I didn't even think of this. That makes me uber sad now.

Wow, just realized the switchblade is not always there in The Last Of Us's start screen. This video helped me figure that out. Thanks!

I liked Killzone Mercenary's title screen buildup, though I can't find any videos of it (thanks lack of video output on the Vita). Too bad it's unskippable though.

I forgot a Gears of War game came out this year.

Pretty neat video. Also, some of those start screens have cool animations when you actually hit start!

You know what's up! :P

That was awesome, nice music choice.

I didn't realize how much I appreciate a good start screen until I watched this! Great to see all of these in one place, especially for the games I have not played. I just found great tumblrs about foliage and food in games, respectively, also 2 things I didn't realize I paid so much attention to until I realized someone else was as well. I will add your tumblr to the list!

That Last Of Us start screen is so beautiful. Easily my favorite part of the game. ;)

But Saints Row IV was kind of a step down compared to The Third. Mostly because of the music.

@mracoon: Thank you

This was great, interesting and fun music too. I really liked The Last of Us simplicity for a title screen. Also Bioshock Infinite was nice as well.

Nicely done, and I'm glad I didn't need to turn off the audio, which I usually do due to the choice of music, videos like these tends to go for.

To me start menus seems a bit odd, as primarily a PC gamer, start menus is more than anything, just a reminder that I'm playing a console port. I guess there was I time I cared about the look of a start/main menu, now I care about it being fully featured with an option menu. Though I guess more than anything I remember the music, I think great music can over time change how I look back at a game, even if the game is mediocre, as long as the music is good.

Of the games in video, I think Ni no Kuni is my favorite, though that might have more to do with the amount of time the game require.

@markwahlberg: It's sad times indeed.

@dwigtk: Love Swing by Sabrepulse from the Beatbuddy OST.

Reminds me of Art of the title. Specifically this video. It was what made me love titles in media. They just say exactly what you're going for.

What is the name of this song?

@chavtheworld: Oh. Well... huh. That's one way of doing it, I guess.

All this video did was show me Dead Space 3 came out this year and I couldn't believe how little I cared about a Dead Space game.

As with the death of the "start" button, I sure hope this marks the "start" of games not having them. Ever since GTA, I've learned that start screens are kind of pointless.

Also, start button or not, nobody actually pressed start. We all hit A or whatever key. And 90% of the time it worked.

Wow. Very well done. I'm impressed. Good music too.

Good way to remember this years games too. Forgot about Dead Space 3. For obvious reasons.

Last of Us is my favourite. Even if I didn't end up playing too much of it.

It's kinda hard when neither of them have a Start button anymore.

I'm glad to see the 3DS so well represented. Best current console, for sure.

PC trumps everything, of course.

Wait, do... do Xbone and PS4 games not do that anymore? For reals?

You are so right.

I think The Swapper, Skyrim and Trine all have something in common, actually two. I heard a lot of people say these games look awesome, emphatically. Personally, I think they look a bit "fake". I think it's because there's too much specular highlights. A long time ago I fiddled with Softimage, and everything I did always had too much specular and looks plasticy and it reminds me of it. I don't think those games look bad, but there's something about the specular highlights that irks me a bit.

DmC is absolutely still one of my favorite games of the year. Probably in my personal top three, if not two. I really need to go play that dlc. Unfortunately I missed it while it was on sale a few weeks back.

That was awesome. And kind of a good refresher on all the stuff that came out this year. It's been an entertaining damn year. Also, I fucking love everything about Blood Dragon aesthetically.

The Swapper had the best one. Also, that's the best looking game from this year. Art style is god damn striking. I think most of the game assets are real world objects that were 3d scanned (or something like that) and it really looks fantastic.

Papers Please certainly would win a "Title Screen of the Year".

Title Screens are pretty, but I often wonder if there is a reasoning behind loading the game or checking for DLC AFTER you press start. (DEAD SPACE!) In my opinion it is poor programming. The game should load completely, check for all DLC, and most of the time also load your last save in the background. With 2 button presses and no delay you should be in the game.

Very nice.

What are the Start and Select/Back buttons called on the new controllers?

I admire all of these "Press Start" screens very much, but with new console generation upon us, I hope they're all wiped off the face of the earth from here on out.

Ever since I played GTA III in 2001, I've been waiting for the day people realize that a "Press Start" screen is an archaic feature born from the first console games. As opposed to arcade games, which players could start when they put enough coins in the machine to play the game, games needed to have an artificial barrier to let people know when they would be playing the game. However, as games have become more advanced (i.e. allowing for multiple save states to be loaded), the inclusion of another artificial barrier, the Main Menu, was introduced to allow players to choose where they wanted to start from, change the controller layout, or choose between different languages for the text to be written in.

Now, I'm not saying all games should immediately load up the player's latest save and start from there, but they should remove that "Press Start" barrier. The "Main Menu" barrier performs the same function as the "Press Start" barrier and so much more. Also, with the new consoles' features of suspending gameplay of a game when the console is turned off, player could hypothetically see the "Press Start" button only once during their entire time playing the game from start to finish. My personal philosophy is to not create something that could only be seen once unless it's absolutely amazing.

Yeah, I'm going to need one of these videos for 2012 and 2011, too. For science.

I know what you mean, I'd completely forgotten DmC came out this year. Some games I'd even forgotten came out at all, like Fuse and Remember Me.

I immediately knew what Brothers was about by looking at its Press Start display. Probably best reference I can give. Oh wait, Rogue Legacy has this year's best start screen, because you see it again and again!

VERY well done.

I'm currently playing Far Cry 3, and the start screen for the game is pretty trippy. Seeing those faces blend into other faces shows you that hallucinations are part of the game's themes.

Man, the start screen game was strong this year. One of the few things that was strong this year, it seems.

@mracoon Indeed, Papers Please has a badass start screen, when you hear that music, you just can't wait to detain some low class Kolechians! Great choice of music, too, great video!

That's really cool and had the bonus at the start of the video of me saying holy shit that was this year?

Did you leave out Pikmin 3 on purpose because it destroys all the other ones with its awesomeness?

@vincentvendetta: oh wow, that site is fantastic. Someone should do that for video games.

The Movie Title Stills Collection: http://annyas.com/screenshots/

Blood Dragon's start screen couldn't have been more perfect. On the other hand, it raised false expectations that the game was fully committed to being an '80s media satire, giving no hint of the ensuing Spike VGAs-level "nerd humor" bullshit.

Bittersweet.

This is pretty cool!

Great video!

Gotta give it to The Last of Us and Papers Please as my favourites. Really a bummer when there's all these awesome intricate start screens and then you get the static screens with the logo.

Not that this is a contest...

...but Papers Please totally wins.