thats probably tougher to do with a video game, which is mostly an interactive experience, than a TV show or movie. So this may be one of those instances where Im really underselling how much I would get out of actually playing the game.

102. No More Heroes - Great_Paul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TQ1ywI5q_Q

Ive heard a lot about this game, but never gotten around to checking it out. Based on the intro, I have to say it doesnt look like my kind of game, if the rest of the game has a similar tone.

Based on this intro (which is admittedly a very superficial way to judge a character), Im not a fan of Travis personality with all that bravado and ego. He strikes me as a typical Ryan Reynolds character, and Im not a fan of that character type. Perhaps thats the point and Im meant to see his personality as excessively confident, but it seems like the intro is trying to portray Travis as a relatable gamer turned assassin.

It also kind of bugged me the way you hear Travis say at the end, and for you there holding the Wii Remote right now. Just press the A Button. I dont mind fourth wall breaking, but this is always a pet peeve of mine, even if it wasnt nearly as bad as the Hotel Mario intro telling you to consult the instruction manual.

All that being said, this is a pretty good intro in an objective sense, as it effectively lays out the plot and gives you some character development, which is more than I can say for many other intros on the list. So if I was using scoring criteria, this would have come in significantly higher. But on a personal level, it just wasnt my thing.

This ad:

https://youtu.be/4hnBp7x2QAE

Howden
North
Taylor
-
Duncan

Shonen_Bat posted...

I wouldn't be upset about a bigger bracket either

I agree with this

Nom: Mega Man 2

Agrabah
Halloween Town
Traverse Town

CoolCly posted...

Also I watched the first season of Enterprise when it aired and didn't like it

The first season isnt too good, but it gets a lot better later.

Myst

I guess it was considered photorealistic back when it was released? Thats what my mind came up with.

The Drumhead

Yes

103. Mortal Kombat Armageddon - GavsEvans123
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNmg66B-SSQ

This intro actually sums up the entire Mortal Kombat franchise pretty effectively. The sequence is completely over the top and needlessly cruel, taking all the characters they've introduced over the years and having them slaughter each other in a battle royale, with only the faintest pretense of a story to justify it.

Although I cant say the sequence was boring, it was just so absurd. Enough so that I wound up laughing at a few points, which isnt necessarily a bad thing, but I cant imagine this was intended as comedy. In fact, I cant tell what the most amusing part was, Jax shouting what else you got? the instant before someone strikes him down, Stryker randomly punching out Mileena after everyone was staring up at the pyramid, or any number of other moments that seem like self-parody. But there were also some moments too ludicrous to even get a laugh out of, most notably Zombie Liu Kang, which had me rolling my eyes.

Also, why do we get Scorpion and Sub-Zero fighting with swords, without either of them using their trademark powers? This would be like watching Wolverine keeping his claws sheathed while using a dagger to battle Green Lantern wielding a baseball bat because he forgot he had a power ring.

Perhaps for diehard fans of this series, this scene is some kind of epic battle. But to me, it came across like a fan created video on YouTube, lacking any sense of drama or meaningful stakes. Any time the intro even briefly allows us to get invested in one character possibly getting somewhere, theyre just taken out by another character ridiculously easily, as if all their fighting skills and powers suddenly went out the window to make way for the next character to get the spotlight. So theres really no point to the entire sequence. But I actually think thats a pretty accurate summary of this franchise, of which Ive never been much of a fan.

Court
North
Howden
Martinet

Tifa

104. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - FBike1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeeK_TPOltk

Hey you, youre finally awake. But this intro is doing its best to make me fall asleep.

I wouldnt say its impossible to create an interesting intro thats basically just dialogue, but this isnt it. The dialogue strikes me as a contrived attempt to provide backstory for the game, with stilted lines like Damn you Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along. I found it difficult to follow or care about most of what was said, and thats not making me want to see more of what the game has to offer.

Worse still, the voice acting of the guy saying no, this cant be happening was downright amateurish. The visuals for the bland environment are not much better, providing nothing of interest to look at while listening to the characters ramble. I know this isnt a Naughty Dog game where they put insane amounts of detail into every environment, and it doesnt have to be. But something other than a bunch of trees that all look the same would have been nice to watch for however long it took to reach the village, which also isnt terribly interesting even when you get there.

I suppose Im meant to care whats going to happen at the end with the imminent execution, but Im not invested in any of these characters who I can barely tell apart. Mostly Im just left surprised that such a high profile game had such a lackluster intro.

Samus

Not sure if youve read it, but Star Trek: The Q Continuum (novel).

BetrayedTangy posted...

Dark Cloud easily

This. Also Blue Dragon

Maridia

Brent Spiners acting in this scene

https://youtu.be/vSbg4LHVPyk

Sherlock Holmes vs. James Moriarty
Professor X vs. Magneto

So this has been another rough week for me. Also had to deal with a Covid scare in the house the last couple days, but it looks like were in the clear for now. Ive finally got some time to stop neglecting this topic today.

