Best Openings Ever

[SteC]

Had there ever been any video game opening sequences that made you bounce on your chair with glee? Or make you smile, sad or even cry? There are loads of excellent intros in gaming, so let's share them around. 

[BurkeWorld]

Super Mario Bros. for the NES of course.

Just seeing him running underneath all the text, then jumping up and running some more.... Brings a tear to me eye.

Burkey

[SteC]

Oh, yeah! And in SMB 3 where Mario and Luigi duke it out underneath their title screen as well.

Speaking of tears, the orcarina instrument is lovely to listen to during the very first opening in Zelda: Orcarina of Time. It captures the setting very well as you watch Link and Epona riding across the plains of Hyrule... 

[felineki]

The TurboGrafx-CD port of Gradius II had a cool opening sequence that showed the Vic Viper taking off from a base as well as displays showing schematics and data of its weapons and systems, all set to a great new rock tune.

I have to agree the Super Mario Bros. 3 one was great, too. The opening curtain, Mario and Luigi having a brotherly quarrel, and best of all, that annoyed expression Mario makes after getting hit on the head with the Koopa shell that shows up nowhere else in the game.

[AsterCrow]

Yoshi's Island.... poor little baby Mario and Luigi! *sniffle* But the Yoshis will save the day!....just don't forget to wind the music box because the opening is wicked long. 

[Matt]

Metal Gear Solid 3's opening titles.

Because it's very James Bond. and I've always <3'd James Bond.

And Final Fantasy 8.

[SteC]

Soul Blade / Edge for the PS1 had an awesome intro that is exciting to listen to (it even has lyrics).
And so does Tekken 5... sparking. 

[Valkyrie]

Megaman X for SNES and the GCN port (they are both one and the same)

The opening sequence for that is the boot screen for X himself, which I thought was always totally awesome.

I guess I'm a sucker for megaman in general.

[Helios]

Some of my favs:
Banjo-Kazooie - the little band number that's played at the start after the logos

Ocarina of Time - beautiful song as SteC mentioned

And DK Country 64's 'monkey rap'.

[Truro]

Somewhere, I stumbled accross the intro to Megaman X 3 for Playstation. It was groovy Nice tune played, and a decent looking fight between X & Sigma.

Another one I'll mention is Tech Romancer. The standard Arcade opening is okay, but what's really amazing is the hidden Anime opening, for the Dreamcast version. Nice animation, and a cool remix of the opening theme

[SteC]

Somewhere, I stumbled accross the intro to Megaman X 3 for Playstation. Ut was groovy Nice tune played, and a decent looking fight between X & Sigma.

That opening is sooooooo cool!

[KyoZaber]

Eh~ That X3 opening wasn't too bad.
Where I ended up not likeing it too much was with the Robot Masters all looking like "Cool Guys" every time you got ready to go in and battle them.

I mean, come on! These are dudes that would not hesitate to kill you in your sleep, with a block of cheese! They don't deserve to be cool guys!

Oh... and 1 more thing... Billzard Buffalo. 

Otherwise, X3 was a nifty game. 

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Edit: Whoopse! Better get on track with this thread.

My fav game intro...
Hmm... I would have to go with... StarFox Assault for the GCN.

The game was short, and had plenty of cheesey moments. However the CGI, and the re-mixed arrangement used as the introduction was superb. Damn... I just wish they could've cut down on the cheesey line moments, and focused a little more on the actual characters....

[Mechadon]

The opening for Doom 3 is pretty neat. I like the radio chatter between the incoming ship and the control tower. And the opening for Half-Life 2. "So wake up Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes."

[CRBWildcat]

My personal favorites for Intros include:

Megaman IV.  That segment that had Megaman standing on top of the train was kinda neat.

Metroid: Zero Mission. The orders to destroy the Metroid and Mother Brain, interspaced between Samus's ship approaching Zebes, and the shot of Mother Brain's container at the end. A lot of times, I just let the intro go on until it hits the option screen.

Goonies II.  Ma Fratelli and her goons appear on-screen with a bit of a ransom note, sort of. Whenever I see that face on the screen start talking (and, later, when it lingered whenever I needed to write down a password), I always feel a bit spooked. I'd just sit there and feel as if ice filled my veins. Brrr! (Yeah, I still liked it. At the time, it was pretty creative.)

Lords of the Realm 2 (for the PC): I don't know if any of you have played this game, but I'd always liked hearing the music that accompanied the Dark Age-era feudal lord's preparations for combat---from the workers gathering wood and stone to the army sieging the castle. This got me into the game's music pretty quickly.

Descent II (for the PC): A ship flies through an asteroid belt, the pilot reluctantly receives orders at a hidden base, says a few sarcastic things, and then his ship warps away. My favorite line: "I couldn't care less if they sue me." For some reason, I still get a chuckle out of that.

And, of course, I wouldn't end this post without mentioning the intros to the first two Zelda games. In a word, classic.

[BurkeWorld]

Super Metroids into was pretty cool.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was quite cool, the little CG clip of him running through the streets.

[Takila]

I like most of the Command and Conquer intros (when Westwood was still creating it), specifically the RA2 intro.

It ends up appearing real and (other than Yuri's mind control) frighteningly possible. After the dialog, everything just starts pwning.
(Too bad that Canada was portrayed as nothing but MooseVille, but one can compromise on these kinds of things.)

Another neat one is the intro for Psychonauts.  Again, things seem realistic (though incredibly funny).  That game was WAY too short.

Taking a reverse of the topic:  FF7 had one of the worst intros for such a successful game.  I suppose the CGI involved would be incredible at the time, but it takes too long to get going.  The pan out to the city and title is interesting, but doesn't make up for the heaving camera at the start.


EDIT: Found a link to the latter part of the intro.  Not quite as good as the whole thing, but you get the idea.

http://www.archive.org/details/019329

[Mechadon]

I love the channel surfing intro for the first C&C. I love the childrens channel it stops on: Calliope!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9irxBAwb0
Also the cut scene before the first Nod mission with Seth. I used to have that dialogue memorized.