You’ve pushed start, created your character or dropped a coin in the slot. The screen fades to black one last time before the adventure begins. Opening levels may be there solely to teach a player the controls. A player may be allowed wallow in a pool of lore, preparing them for the quest ahead. A game’s first level may simply be ‘the easiest’ and chosen from a list based on that quality alone.
But the odd time, the opening levels do a whole lot more. Letting a player master a demanding control scheme within a few moments of play. Showing off a whole console in seconds. Or building an atmosphere so tangible it could only be dispersed with 5th gen. voice acting.
Super Mario Bros. (1985)
When asked to think of classic video game opening levels, the public would have a vast array of answers but sizeable chunk will count the opening seconds of Super Mario Bros. in their mind’s eye.
Pushing ‘start’ immediately let the player control Mario who is already waiting to go, standing in front of the sign that houses the logo, the copyright details and 1 or 2-player option.
That gimmick of moving off without a scene change has been replicated only a few times since so it’s still a treat for younger gamers discovering the platforming daddy for themselves.
While it may seem obvious today, the idea of going right to reach the goal wasn’t a platform given yet. Mario starts level 1-1 on the left of the screen, facing right and inviting the player to head in that direction.
The placement of that first ‘question’ box and the first Goomba were done with similar care, instructing the player without a single word on how to acquire power-ups and how to attack.
But opening levels are more than just those first few seconds and Super Mario Bros.‘ opener is a lesson in smart game design.
The variable jump, where Mario jumps higher with a longer press of the button, is similarly massaged into the player.
It’s all so organic that players learned how platformers would work for the next decade or so by the time they grabbed that flagpole.
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Sonic the Hedgehog was the perfect piece of software on the perfect platform at the perfect time. Sega wanted to present an older vibe to capture older children and teenager, Sonic was what that demographic thought was ‘cool’.
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For those of a certain age, playing Sonic the Hedgehog for the first time is likely seared onto their brain.
The high-contrast and colourful artwork, the detailed animated backgrounds and the bouncy synth-pop jingle almost overwhelmed the senses. And that’s before you have even moved.
The Mega Drive’s extra parallax layers and some masterful raster effects on display throughout Green Hill Zone offered a magnificent sense of depth.
Like Super Mario Bros. before it, Sonic the Hedgehog dispenses organic lessons to teach a player from the very moment that control is handed to a player. For instance, Sonic’s speed and agility is centred around a fairly advanced momentum model.
By the time the game is ten seconds old, players will have learned much about the movement system by labouring up that knoll from a standing start. Then almost immediately being invited to spin Sonic down a hill and off a ramp. Then through a pipe at the speed of a bullet and around a loop. All while the screen whips vertically and horizontally to follow the blue blur.
The feeling of speed was perfect to sell the Mega Drive/Genesis in Europe and the US. Few opening levels can claim to have sold hardware long after the console hit the market but Sonic the Hedgehog is one of them.
And sure, in the cold light of day Sonic the Hedgehog takes a nosedive in terms of level design after Green Hill Zone but that opening act made many forget that fact.
Super Mario 64 (1996)
Nintendo console launch titles have tended to be some of their respective libraries best -remembered games. Super Mario World, Tetris (we have an article about that here) and Wii Sports spring to mind.
Perhaps its Nintendo’s ability to choose day-one projects based on their ability to show off a new console. The graphic and sound capabilities of SNES. The pick up ‘n play boredom annihilation of Game Boy. The democratic controls of Wii.
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Super Mario 64 is the opposite, with the hardware (controller included) supposedly built to play Shigeru Miyamoto’s innovative opus.
The opening of the game sees Mario emerge from a pipe, a familiar item from his previous life in two dimensions.
The concept of third-person camera control was still new so a familiar face introduces the idea in an intuitive fashion.
The concern that third-person camera controls may be abstract without the ‘cameraman’ was possibly overkill. But the choice of a pipe and Lakitu helped immediately establish this new type of game in Mario’s world.
The castle grounds are not strictly the first level in the game but a free-form tutorial of sorts. Stepping into the castle proper for the first time starts the adventure. By then, a player has been immersed in a new dimension and a new paradigm for platformers.
Silent Hill (1999)
Survival horror was massive in 1999. The genre briefly held the same form of pop-culture relevancy as the first-person shooter or the 2D platformer had done. Konami could have made a by-the-numbers clone of Resident Evil and printed money if that clone had been half-way decent.
Instead, Silent Hill carves itself its own niche in the survival horror canon. The game begins with protagonist Harry Mason crashing while driving to the town of Silent Hill.
When players are handed the reins, they search for their missing daughter in a seemingly lifeless and empty town. A few clues hint at the horror ahead, building until we enter an alley. Dutch angles unsettled the player.
A few more steps in and the gore, suffering and cruelty are laid bare.
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The use of ‘normal’ or ‘mundane’ to amplify depravity and evil is exploited to incredible effect in the opening few minutes of Silent Hill. Everyday-but-out-of-place objects litter the town and the alley especially.
As the player turns to leave, they are surrounded by waist-high apparitions hellbent on adding our blood and viscera to the town’s decor. With nowhere to go, the player succumbs.
It was many players’ first ‘forced death’ experience, before such events became terribly clichéd or telegraphed to anyone paying attention.
The entire sequence, from the moment the player takes control to that forced death is a masterclass in playable storytelling. Silent Hill‘s opener is the blueprint in how to create atmosphere while, essentially, experiencing a movie as opposed to watching clips of one interspersed with gameplay.
Dark Souls (2011)
Volumes have been written about the how Dark Souls‘ level design, gameplay, hands-off storytelling and opening level are special.
Most of the praise is leveled at the organic way the game prepares the player for what lies ahead. Without uttering a word, Dark Souls spells out its next 30 hours in its opening 15 minutes.
Beyond its excellent explanation of a complex and demanding control scheme, players are acclimatised to the labyrinthine level layouts. How the environment is often a reflexive rabbit warren that wraps back to a bonfire.
Another game-defining aspect that is gently massaged into a player is how is sense of challenge operates. Death causes a player to lose their hard-earned souls. If players play at least as well as they did last time around, they can recover them.
A massive boss that paddles players who don’t make the door in time demonstrates the odds are against players in a boss fight. Finding your way to the balcony and dropping onto his fontanel shows those odds are not fixed.
Despite being unlike anything before it, Dark Souls‘ opening managed to impart enough wisdom to prepare players for what lay ahead.
Dark Souls‘ opening level gave a taste of the massive satisfaction that came from meeting its challenge. Something that hooked players who otherwise may have chosen to play something easier after a few thumpings too many.
Honourable Mentions
The opening level of Driver on PS1 could similarly make the list. In terms of storytelling and forcing players to adjust to the vehicular handling, it’s near perfect. Those who passed the test felt like the Wheelman and needed those skills to master the game’s 90-degree turns. The problem lies with the difficulty; many are still stuck in that garage over 20 years later.
GTA: Vice City could be on this list were it not for the finesse of the playable story intro in Silent Hill. Similarly, Grand Theft Auto III could be here if not for the seismic introduction to 3D rambling seen in Super Mario 64.
The opening level of Uncharted 2 moved the needle on playable cinematic presentation but Silent Hill takes its spot for its earlier innovation. Konami nearly perfected the style more than ten years earlier.
We hoped you enjoyed our list of perfect opening levels. Did we leave out any classic that raised the bar in terms of openers? Or any games that brought something new to those first minutes of a game? Let us know in the comments below…
