I was feeling nostalgic for the classic Black Ops Zombies feel to Zombies mode, thinking about the music, the atmosphere, and felt like listening to the main menu theme. I stumbled across this short video, just of some of the main menu and the TV screens:
It had me thinking how creepy, ominous and, as a younger kid, pretty scary this menu was! It imbued a sense of unknowing and horror which you weren’t really sure of. Unlike in the Black Ops main menu for the Multiplayer and Campaign side of the game, you can’t escape from the chair and walk around, you’re trapped until you make a choice - there’s no wall-breaks or voices interrogating you. It’s just a horrific binding. And it’s so cool!
If you’ve never played Black Ops 1, here’s the main menu for it which isn’t the Zombies mode, where you can escape your chair, hack a computer, find a few secrets, find out lore and play a minigame, all before you’ve even began the game.
So, now I’ve waxed lyrical about this - what are your guys favourite main menus? Classics like Ocarina Of Time and DOOM are always ones I think about, showing you the landscape of the settings, the game and the journey you’re about to go on through some sort of means is really neat, and I really appreciate video games taking this unique approach to storytelling from the start.
I’ve actually spoke to some of you about this before, but it reminds me of how this weird desperation for bad minimalism and an ‘ultra-modern’ approach to design has totally fucked up some main menus. Look_how_they_massacred_my_boy.jpeg:
This is the main menu to ‘Oddworld: Soulstorm’, the sequel to the hotly praised Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty, the Abe’s Oddysee remake and one of my favourite childhood games. It’s so fucking ugly! Compare that to these CLASSICS!
The original Abe’s Exoddus main menu
The original Abe’s Oddysee main menu
The faithful, beautiful remake main menu, New ‘n’ Tasty.
And how you can alter the colors and camera view.
