What games have your favorite attract mode?

[Emperor Megas]

Sometimes when I'm cleaning upstairs in my gameroom and I'm feeling nostalgic I'll let a game run in the attract mode for background noise. It sort of reminds me of being in the electronics section of stores that sold video games back in the day. Before the advent of Internet and gaming magazines all you really had to go on were television commercials, your friends' opinions, the back of the game box, and the attract mode when games were running in the store kiosk. I also pop in games I've never played before sometimes to run in the background when I'm doing other things, just to see if it's something I might want to play soon.

Even if you never find yourself wasting power like me, letting games loop in attract mode, are some game attract modes which stand out that you enjoy(ed)? I'm mainly talking about console games, but arcade games as well if there are also some you're fond of.

My favorites are probably the Telenet/Renovation games from the 16-bit generation, especially the ones for the TurboGrafx16 CD. Games like Final Zone II, Last Alert, the Valis Series are some of my favorites. I also love a lot of the Master Systems titles, like Fantasy Zone II, Ghost House, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, and Space Harrier, because I think the music is catchy. NiGHTS into Dreams and Burning Rangers are also favorites of mine. I usually let them loop at least once before I play them.

Heck, maybe I'm the only freak who really appreciates the attract mode sequences. :|

[wayultratech]

I've always had a soft spot for the N64 Zelda OoT title screen / attract mode, it always has an oddly calming effect on me.

The original Raiden Fighters in the arcades had a sequence that always got me pumped to play!! If i recall, Metal Slug had a pretty hectic attract mode that i remember fondly, always made me want to convert all my pizza money into quarters / extra Metal Slug credits!!!!

[Tanooki]

In its simplicity the original Super Mario Bros always pleased me seeing it muddle along 1-1. I have to also agree that opening on the N64 for Ocarina of Time was quite solid and really is a relaxing setup having it play along with Link riding Epona. Gradius III on the SNES was another truly solid game opener as it has a real rush when the grid drops, that amazing score kicks in and the Vic Viper is rolled out of the hangar and blasts across the planet into the title screen.

I think the NES Kirby's Adventure had a pretty decent one too drawing him out because after that then it plays in attract mode showing how various skills of his work along with his moves as it really gives a colorful taste of what to expect which for the NES color/detail/audio wise was above and beyond when it came out. Most of the NES Mega Man games did this as well with their opening sequences, in particular with the building scaling routing on Mega Man II.

The SNES has a nice list of them as well you can look up.
- Yoshi's Island
- Super Ghouls N Ghosts
- Super Mario RPG
- Street Fighter Alpha 2
- Mickey Mania
- Kirby's Dream Land 3
- Kirby Super Star
- Pilotwings
- F-Zero
- Chrono Trigger
- Earthbound

In most of these cases you have some opening screen that runs into a fantastic display of what to expect in game from flying or driving around in those launch titles, to the varying pieces of scenes in late games after an intro with Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. Some just have a badass attract mode opener like the SFA2 arcade port. There's others that have a nice title screen and goes into game but nothing too crazy from what I own.

[wiggyx]

^^^ I'm with you. I can let SMW and F-Zero run all day in the background while I work. The guys I work with, not so much lol!

[XYXZYZ]

I love attract modes! I have four MAME machines that use shuffling AVI screen savers (320x240 with Arcade VGA, so they look great) for which I've made attract mode videos for all of the games I used to hang around and watch at the arcade. Street Fighter II, Double Dragon, Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Final Fight, TMNT, Smash TV... all the good stuff from the late 80s-early 90s. It's therapeutic to turn them on and submerge into that atmosphere for awhile.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Definately for me, the ones that were said, and Ninja Gaiden. 2nd best 8bit music. The first being Megaman 2. I also love the music to Super MArio 64. And the original Sonic the Hedgehog game, the music from Green Hill Zone.

[Pantechnicon]

MAME/Arcade-wise I've always liked the attract mode for Omega Race because a partial gameplay mode is enabled in that you can fire weapons, and maybe even thrust, but you cannot change your direction. Whenever I couldn't beg more quarters out of my mother I used to have to content myself with playing in this manner.

[xelement5x]

Gaiares for the Genesis/Mega Drive has a pretty cool attract/opening animation.

[JSoup]

Never knew that was officially called attract mode. Everyone I knew called it either the intro + demo (where the game plays itself for a bit) or just the demo if a game happens to only have one (like Super Mario World).

Two that always grabbed my attention, and notably did the same to other around me:
BomberMan 64 - I remember the first time I saw it in my local Toys R Us. Kids all collectively gasp at the Bomberman village being blown up, one parent behind me actually said "holy shit".
Sonic Adventure - I have a detailed memory of being in a GameStop in a neighboring city when I first saw this. I only really noticed it because of everyone around me. See, this particular GameStop had a fairly high ceiling, from which a bunch of box TVs hung (in hindsight....that seems really unsafe). All of them were playing the intro on repeat. I was trying to buy something when I noticed the entire store, everyone, was looking up at the displays dumbstruck.

[NeoVenom]

For me, it was Rampage. Was probably the first arcade game I've played as a kid. And when I didn't have quarters, I would just stand and watch the screen. Lol Rock N Roll for the SNES was my favorite when it came to consoles.

