Most memorable first levels

[Cinder6]

Sorry if this has been done before, but here goes:

What first levels are the most memorable to you? Here are some of mine:

Metal Slug - it's fast-paced, multi-leveled, and has great music
Super Mario Bros. - obvious
Doulbe Dragon (NES) - besides the whole game being great, the first level has great music

What are some others?

[Damaramu]

I always loved the first stage in Strider (arcade version).

[XYXZYZ]

Contra, NES.

While we're on that subject, in LV1 of Contra, do you jump over the bridges to the high road, or plunge into the drink for the low road?

[AMG]

The first level of CastleVania comes to mind. Vampire Hunter blaring away as you kill ghouls, bats and panthers.

[Cinder6]

Have to say I always jump the bridges, if only to annoy the people I play with that aren't too good at the game. They always seem to think it's not possible to stay on the high road, or something.

[bangtango]

-Contra for NES: especially with the exploding bridge. Edit: I always take the high road, don't you get the chance to obtain better weapons by staying up on top?

-Sonic the Hedgehog for Genesis

-Super Mario Bros. 2 on NES: the way your character falls out of the sky is pretty neat, plus I think it is probably the best first level in any Mario game

-Legend of Zelda on NES: Do the dungeons in this game count? I like the mix of enemies. Stalfos and Aquamentus are two of my favorite LOZ enemies. I also like the Goriyas and Wall Monsters.

[heybtbm]

Without a doubt the winner is...

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for N64.

The first level was the snowspeeder fight where you had to take down the AT-AT's on Hoth. It was incredible for the time (1996) and would later be fleshed out into the Rogue Squadron games. The rest of the game was mediocre to downright wretched. Talk about a tease.

[AMG]

Without a doubt the winner is...

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for N64.

The first level was the snowspeeder fight where you had to take down the AT-AT's on Hoth. It was incredible for the time (1996)

I loved that level, replayed it tons of times back in the day.

[Cinder6]

Without a doubt the winner is...

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for N64.

The first level was the snowspeeder fight where you had to take down the AT-AT's on Hoth. It was incredible for the time (1996) and would later be fleshed out into the Rogue Squadron games. The rest of the game was mediocre to downright wretched. Talk about a tease.

For some reason, I thought that was the second level, and that the first was set in space. I agree, though, it's an awesome level for such a lousy game. It's worth the $5 the cartridge costs now, just for that part.

[PDorr3]

Just a couple that srping to mind...

Panzer Dragoon (Saturn)- Most likely because the level design itself is so impressive for a saturn game, and the music...the music in the first level are amazing, I never forget that level.

Klonoa (PS1)- Probably the most light hearted and uplifting level of any video game, the music, the enemies, the setting, I know the level almost inside out (due to it being an a demo I played over and over before I bought the game).

Sonic 1-2 (Gen)- I grew up with these two games, and these two levels from both games mean alot to me.

Mario 64 (N64)- The first time you play SM64 the first level was so groundbreaking, you really felt like you were in a huge interactive level. Not only that but it is designed really really well, just like almost all of the games levels.

[mailman187666]

my absolute favorite first level (if you can count it a level) is on Symphony of the Night (once you are Alucard). Going into the first room while its completely dark and having it light up to have the music kick in is just a perfect representation of a good artistic vision.

[garagesaleking!!]

mario bros, and sonic the hedgehog,

AND DEFINETLY toejam and earl panic on funktron!

[Clownzilla]

The beach invasion on Call Of Duty 2. I was fortunate enough to play it with 5.1 surround sound. Hearing the bullets whizzing past you and bombs going off left and right complemented the awesome visuals.

[skaar]

Castlevania: SOTN prologue - the dialogue was great ;)

[Moo Cow]

Contra 3. The boss. The floor getting set on fire. Me and a friend, aligned to look purple and holding L and R while the fire is jumping over your head.

[blissfulnoise]

God of War II really upped the bar on first level quality.

But the first level of Super Mario Bros. is 100% perfectly paced. It's iconic now, but even looking at it from a design perspective, it's flawless.

[GM80]

Trojan (NES) and Rygar (NES) in addition to those mentioned already. I can still play through their entire first levels (and most of the others) in my mind as I type this.

