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.