105. Rockman X3 (PS1) - DomaDragoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JS4iMSC_i8

I wouldnt have thought I would dislike an intro about Mega, er Rockman X, given that Mega Man X is one of my all-time favorite games. But this intro feels really sloppy.

For starters, I dislike the animation. That transition from a hand to arm cannon at around 0:17 to 0:19 was gross, and the slow motion movement that followed, with an after image of the arm cannon, struck me as awkward. Even at its best moments, the animation was just about average in quality. Nor did I care for the cheesy theme song, which doesnt even warrant its own paragraph to discuss.

My remaining gripes are admittedly nitpicky, but still it bugged me to see things like X defeating Launch Octopus so easily by crashing an enemy into him instead of actually winning a battle. And it made no sense how X just randomly acquired the power-up to allow him to speed through the closing gate, when thats a permanent upgrade in the game. I get that they were going for a dramatic moment, but it didnt seem like the creators were that familiar with the source material.

Another moment that fell short for me was the appearance of Zero, which was supposed to be surprising, but I could see it coming the instant X struggled with Vile. And the thumbs up exchange that followed was very cringey.

Regardless of my nitpicking, this is a lackluster intro and could have been much better.

Ill do another clip.

https://youtu.be/Bz6FLN7tasc

Captain Toad
Samus

Superman vs. Goku
Jack Sparrow vs. Hector Barbossa

This clip:

https://youtu.be/O6T2nRAazrY

Tick Tock Clock

Splinter vs. Shredder
Good vs. Evil
Thor vs. Loki

Xeybozn posted...

CD-i Link
Samus

If only I could unsee those Kirby pictures.

I dont know the character well enough to vote today. I just wanted to say how pleasantly surprised I am that Im not the only vote for Sam Beckett in the poll.

FFX-2

caps

FFVII

Not sure why my mind went there, but Id certainly be curious to see this as a musical.

Spy vs. Spy
PC vs. Mac
Left Pong Paddle vs. Right Pong Paddle

106. Persona 3 - Raetsel_Lapin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxNAwZ-A88w

Normally Ive got a pretty good sense of why I dont like something. But Ill admit, its difficult to pinpoint exactly why this intro rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps its the almost obsessive fixation on death, with such blatant messages as remember that you are mortal.

Or perhaps its the way the intro at times requires so little interpretation such as the image of someone putting a gun to their head, while at other points including vague imagery like whatever is going on at 1:24. Either they wanted to leave the sequence open to interpretation or let you know this is all about death without making you try to figure it out, but they seem to be going for both.

Perhaps the intro just struck me as trying too hard to be artistic. I feel like there was an attempt to do too many different things visually in one sequence that dont fit together cohesively. The result was often jarring because I found every time I started to acclimate to whatever gimmick or style was being used, it changed to something completely different. About the only consistency I saw visually is the common use of the color red.

I suppose its all of the above. This intro would have probably done a lot better if I used objective scoring criteria, as its pretty unique, generally well-animated, the song is pleasant, albeit a bit forgettable, and theres some sense of story even if its not clearly defined. But on a personal level, it didnt work.

Starship Mine

107. Helltaker (the first 50 seconds) - Pirateking2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnXv6woH5-g

A guy going into Hell to find demon girls for a harem is certainly a unique premise. I could see some people appreciating the unapologetic superficiality of a horror themed booty call, but it holds less than zero appeal to me.

I was going to say the main character comes across as two-dimensional, without any real personality. But honestly that seems like a generous description for a character who simply woke up one day with this arbitrary motivation. He seems like more of a one-dimensional character.

The only remotely interesting character in the sequence is the narrator Beelzebub, who in the lone moment resembling subtlety, self-references as cute despite an obviously monstrous form. Perhaps if there was more humor like that, this intro would have fared better.

I will, however, say that I was moderately intrigued by the little I saw of the gameplay after the initial 50 second segment (which is all that I ranked), and this looks like it could be a fun game. I just dont care for the intro.

108. Age of Empires 2 - Raka_Putra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4cC-Cz5l8

This entire sequence is built up around the theme of two kings playing a game of chess as a representation of the battle actually being waged with real soldiers. And as if the overused metaphor wasnt obvious enough already, we see at the end the soldier dropping the king piece to signify one side has lost the war. The concept of war being a game of chess could have perhaps worked for a brief sequence, but thats all this intro has to offer over the span of nearly two minutes.

The graphics have that awkward look of the early to mid 90s CD-ROM era, and I was surprised to see this game came out as late as 1999. In fact, the animation looked so stilted that I couldnt help but chuckle at the way the knight got hit by the arrow and fell off the horse at around 1:09.

So this intro is a dud for me. But judging from the comments on YouTube (I know I shouldnt read them, but sometimes I do anyway), it seems plenty of people feel differently. Most surprising to me was some guy who wrote I cried when he dropped the chess piece at the end. I dont think Ive ever cried over anything in a video game before, but if I did, it probably wouldnt be over hackneyed symbolism.

Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader
Thor vs. Loki
ertyu vs. Kirby