When buying a videogame, you have to face many expectations. For once, the bastard costed you a good amount of bucks, so aside gameplay, music, graphics, stories and adventures, you should have a great presentation for it.

So for this occasion, I present you my probably-to-be-series; Top 7 Boot-Up Screens in videogames. And because many like Top 10's I say, what the heck. But I will make them all 7. Why seven? Because I fucking love the number, that's why.

I also want to add that you all have to know that lists like these are entirely subjective, so if I missed one you love. Well, I simply missed it, sorry if I skipped your favorite.

So, let's get this started.


#7 - Konami on the 90's




Konami is one of the most reputable third party companies that there is to know. They brought to us a lot of wacky and exciting games like Contra, Castlevania or Mystical Ninja. One of their most important details in their older games was the music quality of it, so what's better than show other's who's the bosss by making a simple, yet effective fanfare and also weilding up the system capabilities by showing up some smart use of metallic colors. Konami also had a great reception jumping into music games years later, so they improved the same intro with a sharper quality and still remaining in the classic tone. i still find it sad the logo changed from an icon to a simple red bar, but they are still not heading down to a worse quality, so I still can rely on them as a big ass game publisher. For nostalgia in both systems and arcades reminding us their long fated quality, Konami sits on the list.


#6 - Capcom




Capcom made a great spot on the NES by offering great original and even licensed titles like Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Megaman or Bionic Commando. Their wise use of graphics and ever challenging gameplay is something that made them stay gold; and what was better than staying gold than upgrading to a new generation and getting rid of red in their logo. Similarly to Konami, Capcom kept some tradition from their redesign on the 16 bits and used a fanfare in it, but as time passed it not only kept a traditional look wave in it, but they also had variations of it depending on the thematic the game was going to be. The Capcom emerging from the water, tilting along the screen by Viewtiful Joe, and also including a different voice actor in certain times saying the name of it made it one badass of a third-party company. For showing up improvement all the time and staying fresh despite the technology advancements, Capcom gets number 6.


#5 - Neo-Geo



NeoGeo was like a rebel back in the 90's, aside from popular consoles like the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo or even the Atari Jaguar, NeoGeo was a system faited only to games made by SNK, but that was nothing to be ashamed of because back then the NeoGeo was the PS3 of the 16 bits. The games in it were visually incredible, noisy and also very fast. It was pure badassery of technology. As Konami, it was also taking places in the arcades, but NeoGeo was just the motherfucking emperor of the quarters. Metal Slug, King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown and King of Monsters were some of the many popular titles which began to rivalize Capcom's potential especially in fighting games. hence for that, their friendly rivalry began making place for the legendary series: Capcom VS SNK. So we will remember NeoGeo's short intro for being one of the most ringed tunes in the arcades. If you say you played in the arcades in the 90s and never heard this, then you are an awful fucking liar.


#4 - GameBoy



This one is so simple that you might wonder "well, what's the deal?". The deal about the GameBoy bootup screen was that is represented the beginning of a huge era, but not only for what we already know, but also to those who were just opening their gray brick in 1989. Everybody was wondering "how can you Mario on the go?!" It was a wild guess to imagine taking the favorite games everywhere. So how where they convinced they would have a similar experience? By the very same unmistakeable sound of Mario's coins. From that moment, they said "THIS will be the Nintendo experience". For being slow but impacting like a falling nuke, the GameBoy screen is present.


#3 - PlayStation



For years, we were stuck in the world of pixels as a graphic representation of our videogames, and companies tried to give us 3D before but it was still very pixeled, choppy, vectored or killed our poor eyes by filling them of red. But then, a stranger raised from above in 1994 showing us how 3D and smooth graphcis were realllly done. Atari Jaguar, you suck, step aside for the PlayStation. The sound, and graphics are so smooth that we can't barely believe it, and not only it had a single animation, it had two parts. One introducing Sony Computer Entertainment and the other to show us the new face in console rivals. For showing us who is the boss in the mid 90's, Sony's pride, the PlayStation takes number 3.


#2 - Rareware with Nintendo



Rareware was a very small developer company located in a relatively unknown town of England. Although they were talented, they did not have a lot of support except by making small games for systems like the Commodore 64 and Battletoads for the NES which despite popularity they didn't got much credit for it until their publishing name was sold in the early 90's. It was then that Nintendo hired them to do a very ambitious project so their console was not so menaced by the blue hedgehog and in 1995, they debuted from a bunch of zeroes to a massive wave of popularity by presenting Donkey Kong Country. They had pushed the Super Nintendo's capabilities to the liit by using pre-framed 3D graphics on their sprites, and the result was unbelievable with an eyepopping harmony of 3D with 2D and very realistic sounds for a sysytem that was already surpassed by polygons. For raising a team of very talented people from the pits of misery to the glorious tops of relevance on a new future of gaming, Rareware's intro in the Super Nintendo takes the second place.


#1 - Dreamcast



Sega is one of the most famous icons of console rivalization, and it was it who dared to step in from the steamroller Nintendo was after putting Atari in a complete shame. They stood long, but then new and more powerful rivals surrounded Sega. Their CD system was crushed by the PlayStation, and the Sega Saturn couldn't make the cut between the Nintendo64 and the PS1 and even the 3DO whih was not that big of a deal by then. But time before 1999, they stood and told all of their fans that they would present something with pride, something that would not be seen in any game system until that moment. In September 9th of 1999, or 9/9/99 as they fated their followers, Sega introduced the Dreamcast, which by including an internet connection, better graphic capacities and revolutionary sounds they gave all their fans what they were expecting. Sega, was back in glory. For uniting millions of fans in a final but glorious representation of their might, the Dreamcast sits in first with pride.


So that's all for this time, bootup screens and intros are considered now as a lost art in games. At least the XBOX360 and the PSP has tried to keep it more presentable. Nothing against the Wii or the PlayStation3, but I know they could do a better job. Especially I have noticed the PlayStation screens became faster by the time. So it is good to keep some traditions like this alive as they are some of the things that make videogames so unique to other artistic medium.

See you next time when another Top 7 comes around, see you then!