[8-Bit Archeology]

I cant say I have put much thought into my favorite attract mode. But I do put games in while cleaning up and organizing. I do love the intro for Streets of Rage II for the music. I blast that and even sometimes play my sega cd games in my dvd player for the bgm. I like Heimdalls music. I try different games all the time. I like the auto plays like Earthworm Jim and even Boogerman. I always am curious as to how they played the game. As a kid I would watch them to help learn strategies if I was stuck in the game. And everytime I buy a game, I check the intro and auto play as a first judgement. I love seeing what the developers do to draw you into a game.

[Rickstilwell1]

I always liked the attract modes for Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Taz-Mania for Genesis. After all, Genesis was the first console I owned and those were three out of the first four Genesis games I had (the fourth being Ms. Pac-Man which had a boring, silent attract mode). I had some NES games in between them as well but like Ms. Pac-Man the ones that had attract modes had no BGM playing.

My next door neighbor and I used to call these attract modes / demonstration modes "showings." Sometimes we would go through our whole library of games and say "lets sit and watch all the showings." Good times.

[buzz_n64]

For me-

Mega Man II
Moonwalker (arcade)
Street Fighter II
Sparkster
Sega Super GT

[Tanooki]

I kind of feel bad leaving it off, but I totally agree and forgot about Rock n' Roll Racing. You open up to a real classic piece of rock and then it rolls into a good run of a race with yet another tune. The only thing that sucked would be when it pops back to the title, it oddly has no music and is just dead air until another race which again picks another tune yet those race runs are pretty clipped.

Sonic Adventure I just hadn't thought of, but when I got that Dreamcast three weeks after it arrived that opening with the music and the big whale going and all was mind blowing and it would just loop cool sequences.

I've got a few other SNES games worth mentioning:
Samurai Shodown
TMNT 4
Mega Man VII

It's fair to say Starfox and Starfox 2 have some epic opening introductions, but since they fall flat to the title and loop they have no real attract mode which is a shame as they're really beautiful set pieces kept in perspective of the year they were done.

[jdb67]

The Genesis version of Golden Axe had a cool attract mode showing the characters bio's, also the arcade version of Altered Beast with the Eyes, and Street's of Rage was like a movie trailer.

[davidbrit2]

Daytona USA, with 8 linked deluxe cabinets all lined up in a row. It's truly astounding.

[Leo_A]

I like the part for SimCity on the SuperNes with the night view of the city and the music that plays. Another one I like is the original Star Fox. And several Zelda titles have excellent ones.


Never knew that was officially called attract mode. Everyone I knew called it either the intro + demo (where the game plays itself for a bit) or just the demo if a game happens to only have one (like Super Mario World).


It's just the arcade terminology since it's used to attract people to the game. For a console specific title, I usually call it the introduction or title sequence.

But they're the same things.

[fahlim003]

Elevator Action Returns hooked me right away. It might be a little quiet but it seemed to push all the right buttons. Great game all the same.

[PizzaKat]

Resident Evil 2

[cityside75]

Great topic Emperor Megas, and if you're weird for liking these things, then make room in the weird boat for another! I've enjoyed attract modes going back to the days in the arcade when I had no more quarters left to spend, but could still be content watching attract modes of various games for a good while. I still remember seeing the attract mode for space invaders the first time, where an extra letter is placed and an invader comes and shoots it. That's one of the earliest memories of the "magic" of video games that I have.

I'll probably think of more, but my favorite is probably Samurai Showdown II. Starting with a "The Future is Now" Neo Geo splash screen, everything about this game's attract mode kept me interested for way too long. I loved the music, the feudal Japanese themes, the slight variations in the attract mode from one instance to the next, and the way that the demo fights would usually be slow-paced strategic battles - demonstrating the way the game was meant to be played. There was a time where I really looked forward to seeing this game, even if I couldn't play it.

[AbnormalMapping]

With quarters difficult to come by, and watching the television at home meant trying to see familiar faces through the black and white analogue snow, my favorite attract modes were those which provided entertainment in miniature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CNpVCP7m04

Holy crap, they weren't just beating up jobbers. It was like Saturday Night's Main Event (at home), or Clash of the Champions (at the mall), but I didn't need to wait to see it, or ever get chased out of K-mart. Who won these random attract mode fights was incredibly important to me, even if I still don't remember how I was judging who won...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN1LC2s4P-w

Better than anything on Saturday Mornings. And most of the good guys died too. To a child in the 80's, sick of lasers that always missed, that was a completely objective measure of quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQIqjTrR4aI

Anything with a great soundtrack was free entertainment. It was the only non-Christian music I was allowed to listen to, besides any that strayed onto television. (See also, Twin Eagle bonus stages, Golden Axe, Rastan.) Also, just look at it! This is what happens when pixelated sprites finally get serious about invading the planet.

[BlastProcessing402]

Lunar The Silver Star (Sega CD)


http://youtu.be/v1BNr1UVLAo?t=30s
http://youtu.be/v1BNr1UVLAo?t=30s

That song rocks!


And not so much a favorite but more of a WTF, WCW/nWo Revenge (N64).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxcigoGshcA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxcigoGshcA

Why was Sting hijacking a trucker? Why did the trucker look vaguely like Rick Steiner? Was this really the best use of limited cart space? The rest of the intro was more mundane, but I did like how if you altered the wrestlers attire in the game, the intro reflected the changes.

[Raedon]

Astro Blaster. "Fighter pilots needed in sector wars-play Astro Blaster!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2kStMWBCs