Top 10 best menu screens in games, ranked

destructoid.com:

The best menu screens in games can be articulated in many ways, just like the sheer amount of options you can get from the feature itself. In my mind, they’re determined by the music, the visuals, and how unique they can be. You don’t want to see a bland introduction to a magnificent game. Here are the top 10 best main menu screens in games, ranked.

Before we start, I have some honorable mentions. While it’s too soon to rank this alongside long-standing greats, Sea of Stars‘ main menu screen is an impressive introduction to its world. The flickering of the flames reflecting on the pixel-based characters, and the gorgeous backdrop is absolutely stunning. Additionally, Rayman 2: The Great Escape‘s menu features strange, yet enticing music with a view of the world we’re about to explore. There’s also a cute teensie on the left side, welcoming you to the game with its hat.

During the SNES era, gamers weren’t anticipating a cinematic introduction to the game. However, Super Metroid features tense music and neat transitions of scenes that feature the creepy sci-fi world of the game. It then reveals a Metroid trapped within a pipe with the machinery flickering in green light. It’s genuinely creepy to see fallen bodies next to the machine as well. It’s a perfect introduction to this game.

Double Fine is a developer known for its wild worlds, game concepts, and characters. This menu follows that same idea. One of the strangest (and coolest) is in Psychonauts, in which you’re Raz running around a brain. The concept of the game is that you’re trying to fix the issues of a person by infiltrating their mind. It’s a clever main menu concept for a game like this and is certainly unique. I also love Double Fine’s record-based main menu