Outstanding Openers Vol. 4

Not every game immediately thrusts you into the gameplay. While its common place to have some kind of introduction scene in games these days, even before the HD era, we had games that took a bit of time to provide some plot before placing you in control. Outstanding Openers centers around intros that managed to grab my attention, make my jaw drop or say, "Wow, that was neat." Just click on the title of the game to see the opening unfold.

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Wii owners, thankfully did not have to wait long for the first Super Mario title on the Wii, which made its debut in 2007, just one year after the Wii launched. Super Mario Galaxy starts off all happy delightful with Mario being invited to Peach's castle during the Star Festival. The good times are short lived as Bowser crashes the party with some of his best acts of villainy ever. He wages a full scale assault on the castle, encasing the Toad citizens in crystal and rather then settling for just Peach, he takes her AND her castle. Yeah, he did it in Paper Mario, but here, it looks so much more freakin' cool. Kamek sends Mario hurtling towards the Earth below where he would have had a not so smooth landing had it not been for the Luma Peach sent to help Mario. I haven't even played the first galaxy and I'm already jazzed after seeing that!

Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)

One night in the year 2636, in a nameless city, a light pierces the skies, leaving the city below and absolute ruin. The aliens are back and apparently, they are pretty butthurt about those last two Ls they've had to hold from the previous Contra games. Bill Rizer and Lance Bean gear up to take revenge on the invaders, followed up one of the most badawesome title drops accompanied by explosions ever. Michael Bay would be proud.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (PS2, PS3, 360)

The original Budokai is often herald as being the first good DBZ game to hit American shores. Budokai 2 added some improvements but was a disappointment overall with it's single player board game structure. And then there's Budoka 3, which is easily the cream of the crop. We open with a gorgeous anime cut scene where our heroes are facing off against Freeza, Cell and Kid Buu and even Cooler. Goku holds his own while everyone not named Goku gets the snot beat out of them. To take on the rampaging Broly, Goku and Vegeta fuse and form Gogeta and send Broly to another dimension. Just another day in the life of the Z Fighters.

*Note: The Music feature in this intro is from the PS2 version. 

Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2)

Tekken Tag Tournament was originally an arcade game but when it arrived on the PS2, it recieved an extreme graphics overhaul along with some remixed music that outclasses the original score. As is the case with most console versions of Tekken, TTT was given it's own exclusive intro. We begin with Kazuya leaving his office to take an elevator ride. Moving from the Mishima son with serious issues, we see Brian Fury, still up to no good, Lei Wulong still being a cop and Nina Williams is getting all gussied up for who know's what. Capping off the opening, Kazuya has gone outside to deal with his inner demons and in the case of this dude, I mean that quite literally. Title drop!