Let the Good Names Roll: Great Credits Sequences in Gaming - Part Two

The staff roll, otherwise known as the credits of video games. This is where not only do we see all the names of the folks who worked on the game you just beat, but perhaps something special to go along with it, whether it's an overview of your adventure, the cast of enemies in the game, or something else. This article delves into some of the very best and most memorable staff rolls/credits sequences in video game history. From old school classics to modern marvels, part two of this expanding list continues to bring the excellent staff rolls. Click on the game title to see the credits sequence described, and for the first part of this series of articles, click here.

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)

We kick things off with a game I talked about in SuperPhillip Central's top ten list of the best platformers on the Wii U from yesterday. Super Mario 3D World delights as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad make their way back to the Mushroom Kingdom through the very same clear pipe that transported them to the Sprixie Kingdom in the first place. Along the way home, they see various characters from throughout their adventure, such as various rescued Sprixies, the helpful water creature Plessie, cute rabbits, and even disappointed, defeated Boom Boom, Pom Pom, and a bottled-up Bowser. All this occurs while a sensational big band theme plays makes this one terrific staff roll sequence.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)

After reliving the same three-day cycle over and over again, though not as many times as Bill Murray had to relive Groundhog Day at least, Link finally defeats Majora's Mask and saves the land of Termina. After some exposition to tidy up loose ends, the credits of the game start running. We see a peaceful Termina, comfortable in the present and hopeful for the future, with multiple scenes showing the denizens enjoying their newly saved lives. We see the organ grinder playing to a full house in the Milk Bar, we see the father and daughter outside of the Music Box House celebrating their lives together, and we see the wedding of Kafei and Anju at the very end. It's a wonderful recap of the lives of the people you, as Link, helped save.

Final Fantasy IX (PS1)

Speaking of recaps, here's a literal one with the credits sequence of Final Fantasy IX. It hits some emotional highs, showcasing CG moments from Zidane and the player's adventure throughout the game. It certainly helps that the two themes that coincide with these moments are absolutely sensational. The first is Melodies of Life, a beautiful ballad that uses the melody of the world map theme. The second is simply Final Fantasy, the main theme of the franchise that plays in most of the mainline games up to this point. The ending, where Zidane and Dagger's two different worlds combine into one, is a powerful one, as is the glowing, rotating crystal that forms the Final Fantasy IX logo adds up to a worthwhile end to the game.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)

We move from two credits sequences that are emotionally empowered to a credits sequence that is its own game. Most of the Super Smash Bros. games feature interactive staff rolls where you can mess about with the names of crew members displayed on the screen. What many consider the most memorable of these credits sequences is the one from Super Smash Bros. Melee. It features a first-person view of the player flying through a sector space with flying names coming from all directions. It's possible, as this video shows, to hit all of the names. Since players see this sequence after every Classic mode run, it can either be zoomed through by holding a button, or one can try to hit as many names as possible.

Banjo-Kazooie (N64, XBLA)

There are actually two ending sequences for Banjo-Kazooie, one focusing on the enemies of the game, after completion of Grunty's Furnace Fun game show, and this second one that is played after defeating Gruntilda. This latter one is the one we'll focus on, as it not only shows a parade of supporting characters and bosses, but it also displays the names of the development and production team behind the game. The names are read in the voices of the characters currently shown on screen, each given nicknames such as Eveline "Twinkles" Fischer and Chris "Chomper" Peil, for instance. I love it when games show off their cast, and Banjo-Kazooie's setup is perfect in this regard.

God Hand (PS2)

Now from a comical game to an even more comical credits sequence. You can tell that Clover Studio (rest in peace) had a lot of fun working on God Hand. This is especially apparent in the incredibly goofy and unapologetic in its cheesiness ending credits, helped immensely by the '80s-esque vocal theme played during it. I mean what else can you say about a song that with lyrics that go, "dragon kick your ass into the Milky Way. (Milky Way!)" The credits feature clips from the game's cutscenes, but it also shows the cast shaking their groove thangs like crazy. It's just a balls to the wall ridiculous staff roll, and I, as well as many others, can't help but love it.

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What credits sequences from games would you like to see in future installments of Let the Good Names Roll? Hit me up with some suggestions in the comments below!

