Title Screens That Say A Thousand Words: Gaming's Best - Part Three

Title screens are like the covers of books. They can give you an idea of what to expect about a game before you play it. The best ones really get you excited to dive into your new game, or even a game you've played and beaten dozens of times. That's what this series of articles highlights-- the best of the best in title screens in gaming history. This time around, there are even links to YouTube videos showcasing the title screens in action. (Just click on the game names.) Part one and two of this series can be found here and here. With that, let's get to the eight newest games with title screens that are abundantly awesome.

Persona 5 (PS4, PS3)

Red silhouettes of the main characters wearing white masks, clothes and jackets waving in the breeze of subway trains speeding in and out from view? That makes for one stylish title screen, and if the Persona series of games is anything, it's that they're stylish. Few games can make characters standing on a subway platform seem so awesome, but Persona 5 does this wonderfully. Different segments of the title screen, like the new game or load game prompts, bring with it different angles and central focuses, making for a deliciously cool title screen to start us off.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii U, Wii, GCN)

Taking cues from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's title screen, Twilight Princess in its original Wii and GameCube versions as well as the Wii U HD iteration updated the idea of Link riding on his trusty steed Epona through Hyrule Field. This creates some amazing visual imagery while a haunting vocal theme plays. This enchantment concludes with the camera taking focus off of Link for a brief moment before once again refocusing, now the green clad hero is in his wolf form, making a chilling and powerful howl. It's magical like many moments within The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess story proper.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, 360, PC)

Bad ass. That's all one can say about this title screen for Batman: Arkham Asylum, developer Rocksteady's first foray with the Dark Knight that made the studio abundantly famous for making a truly terrific superhero game. The title screen sees Batman standing tall with muscles rippling and cape flowing as he looks over a nighttime sky, complete with ominous clouds and a bright, massive moon glaring right back at him. This title screen like many for games are like the cover of a book, in that it lets you know that you're going to be in for one hell of a ride. And those who thought that had their opinions reaffirmed quite quickly.

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)

Let's continue from something dark and brooding to something bright and cheery-- the world of the Sprixie Kingdom in Super Mario 3D World! The game's title screen runs through a series of skits of sorts that see Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Blue Toad running around and getting into mischief in a similar environment set in different times of day. One has all four characters scampering about after transforming into their cat selves while another sees poor Luigi being chases by a swarm of miniature Goombas. It's a delightful set of skits that are enjoyable to view more than just once.

Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)

We're not through with you yet, Mario! With summer quickly approaching, what better way to celebrate than with a game that drips with the thematic feel of summer locales and vacation that Super Mario Sunshine possesses in great amounts! The title screen is small but sweet, like a kiwi or mango. It slowly reveals each word of the title before having Charles Martinet's long running Mario voice shouting with glee, "Super Mario Sunshine! Woo-hoo!" The cheerful voice, bright blue sky and white clouds in the background, and glistening sun all make this title screen memorable despite its short length.

Halo: Combat Evolved (XBX)

Many of the greatest title screens are simple, and in many ways, Halo: Combat Evolved is a game that has such a title screen. It involves the camera circling and roaming around the titular, colossal Halo structure while Martin O'Donnell's theme plays, featuring some jaw-dropping vocals. Also like many of the greatest title screens, Halo's gives players an idea of the type of game they're going to be playing, one that will send their pulses pounding with its action and being in awe by the awesome presentation.

Mega Man X4 (PS1, SAT)

We conclude part three of the best title screens in gaming with a double dose of Mega Man! First off is one of my favorite entries in the franchise, Mega Man X4, the first Mega Man X game to release on the PlayStation and the only one to release on the Sega Saturn. While many of the title screens and animations that began this article were rather lengthy, Mega Man X4's is simple, but awesome all the same. An energetic theme followed by an amazing guitar chord leads us to a blinding flash, zoomed out X entering the picture, and the reveal of the game's logo and title screen background. Also, who doesn't love a robotic voice going. "Mega Man. X-4"?

Mega Man Battle Network (GBA)

We move from the X series of Mega Man games to the Battle Network ones. The original Mega Man Battle Network released on the Game Boy Advance in 2001. It sported an action-RPG grid-based battle system using chips for main attacks as well as an engaging story. This pick for a great title screen might be a nostalgic one, but I think it really wowed players back in 2001 on the GBA hardware. With a sweet theme, a scrolling background, and cool logo, Mega Man Battle Network is a delight of a title screen to look at and listen to.