[exit]

Code Name: Viper - The first level helps set the pace of things to come.

[NE146]

Not really a "level" per-se, but when you start playing SNES Legend of Zelda, and you walk out in the rain... that shit was A+!!!!! :D

[Rob2600]

Donkey Kong
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Rygar
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Castlevania
Contra
Double Dragon
TMNT II: The Arcade Game
Shinobi
Altered Beast
Final Fight
Donkey Kong Country
TMNT IV: Turtles in Time
Super Mario 64
Goldeneye 007
StarFox 64
Space Channel 5
Metroid Prime

I can picture each game's first level clearly...the backgrounds, enemy placement, music, etc.

[sabre2922]

My favorite classic "first level" is the first level for Shadow Dancer on Sega Gennesis. Its not the most well designed or anything like that but I just luv that game and that level for all of the great memories from "back in the day".
thank the gods for the Sega Genesis collection:hail:

Others include

the first level of :

Sonic 2
Castlevania
Castlevania:SOTN
and of course the original SMB

[MachineGex]

Out of this World - SNES
This game had me hooked the first few seconds I turned it on.

[Steven]

NES Karnov... am I alone here? I loved how you fought those rock-throwing monsters right off the bat, just as pictured on the cover. The whole level was like an odd nightmarish dream come alive. And that boss, that floating green thingamajig... what exactly was THAT?! The 1st level always stuck out to me as fascinating, bizarre and plain unforgettable

[exit]

Stinger is another one that comes to mine and who can forget the first boss? It's a fuckin' watermelon!!

The beginning of Ikari Warriors sticks with me as well, despite the game being total crap.

[diskoboy]

Jet Set Radio - Dreamcast.

After playing the fist level, after the tutorial, I immediately fell in love

I'll also throw in:

-Half-Life's 1 & 2. I still love the first 15 minutes of HL2 (Or until you meet up with Alyx)
-Ninja Gaiden (Black)
-GTA: Vice City
-Call of Duty (The sequels didn't have the same impact of the first one)
-Resident Evil 4 (Actually, the whole portion of the game when you're in the village is some of the the creepiest moments you will ever experience in a video game)

[rbudrick]

Street Fighter 2010. I'm going a little opposite to the other entries here because the first level or two was so TERRIBLE. After that, the game starts to become one of the very best NES action games out there.

-Rob

[Wozza]

The first 10 minutes of Super Metroid was just wow!

In most cases games start off a bit slow these days with friggin tutorials due to too many buttons. ;)

[Hwj_Chim]

Metal Slug X. that first song just gets you so pumped for the rest of the game.

[Damaramu]

Gonna have to add the first stage of Rastan. I love the music on that stage quite a bit!

[PentiumMMX]

Ancient Lake in Diddy Kong Racing (N64)...such a great level...

[Dayan X]

I'm gonna go with an ol NES game called Metal Storm. Really sweet looking mecha, interesting midi music, and for me one of the most memorable first levels because of the unique gravity reverse feature that let you play on the ceiling as well. For me it was most memorable for the simple fact that it is the only game that was so hard for me I could never get past the 1st stage.

[Jorpho]

The first level of SMB3 is pretty well done. (The first level of SMB1 isn't that great, really; I think it's just overly familiar to everyone.)

Elevator Action Returns also has a pretty nifty first level, what with that helicopter blowing up half the building.

[Ed Oscuro]

Contra, NES.

While we're on that subject, in LV1 of Contra, do you jump over the bridges to the high road, or plunge into the drink for the low road?
Contra, arcade, for me...but we think pretty closely alike, glad somebody else mentioned this!

I always try to jump over the bridges, but it's a bit difficult. The arcade version's easy, but the NES version always throws me off.

I've also gotta throw in a vote for Super Castlevania IV - now THIS is futuristic gaming! All those special abilities, wow... not to mention the incredible artistry and the bats flying out of the skull-shaped rock at the beginning of the game :D

After that? I'm not sure if it's Gradius: The Interstellar Assault, but whatever game is known as Nemesis 2 in Japan on the Game Boy has a great opening level. You get chased by an enemy ship which rushes after you through an asteroid field and pursues you into a cave (!!) - I won't spoil what happens next. The music that starts up once things settle down kicks some ass, too.

