It’s probably a better idea to look at a time when it was in its prime, featured on the games of the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System.
It was a time when game demo units were just consoles plugged into old TV sets in a department store, and one of the only places people could really go to town on a game’s art was its title screen.
As a typeface nerd and a lover of the simplistic approach, the use of logos and basic animation lights my fire. As does the inclusion of the 1985 Macross game.
Most of the images come courtesy of the excellent NES Title Screens Tumblr, where you can see a whole lot more if this is your kind of thing (via the just-as-excellent Fuck Yeah Famicom).
Jake
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 2:10 PMTo be honest, I’m glad these are (mostly) gone.
But main menus still exist, they’re just not as cluttered and devoid of key information about game modes as they were back in the day.
gman
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 2:51 PMOn the contrary, I find main menus now to be worst.
-New Game
-Continue Game
-Network Play
-Challenge Mode
-Extra content
-Options
-Credits
-Gallery
I mean, even flash games now have more cluttered menus than the NES.
Thanks for this post. Brings back memories of forgotten games
D.C.
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 3:12 PMThese are nice, but the iconic ones of today like the Heavy Rain menu are pretty damn spiffy too.
Jake
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 4:22 PMInfamous 1 was pretty damn awesome too. Press Start and the whole city explodes.
Johnny Sweetbread
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 9:20 AMOr MGS4, press start and watch Snake smoke for 15 minutes.
Kept you waiting, huh?
Enemy
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 5:31 PMThey would make pretty awesome desktop wallpapers
Piccoroz
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 1:07 AMHehe, I look at these screens and my brain takes care of filling them with their respective music.