HOT!!!! NES Intro Sequences

When I think back to the NES what always impressed me about it was the production quality in a lot of games despite a pretty serious technology handicap.  Even in the mid 80's when it took off it wasn't exactly on the cutting edge.  So what made it last clear into the 90's?  Exceptional creativity on the part of game developers trying to do whatever they could to delivery a quality product with limited means to do so.  In the case of some of the games I'm about to highlight, they came from arcade games that had NES ports that suffered because of the technology gap.  However what I noticed other than sometimes making completely different games more appropriate for the system, they would also spice it up a bit in other ways.  We're going to talk about one of those ways.  The hot 8-bit intro sequences that turned good or great games into awesome or outstanding games that we'll always remember.

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In no particular order, first up, BAD DUDES!  I'll let it speak for itself.

 I was always raised to believe a ninja's only weakness is itself, and Bad Dudes.  Luckily there just so happen to be a couple Bad Dudes available at the time.

Born for "Bad Dudeness" Blade and Striker.  Twins, and when they were born, Blade performed his own sea section from the inside, and striker punched his way out of the womb, these men were screened very carefully for this task.

If you're not super pumped to play this game yet there's probably something wrong with you.  This game is a little stiff for a beat em up, once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun, but seriously half of the reason you end up playing this game is because the intro gets you super pumped to dive in and prove just how much of a BAD DUDE you can be.  This is further emphasized after every boss battle as your character in a super loud scratchy 8 bit tone declares "I'M BAD!".  My buddy George introduced me to this game after i got out of high school and kinda taught me how to play it (admittedly I was not a very bad dude at first until he showed me what I was doing wrong).  This is a prime example of how an otherwise mediocre game uses a little creativity to become one of the greats.

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On to our next subject.  Dragon Warrior III.  Up until this point the Dragon Warrior (Quest) series was fast becoming a great success in the RPG games genre.  The third installment had something it's predecessors lacked, a super sweet intro sequence that would put any modern fantasy movie to shame.  Eat your heart out Peter Jackson.  This is the intro to Dragon Warrior III.

This gets me far more excited about level grinding than anything I've ever seen.

I'm ready to go slay Dragons and rid the world of tyranny, I don't know about you.  I was always a Dragon Warrior II fan primarily, something about that game always appealed to me more than 3 did, but when I saw this intro the first time, it blew me away, I thought it was pretty goddamn sweet.

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Next is kind of a sleeper, I only stumbled upon it somewhat recently looking for a completely different game online, needless to say it came highly recommended, I picked it up and turned out to be a pretty sweet game.  As if that wasn't good enough, it has one of the shortest, awesome-est, straight to the point intro cut scenes, ever.  Since we don't know much about our hero the creators of this game decided a quick intro sequence would help give us a little insight as to what this gentleman is capable of.  This is Shatterhand, and yes, he does in fact shatter things with his hands.

Sweet, despite facing armed opponents, I seem to be able to deflect their bullets with my arms and then punch them the fuck out even though they're heavily armored.

The cover like most NES games doesn't reveal a damn thing about this game, but this intro speaks volumes, and this is a pretty damn good game for any NES library.

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Mega Man 2 is a great game, and improves just about every aspect of itself from the first Mega Man game.  Mega Man 2 and I go way back and it was one of those games that nobody seemed to own, but everybody I knew had to borrow from a friend or rent it.  Once I finally got my hands on this bad boy in high school, many good times were had.  Here's the sweet intro.

Slow start with some text to get us up to speed, dramatic build up, and an great finish revealing our hero, awesome even for its simplicity.

I don't need to add anything to this game that hasn't already been said, but it has a sweet intro, and it makes an amazing game even better.

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To wrap this all up we have probably my favorite on the list, Ninja Gaiden II.  All three of the Ninja Gaiden games have amazing cinematic cut scenes throughout each of the games that tells the drama that is the life of the Ninja Ryu Hayabusa.  The second game has probably the best of these in it's intro cinematic.

Ninja Lives are complicated.

You are introduced to the bad guy who is apparently the boss or superior of our previous enemy Jaquio from the first game, and you get the feeling that although your search for your father and his killer is behind you, that's only the start of your Ninja destiny.  Great music, cool lightning and thunder effects, a compelling opening to a fantastic game.

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Some runners up were probably Ninja Turtles, Double Dragon, and  Lolo 2.  These all give their respective titles some momentum, but the games themselves are either unbeatable sans game genie (Ninja Turtles 1, Double Dragon) or are just long, tedious, and frustrating without cheating (any of the Lolo games).  Anyway, if these intro sequences don't inspire you to play these games, I don't think anything can.

The Secret of Mana...Too Good of a Secret It Would Seem

Before I became the proud owner of a Super Nintendo, I only had the opportunity to play whatever games my friends had, and since most of my friends didn't have a Super Nintendo either, I only had the opportunity to play a few good ones.  My first foray into the world of Roleplaying games came around this time in the form of Secret of Mana.

This was the box art, nothing fancy, and certainly understated just how awesome this game is.

This is probably without a doubt the BEST action Role-playing game ever made, and arguably one of the last good ones made either.  The sad thing about this game is it is so good I don't think the creators realized that they had a good thing and perhaps should have stuck to it.  Every sequel to this game seems to lack the charm, simplicity, and playability that made Secret of Mana such a grand success to begin with.  So what makes this game so great?