[exit]

The first town of Simon's Quest always seemed mysterious to me, especially his starting point. In fact all of the towns were weird, they all had floors, giant gaps of water and everyone stood/walked in the same place.

Also the first level of the first Ninja Turtles always makes me smile and the intro music really gets me pumped up, then I remember what game I'm playing.

[Ed Oscuro]

Elevator Action Returns also has a pretty nifty first level, what with that helicopter blowing up half the building.
*points to arcade flyer for said game sitting on the computer desk*

[tom]

Enduro, amazing how I managed to overtake the 200 cars on the first day, only to be confronted with 300 from 2nd level onwards.

[Doonzmore]

Emerald Coast on Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast).

[koster]

Space Raiders for Gamecube - up until the point where you can actually start playing it. :)

[Radiac]

The first game that came to mind when I read the title was Panzer Dragoon. The first few seconds, with the beautiful music rising as your dragon soars gracefully over the water, still bring goosebumps to my skin.
One of the finest moments in gaming.

[nate1749]

I think Donkey Kong would be one of the most memorable 1st levels for anyone, even non-gamers. Other than that, I'd say sonic 1 was the most memorable for me, that speed that sega was trying to illustrate was done really well by the first level of that game.

[shoes23]

Medal of Honor Frontline - Storming the beach for the first time was simply amazing. I was just getting into the PS2 at this point and this game absolutely sold me on the next generation of gaming. Explosions, bullets whizzing by, soldiers yelling for help, this level became one of my instant favorites.

Battletoads- Great graphics, and an innovative boss fight (with a camera angle through his eyes). It even had the secret warp 10 feet from the beginning of the stage.

[Jorpho]

I think Donkey Kong would be one of the most memorable 1st levels for anyone, even non-gamers.

Indeed, Donkey Kong stomping up and down on the top tier to shake all the girders into place has a lot of charm. A pity it was lacking from the home versions. (For years, those two tall ladders next to Pauline were a complete mystery!)

[hayabusa_fmw]

Walking in Shenmue for the first time , (PRICELESS)

still to this date i feel Free when i check this game & know such masterpeice existed ^^

[kainemaxwell]

Without a doubt the winner is...

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for N64.

The first level was the snowspeeder fight where you had to take down the AT-AT's on Hoth. It was incredible for the time (1996) and would later be fleshed out into the Rogue Squadron games. The rest of the game was mediocre to downright wretched. Talk about a tease.

HELL YEAH!! Main reason why I held off on selling SotE for a long time was because that was my favorite level.

[Iron Draggon]

I'm gonna have to say Assault Suit Leynos 2... it's notorious for being a hard as hell game, but I really think the first boss is the hardest boss in the game, so that's prolly why it has that reputation... first impressions are everything...

anyhow, after I finally learned how to beat the first boss, the rest of them didn't seem so hard to beat, so the first level is really intense... but even after you learn how to beat that boss, it's still intense every time you fight him, cause even when you know what you're doing, he can still kick your ass unexpectedly... it makes for a great battle every time, and ends up being a great way to begin a game... cause after you've played it all the way through, you know that once you beat the first boss, it's all downhill from there... it makes the game fall a little flat because of that, but the rest of the game is still filled with plenty of excitement and intensity... and playing the game all the way through involves fighting that boss again with even more firepower in his arsenal... it's one of those games with about a half dozen or so different levels, and you have to go through each one twice to complete the game... and the second time through, everything is twice as hard to beat as it was the first time through... which also helps to keep the fighting intense and exciting all the way through the game, even though half of it is just fighting the same stuff all over again, at a higher difficulty...

you also have the ab ility to increase the difficulty, which makes the fighting absolutely insane at times... definitely not a good idea for the new recruit, but once you're a seasoned ASL2 war veteran, you'll be cranking up the difficulty all the way up, just to enjoy some really intense battles... I found myself doing this after completing the game and not even caring how far I got... I just wanted to kick some ass, and the game totally rocks for that...

it's also worth mentioning that I don't think I've really actually completed the whole game yet... but I'm at a point where I have no clue how to advance any further... this could be due to the language barrier, since all the story text in the game is all in Japanese, but it could also be that I'm just missing something... or maybe I really have completed it, but I'm not sure I have...

so how can you beat a game like that? replay value in spades, and every time you play it, you know the very first thing you have to do is kick that first badass boss's ass... and you have to fight your way to him too... which also isn't very easy, and you can easily fail to even reach him for a chance at him at times... again even when you know what you're doing... you just can't beat that... having to fight your ass off for every inch you advance...

