Title screens – good one eh? But it’s so subjective. What a title screen means to each of you is probably entwined with how you feel about the game, and when you played it. Was it a formative part of your life? Was it a game you spent a lot of time with? I know I loved the Ultima Online title screen, that little chest opening to reveal log-in buttons shaped like gems. And the music – dada ding ding ding ding… Music is another thing. It is nigh-on inseparable from the memory of a title screen. How many games can you still hear in your head?
Title screens are our beautiful portals to other worlds, our in-character primers for what is about to come. So here’s to them and here are five of the best.
Ultima Online: The Second Age – Chest Login Screen Watch on YouTube
There aren’t many title screens that have the same effect on me as Secret of Mana’s. All it takes is for me to hear that first, echoey howl of the wolf pack when the game loads up and wham! I’m inside a warm blanket of nostalgia that’s so intense it almost feels like time travel.