Remember When We Used to Play and Talk About Games? Yeah...

CAUTION: This "editorial" is a stream of consciousness more than something thoughtful, so feel free to rip this apart after you've finished reading it!

What happened to that? Allow me to wax poetic for a moment. I remember the biggest worries I had growing up wasn't whether my favorite studio was going to be closed down or whether my favorite developer or writer was going to be involved in a controversy that spanned the entire industry. I worried about whether or not I should fill all of my sub-tanks to tackle the final form of Sigma in Mega Man X, or figure out how to progress in the Flooded Palace in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. All I had to freaking do was walk through the waterfall!!! Walk through the waterfall! Aggggh!

However, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, which has done so much to bring like-minded people together (no sarcasm yet), it has made it so easy to have a say in just about everything, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. It's made it so it's alarmingly simple to cause trouble, be anonymous, and even ruin lives. That's damn scary, Skippy!

If you haven't been following the events and the controversy about GamerGate-- actually, first we should discuss how our community needs to come up with better names for controversies rather than lazily adding "gate" to the end of everything. We need to be more creative, people!

Anyway, back to what I was talking about. If you haven't been following GamerGate, and why would you? It's Internet drama, and I grew tired of caring a long time ago. Does that make me a better person than someone who does care? No. We just have different interests and priorities is all.

To my understanding, GamerGate started when a female writer offered to play Trivial Pursuit with game journalists in exchange for coverage from their specific media outlets. This angered gamers who found it unfair and pretty much all kinds of wrong. The first thing that was wrong was that game journalists were blatantly being biased and covering this female person's stuff. The second thing was that plenty of gamers were pissed that it was Trivial Pursuit being played. They were like "Scrabble, all day, er'y day, bitches!" Oh, and there's some kind of media corruption, misogyny in the industry, and hacking thrown somewhere in there as well. I didn't think that was worth talking about.

I do have to credit various game journalists out there for responding to the situation in a very helpful and mature matter... by escalating it into an "us versus them" affair. An avalanche of "gamers are over" esque editorials were posted on numerous sites, and this was the mature way of handling the situation that I expected from some (notice the word "some") of the same group of journalists who happily accept free gifts from developers, defend their anti-consumer policies, and essentially bite the hands that feed them by trash-talking gamers, even going as far to generalize all gamers in patronizing ways. This must be where the "notallgamers" hash tag comes from. Well, it being a play on the actual "notallcops" hash tag regarding the circumstances occurring in Ferguson, y'know, something that is actually important to more than just our little hobby.

I don't actually have anything intelligent to say about the so-called GamerGate. It's a lot to take in, it's a lot of unwanted drama, and it takes away from what's good about our hobby. All I'm reminded of is the idea that in some aspects, the Internet has been more of a curse than a blessing to this industry. Before, we got all of our news from magazines and we hyped games up and talked about them on playgrounds and in offices. Now, we march to message boards, saying how our opinion is the right one and anyone who disagrees is objectively wrong. We have it where it's so easy to post our dissatisfaction with games, how we want the designers and developers who put something we don't like into a game to go kill themselves and other hurtful things, and we have constant wars with each other and the journalists who are supposed to be covering for us and not just for themselves.

What we have are some people who in the past would be emotionally and socially stunted people, but they would be constrained to their rooms all day. Nowadays, we still have emotionally and socially stunted people who are constrained to their rooms all day, but now they have the Internet to lob insults, make threats, and turn their frustrations with the world onto real life people from the safety of behind their computer screens.

I miss when our hobby was about "ooh, you gonna get a Dreamcast when it comes out?" and not "ooh, you think all gamers and developers hate women like I think?" When reviews were about "I think the graphics need to be tightened on level three," and not "I give this game a bad score, and anyone who plays it is a sexist piece of crap who needs to get out of their mother's basement!"

GamerGate is less about the fight between gamers and the game journalists who write content for them to read and more about "damn, the Internet has made this hobby overly dramatic shit sometimes." So while countless folks on both sides who paint things in black and white argue and raise commotion, I'm going to just write about how video games are awesome and how I'd love to make friends with more people who share my passion and love this hobby.