I'd also recommend giving Target Earth a try for a similar experience if you don't have a Saturn and a way to play import games on it, but you do have a Genesis... Target Earth was known as Assault Suit Leynos in Japan, so ASL2 is actually Target Earth 2, which very unfortunately was never translated into English... why on earth not, I have no idea, other than the bludnering corporate arrogance of Sega of America at the time... they purposefully failed to translate many of the best titles from Japan as the Saturn tried its best to fight the new bully on the block, the PS1... in fact, they fucked up so many opportunities to turn the tables on Sony, one has to wonder if they didn't just kill the Saturn off early on purpose, because they knew that the Dreamcast would be increasing the stakes against Sony before Sony could get the PS2 ready for battle... everybody had heard all the rumors about the Katana/Black Belt project, and as a result, we western Saturn owners got screwed... roally screwed out of games like ASL2... I would almost kill for a translation of the story in ASL 2, just so I might be able to pick up some clues from it and find out what the hell I'm supposed to do next, if I haven't completed the game... there's bound to be more to it hidden in the story... I know that's the case with Target Earth, so it's bound to apply to ASL2 also...

[Little Samson]

A lot of good ones here...

I really like the first level in Jungle Strike, for the Sega Genesis. What other game lets you fly around and blow up the White House/other national monuments in the first level? A source of great amusement for me and my brothers before we figured out what we were actually supposed to be doing.

[Steempy]

I'd have to nominate a few:

Medal of Honour Rising Sun on PS2

The opening stage has you on one of the ships attacked during Pearl Harbour.. incredibly cinematic, and I was just amazed the first time I played it. Very immersive.

Mickey's Wild Adventure on PS1

I'm not sure if this came out in the US or not, but it was an early PAL release - the opening stage is based on Steamboat Willie, and as such starts out in black and white before proceeding into full colour. Cool effect, and very much like you were interacting directly with a cartoon world - at least that's how it felt at the time. I wouldn't really want to go back and spoil the memories now.

X-Men 2 on Genesis

Turn the cartridge on and it's straight into the game - no screwing around with menus or intros or tutorials or "press start" or whatever. I didn't like the game much, but I admired it for that alone.

Impossible Mission

Not really a first level per-se, but hearing the Commodore 64 say "Come now, a visitor.. stay a while, stay forever!" the first time when you start a game was awesome.

[RegSNES]

Mega Man X. That highway stage is PIMP! The music, the huge insect helicopters you destroy, the (futile) battle against Vile, and Zero blasting off Vile's arm to save X. Freaking epic!!!

Contra III. The whole "OH NOESS!!!!!11 ALIENS HAVE INVADED" vibe really hit home thanks to the background graphics. And that plane swooping in and bombing the level midway through was dope. Oh and the boss at the end? Awesome! Man, I feel like playing this game now!!

[Sniderman]

Hmmm... The first thing that popped into my head where there was a momentary "whoa" moment was the day I booted up my Sega CD for the first time.

You see - I bought it on release day and it was the first disc-based ANYTHING I had ever seen. That includes computers. So, I hooked it up to the Genesis, popped in Sewer Shark, and - instead of 16-bit pixels - I got a movie of a HoleHawg zipped across the screen and blowing up with full orchestral soundtrack. I just stared at the movie-like graphics.

"whoa"

Gameplay not withstanding, that was an amazing first level as it was the first time I had cross over into "reallife" type gameplay.

[Streetball 21]

I'd have to say Goldeneye for the N64. I was so overwhelmed by the first level, I kept playing it over and over. Nothing better than sniping guards across the dam.