Bad Levels in Gaming History - Volume Five

Good/bad level design, like many things in life, can be a very subjective thing. However, I am pretty sure that my picks for this fifth volume of Bad Levels in Gaming History can be considered by most to be pretty bad, whether it's in its design, its repetitiveness, and so forth. Games on this volume include The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Sonic Adventure 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Donkey Kong 64, and Darksiders.

If you've missed a previous volume of Bad Levels in Gaming History, check them out with these links!

Volume One

Volume Two

Volume Three

Volume Four

The Temple of the Ocean King - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)

Dungeons are generally a fantastic part of The Legend of Zelda line of games. I'd even go so far to say that they're my favorite part of each game. Big thing to say, right? Phil sarcastically asked. Anyway, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass had some interesting dungeons in it, but it also bestowed onto players one of the most aggravating and tedious dungeons in series history, The Temple of the Ocean King.

The main issue with the Temple of the Ocean King is just how it is set up. It is essentially a timed stealth dungeon, requiring you to avoid Phantoms that will chase after you if they notice your presence. The titular Phantom Hourglass pours sand from its top to its bottom. If the sand empties from the top and fully fills the bottom, it's game over. The aforementioned Phantoms take away thirty seconds of time if they catch you.

What makes matters worse is that you are returning to the Temple of the Ocean King basically after every dungeon. This means you will have to AT LEAST go through the dungeon six times or more, and that's not including failed runs. Each visit allows you to venture further down the dungeon's thirteen total floors. Don't like repeating puzzles for no reason but to pad the gameplay experience? That's unfortunately too bad. That's exactly what you have to do in this dungeon.

The sad fact is that the Temple of the Ocean King isn't a poorly designed dungeon per se. It just requires the player to retread the same ground, solving the same slow puzzles over and over again, and it forces you to do so more times than should be allowed. Just half of the visits to the Temple of the Ocean King would have worked better than what the final product in the game was.

Crazy Gadget - Sonic Adventure 2 (DC)

Let's face what I perceive to be facts, shall we? Early 3D Sonics were hard enough to contend with due to their poor cameras, sloppy controls, and frustrating bugs and glitches. Factoring gravity shift mechanics into things makes for one mess of a level. That level is Sonic's penultimate stage in the Hero Story of Sonic Adventure 2, Crazy Gadget.

Crazy Gadget is devised of various gravity switches that change the flow of gravity, pulleys that rappel Sonic up large shafts, and of course, everyone's favorite enemy in the game, Artificial Chaos. These blue blob boobs can attack Sonic from afar with their huge extending reach via a pair of thin blue tentacles.

The problem with these obnoxious beings is that the lock-on mechanic to homing attack these enemies doesn't always work. Sometimes you homing attack them and their tentacles somehow wrap around and take you out. Then there's those Chaos that explode into dozens upon dozens of little Chaos orbs, which the player can only take out by slamming on the homing attack button, praying that the game actually locks onto each foe instead of sending Sonic straight, prone to injury and a resulting loss of all of his rings. Bye-bye, A rank!

Crazy Gadget exemplifies the early 3D Sonic series's grandest control and camera problems, making for a mighty frustrating level that was hard to love when I had more patience as a young high school student, and is now impossible to love now that I have less patience for wonky design.

Killer Croc's Lair - Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, 360, PC)

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a roller coaster ride from the very beginning of the game up to close to the end. Then the ride screeches to a halt when Batman enters Killer Croc's lair, a section of the game where slow and steady wins the race for survival, but loses in the contest for fun. The lair itself is a long, pitiful, repetitive sewer maze (even the combination of words to describe the place evokes feelings of tedium) where Batman must tiptoe his way across floating wooden planks.

Meanwhile, Killer Croc leaps out of the water so many times in attempt to scare you that it quickly becomes "the Croc That Cried Wolf." It stops being alarming or intense after about the fifth jump-scare out of around thirty or so. Each time Croc leaps out of the water, a simple throw of an automatically-targeted Batarang knocks old ugly back into the murky drink. Killer Croc's lair is a blight on what is otherwise a near-perfect action game.

Crystal Caves - Donkey Kong 64 (N64)

Donkey Kong 64 is arguably an immensely and overly bloated collect-a-thon that took the amount of objects and trinkets to gather that Banjo-Tooie had and ratcheted that number exponentially. That's a big part of why the game is so understandably overwhelming to many players. Another part of that is definitely the level design. While most of the levels are indeed large, they're at least designed well. Crystal Caves, one of the last areas of Donkey Kong 64, does not follow such a trend.