 One of many "Gigas" bosses that would spawn the myth of the "Gigas Gigas" (king of the gigases) among some of my friends.

A few things come to mind right off the bat.  A memorable soundtrack, original concepts, simple battle mechanics, drop in drop out co-op multiplayer, a great story, fun characters, great support characters, and that's just off the top of my head.  It's not too long that if you sink a full weekend into it, you should be able to finish it, but not so short that you'll feel short changed when it's all over.  I've played through this game quite a few times and have found quite a bit of enjoyment out of each play-through, either by trying different tactics, exploring alternatives that I hadn't considered, and I learn fun new things each time that inspire me to play it time and time again.

 These Ring Menus Were the Coolest!

The game was so good that when news of a sequel sprang up I was very excited, but that excitement faded over time as the game never made it stateside and it wasn't until I was in high school that I managed to track down a playable translation, and it definitely lacked the atmosphere, game mechanics, and charm that it's predecessor had used to great effect.  It begged the question "why couldn't it be more like Secret of Mana?" and has been the first of many far more disappointing titles that would come out since then.

Japanese box for Seiken Densetsu 2 (wait, what? this is a sequel!?)

Secret of Mana itself is a sequel to a Gameboy game called Seiken Densetsu which would be released as a Final Fantasy knockoff stateside so as far as people were concerned in the US, Secret of Mana was the first game in the series.  The Ill fated Seiken Densetsu 3 or Secret of Mana 2 would never make it stateside and when people like myself and other fans of the original Secret of Mana got a chance to play it, it did NOT deliver the goods.  This would be followed by an even bigger disappointment with Legend of Mana, a game so bad I quit playing about 15 minutes in and haven't looked back.  The game played like a poorly conceived children's picture book, not a compelling RPG that was instrumental in bringing about the golden age of Sqauresoft.  Sword of Mana on the Gameboy Advance was a step in the right direction, but it was intended as a prequel and played like one, less features, no new mechanics, overall unforgettable.  It too lacked elements that made SoM a great game, and although I gave it an honest play through, I would not take much satisfaction in doing so again.  Further disappointment would ensue with the release of Seiken Densetsu 4 which basically just ripped off the Kingdom Hearts short of including a cast of Disney characters, and failed to bring anything unique to the table.  It failed to provide any semblance of any of the games in the series, and was a huge failure for one simple reason, it was nothing like Secret of Mana and didn't even try to be anything other than a failed entry into what should have been a dead franchise.  Most recently they made Children of Mana on DS, another sequel/prequel like Sword of Mana, again adding nothing new to the series and leaving me a bit disappointed.  Finally, we have Heroes of Mana on the DS which resembles a real time strategy formula rather than an action RPG one, and once again fails to deliver the goods.  I thought there was some potential with the vibrant cast of characters and what was shaping up to be an interesting storyline, but minutes into the game I realized that the game mechanics were complicated, not fun, and confusing.  To complicate things, the characters became far too chatty and I found myself skipping huge chunks of dialogue in hopes of "getting on with it already" and just being disappointed at what I ended up getting to ultimately.  It ended up being a cycle of skipping cut scenes just to run into a shitty game that lacks everything I could ever hope for in a Secret of Mana sequel.

 Sadly it never made it to the States.

You'd think with all the Squresoft buzz that this would have made it stateside, it even got decent press coverage, I remember seeing articles about "Secret of Mana 2" all over the place.

 Slightly bumped graphics, slightly different interface, drop in drop out multiplayer same as before, just lacking a certain something, maybe it was the lack of personality that the characters had in this one since they reduced it to a "choose a class" character select format.  Amateur Japanese to English translation may not have helped much either.

Character select screen for Seiken Densetsu 3, I suppose limiting who you could bring with would encourage you to play the game again with those characters you excluded from your first go around, I did not experience that urge.

Legend of Mana *shudders*

 Why didn't they just add Micky Mouse and quit making further mockery of this poor dead beaten horse...

Hey blonde Sora where's Goofy and Donald at?  Fucking....Weak.....

So how do I really feel?  In a word, wanting.  I have been waiting for what will be going on almost 20 years for a decent title in the "Mana" franchise to step up, knock off the gimmicky reinvention cycle that has sent this series straight to the gaming gutter, and make a game that will once again captivate me, and give me the pure satisfaction that Secret of Mana gives me every time I play it.  I just want two things really, drop in drop out multiplayer action RPG action, and a compelling cast of characters caught up in a world of magic, fantasy, political intrigue, and saving the world.  I don't know why that's so hard to recreate, they could have made 10 successful widely popular sequels if they'd just followed that simple formula when they went ahead with any sequels to begin with.  What this tells me is that the people responsible for continuing this franchise fail to realize that the key to success lies in the fact that they made a brilliant game to begin with, and that they shouldn't try to fix what ain't broken.  It's a testament to a game's greatness that a franchise can stay alive for roughly two decades on the merit of one good game followed by several total stinkers that everybody only buys in the desperate hope that perhaps the next new one will finally be the one that we've been waiting for since 1993.