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Favorite game menu(s)?

My picks would be Tekken 5

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No gifs :(

mostly for the great Menu Theme. I've got that set as my Character Select theme for Tag Tournament 2. So slick and propulsive.

And
Heavy Rain


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(Can't find a bigger GIF)
 
main menu?

DX:HR
all the Valve stuff
TLOU
Journey
Flower
Alien: Isolation
MGS4
bunch more others

in game?

Dead Space

nothing comes close on it for the pure immersion it provides. no pause when you pop it up, monsters still comes at you and everything is still happening around you. it's pure genius to make that an on person display thing in game with great reasoning too.
 
Halo: Reach is my favourite and I'm glad to see it gets recognition here.

Those menus have the most beatiful art I've ever seen in a video game, and a soundtrack to match. They're very easy to navigate, too.
 
Most been mentioned already, but some of my favorites are Persona 4/3, Wipeout HD + Fury, Metroid Prime, Halo Reach, and FFXIII.
 
There was a bit too much background texture to the full screen menus but I remember really liking the floating UI in Final Fantasy IX.

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One that hasn't been mentioned yet that I remember loving is the menu from SSX On Tour. Just defined the game's aesthetic so well, along with the music and intro video.

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A lot of really good mentions in here, but my favorite hands down is the original InFamous. Not the best graphics or art style, but the composition and simplicity and way it transitions into the game make it so much better than everything else, it's not even fair!

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That explosion when you hit Start... hnnng
 
In a series with great UI design, I think Fury's my favorite. It really has to be seen in motion to appreciate, though:

http://youtu.be/I1s-eCBVedw

I love that song.

Fuck yeah, and that stellar soundtrack deserves praise too.

I definitely agree. The soundtrack, and the Fury menu theme in particular, is fantastic. I like Fury's music and color more, but when it comes to the background I prefer the original's animated track.


EDIT: I wish other racers had a 3D model of the track visible in the menu as well.
 
MGS4 is my all-time favorite, but every Metal Gear game has a cool menu. Catherine and Persona 4/P4G are just as memorable thanks in no small part to their art and music. Mass Effect (1) is up there for me, as well.
 
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Hitman Blood Money and with its various angles of 47's funeral that changes to reveal more as the game progresses, all the while playing a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria in the background.

This is a great one. I love how all the attendees are your future targets.

The music also sets the tone perfectly.
 
For main menus, you can't not mention Mega Man 2.
It flows smoothly from the intro (but can be instantly skipped to if desired), has awesome music, and just plain looks cool with the whole helmet and teleport thing.

For pause menus, I found Zero 1 and Zero 2 pretty neat. Zero 1 is just a functional, cool-looking menu:
But the really cool part is the beginning of Zero 2, when you take control of a battle-weary Zero and the pause menu matches the occasion:
After the intro stage, Zero gets all fixed up, and your menu gets a classy new design too:
I love it when menus feel integrated like this.

I also wanted to mention how cool-looking Gunvolt's menus are, with the futuristic design and the lightning sparks, but unfortunately I couldn't find a good image.
 
Deus Ex: HR has the menus I would most like to have on my own computer. Love the gold and black motif; love the Eurostile font. I suspect it will age better than a lot of near-future stuff tends to do. I feel the same way about Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 and the blue-and-white (1) and red-and-white (2) Animus UI. I'd love to have a computer UI that looks like that. AC lost its way with 3 and 4; DX hadn't yet mastered it in the original game. But DXHR and AC1/2 -- perfect UIs.

Persona 3 and 4 I like for their way-out style. P4 in particular integrates the "CRT television" motif everywhere and does such a great job of it.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 is another winner. VC 1 and 2 had that great Belgian-beer number font, but VC3 integrated all kinds of other 1930s-ish stuff that made it better. Paper notebooks, film strips, maps, that kind of thing.

I'm a real sucker for a good UI/theme; I wish more video games would make their in-game UIs available as computer or console themes. And not with the game's name or logo plastered all over the place; I mean make it feel like we're really using one of the Deus Ex computers or the Animus.

Edit: Let me second all the Wipeout supporters; the WO series has always had stylish UIs. The only thing that drives me nuts about WO is that they often use fonts where the numbers are different widths. Drives me crazy when racing because it looks like the time, position, lap time, etc. are moving objects. WO3 had a monospaced font, and HD/Fury lets you import that UI once you earn some loyalty points (or something). All racing games should use monospaced number fonts.
 
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