The problem with Crystal Caves is that so many areas look so similar to one another, and this is thanks to the abundance of brown and blue walls that fill the cavernous complex. It makes trying to navigate yourself around the level a chore. That's not to mention gigantic stalactites falling from the ceiling intermittently, though this is only upon the Kongs' first visit to the level. Not only all of this, but Crystal Caves easily has some of the most arduous and, dare I say, unfair challenges for Golden Bananas within the entire game. This all adds up to one very annoying and irritating level that despite its awesomely chill tune is anything but enjoyable.

The Black Throne - Darksiders (PS3, 360, PC)

It stands to reason that one of the most difficult dungeons in an action-adventure game like Darksiders would be near the end of the game. That is remarkably and definitely true for Darksiders' Black Throne dungeon.

The dungeon's aim is to use the area's special item to redirect a trio of beams of light in the dungeon's central chamber. This can have you gnashing your teeth, pulling your hair out, and smashing your controller against your knee (perhaps that's just me) as you try to wrap your head around the convoluted portal puzzles being presented to you. Don't feel bad if you need to consult a guide or walkthrough just to make it through these puzzles.

Even then, a guide will only help with the puzzling aspects of the Black Throne. There's still plenty of ridiculously powerful foes to contend with, a lack of health pick-ups to nab, and an unrelenting amount of checkpoints. There's a point in a level where its challenge goes from fair and difficult to cheap and agonizing. The Black Throne goes beyond the point of being the former and dives directly into the latter.

Bad Boss Battles in Gaming History - Part One

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!

It's Thanksgiving Day here at SuperPhillip Central. We've eaten our dinner, watched some football, and now it's time for a new segment here on the site. We're all about turkeys today, but not of the avian variety. No, we're talking turkeys in the form of boss battles. In the past we've taken a look at some of our favorite fights in gaming history. Now, we do the opposite and tackle those boss fights that are awful, boring, forgettable, annoying, shoe-horned in, and/or just downright nasty. After you've seen the selections for part one of our new segment, please comment with some of your own!

SuperPhillip Central's Top 100 Games of All Time (80-71)

On June 5, SuperPhillip Central turned five years old. We're celebrating big the only way we know how, with a list of our favorite 100 games of all time. SuperPhillip Central's staff has come together to come up with this list. These don't necessarily have to be the best, but they are indeed our favorites. Coming up with an order for these games has been an immense challenge. We're sure you won't agree with our order-- heck, we don't even agree with our order. That said, we hope you'll at least agree with our picks, and if you don't, at least you can read our rationale for our choices. Regardless, for ten weeks, we will be counting down our favorite games of all time. Please join us for this great undertaking. Let's get to the countdown!

80) Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)

Kicking off the Year of Luigi (and part three of our ten-part countdown) in style, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon delivered on the thrills and chills when it released earlier this year. The game did away with playing through and exploring just one mansion, and opted for multiple mansions and a mission-based structure. We couldn't have been happier with this change, as it offered much more depth, much more fun, and much more replay value. The addition of online and local multiplayer only further added to the latter. Dark Moon was a graphical showcase of the 3DS' power, and also a showcase of just how well Next Level Games can create an overly fantastic piece of software with the right guidance. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is an essential purchase for any Nintendo 3DS owner.

79) Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS)

The third entry in the Advance Wars series and the first to debut on the Nintendo DS, Advance Wars: Dual Strike was a turn-based tactical RPG that put players in the role of one of many colorful and whimsical commanding officers across multiple armies. The goal of Advance Wars was always to eliminate enemy forces with your own swath of units. The strategy came from using the right unit type, as each unit type had its own unit types it was weak and strong against. The Dual Strike in Advance Wars: Dual Strike referred to the capability of using two commanding officers instead of the traditional single commanding officer in battle. The dynamic of battles shifted dramatically because of this. We view Dual Strike as the greatest installment of the Advance Wars series, possessing more maps, more challenge, and more fun than ever before.

78) Star Wars: Battlefront (PS2, XBX, PC)

Taking a part of what makes Star Wars so fascinating-- the epic scale battles-- and making an entire game out of them was a hefty task, but it was pulled off with Star Wars: Battlefront. Playing as a Rebel or Empire soldier, pilot, or Storm Trooper, weaving in and out of laser fire and explosions, and doing your best to capture as many enemy bases and command posts as possible were tasks that Battlefront gave players. There was nothing better than getting a massive kill streak going and feeling like you could take on all comers and blast them down. From fighting on the moon of Endor to gunning down Storm Troopers on the icy surface of planet Hoth, Star Wars: Battlefront was a stellar addition to the Star Wars game universe.

77) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (ARC, SNES)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles recently reentered pop culture with an all-new Nickolodeon computer-animated cartoon, and soon they will have their own Michael Bay feature film. That last one you can happily ignore, though. Regardless, back in the day, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were, as the kids say, tight. You could not go anywhere without seeing TMNT merchandise, movies, TV shows, action figures, and so forth. That continued into video games, and the best one ever featuring those heroes in a half shell released on the Super Nintendo after debuting in arcades. Turtles in Time was an old-fashioned beat-em-up. While these games tend to be linear and short, Turtles in Time was so much fun that one could not help but play through it again and again, especially if you had your favorite buds around to enjoy the game with.

76) Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GCN)

A project that would not have been possible without Shigeru Miyamoto and Silicon Knights, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was a GameCube exclusive remake of the original Metal Gear Solid. The remake featured all-new cutscenes, beautifully done upgraded visuals, and gameplay improvements to make the title less clunky as a whole. The latter made for a much grander and less frustrating experience. For instance, players could not fire in first-person mode. In addition to that, enemy AI was updated to balance the inclusion of the first-person viewpoint. Some claim the new perspective made for a game that was easier, perhaps too easy. While we can understand that, we still stand by the opinion that The Twin Snakes is the definitive version of the first Metal Gear Solid game.

75) F-Zero X (N64)

F-Zero set the standard for speed on the Super Nintendo. F-Zero X on the Nintendo 64 made futuristic racing on tracks that twisted, turned, and looped very popular. One of the only games on the N64 to run at a fluid 60 frames per second, F-Zero X blew past the competition and is still one of the greatest futuristic racers to date. Having thirty racers dueling it out for first place supremacy, spinning and slamming your vehicle into others, boosting past the competition at manic speeds, and trying not only to win but to simply survive, F-Zero X was a game that made our adrenaline pump and our bodies tingle with excitement. Speaking of F-Zero, stay tuned for a retro review this week regarding the original F-Zero.

74) Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii)

The latest in the Kirby franchise, Kirby's Return to Dream Land offered four player simultaneous play, something that became something popular on the Wii (and we loved every minute of it). Being able to play as Kirby, Waddle Dee, Metaknight, or King Dedede made for some frantic and fun multiplayer action. The game contained seven worlds, each with multiple creatively-designed levels and a concluding boss battle to top each world off. Energy Spheres were the optional collectibles that players could nab in order to unlock hidden content, and after beating the game, an all-new EX Mode was unlocked, giving players harder enemies to deal with and less health to work with. Kirby's Return to Dream Land was a project that was scrapped and rebuilt time and time again, and we're very happy and satisfied with how the final product finally turned out.

73) Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

Combining the serious world of Final Fantasy with the often happy-go-lucky world of Disney seemed like an odd feat to do. However, Square Enix and Disney proved that they were more than capable of performing such a task. The end result was Kingdom Hearts, the first in a series of action-RPG games featuring a wide array of Final Fantasy characters and Disney all-stars all together in one game. We feel that the original Kingdom Hearts stands head and shoulders above every sequel and spin-off that followed it. It had a much less convoluted story, a less obnoxious and tedious beginning, and the right mix of platforming and action RPG fun. What better time to revisit Kingdom Hearts now that the third installment in the series is due for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

72) Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, 360, PC)

Prior to Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman games ranged from awful to good. Seldom, if ever, did a Batman game get deemed as masterful. That all changed with Batman: Arkham Asylum. A team that hadn't done much to distinguish itself (or make a great game), Rocksteady, managed to create one of the best superhero games of all time. The Metroid-like structure, where Batman earned new gadgets to allow him to explore new areas of the Arkham Asylum grounds, was a much welcomed inclusion to the formula of the game. Perhaps the only major gripe to be had with Arkham Asylum was the tacked on final boss battle that did not really serve as something that fit with the style of the game.

71) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, GCN)

We round out part three of our list of 100 favorite games with a Wii launch title, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The game debuted at E3 2004 with thunderous applause and cheering. Tears were literally shed by some people. Go figure, huh. Anyway, the final product featured some of the greatest dungeons in series history, a large expansive world to explore, and some incredible boss battles. The Wii version is a mirrored take on the GameCube iteration. What we mean is that the world of Twilight Princess on Wii is flipped compared to the GameCube version (e.g. a destination that was west is now east, and vice versa). The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess also introduced Wolf Link into the picture, a darker tone and setting, and one of the most enjoyable companions to Link, Midna. Twilight Princess might have its share of problems (like the long-winded opening tutorial sequence), but overall it was a fantastic addition to the historic series.

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That concludes part three of SuperPhillip Central's list of our favorite 100 games. Make sure you are back here next Wednesday for games 70-61 of our countdown!