Whatever Happened to the Sports Game Intro Video?

[garyjr33]

I personally loved the NHL 99 intro and NHL 2000 intro. Also, loved the MLB: The Show 12 intro.

[LAKingsGeek]

NHL 98 is hands down the best sports video game intro ever. I still get chills watching it. I'm pretty that's why they are all but extinct these days. After a few years of trying to top NHL 98 they just gave up and said "why bother?" ;-)

[spacefunk]

I honestly don't remember any specific sports or wrestling game intros. No big loss.

[Bolt957]

I'll never forget the intro for the very first NFL 2K on Dreamcast.

[Hooe]

I think NBA 2K10 rendered FMV intro videos obsolete with the Michael Jordan playable intro, which was jaw-dropping at the time.

The playable intro gets players into the game faster, and when executed well (like the NBA 2K10 intro was, it hit pretty much every note) it creates more excitement about a game than a simple FMV. An opening video is cool the first couple times, but eventually the user will just impatiently button through it.

In some cases it also provides a first opportunity to teach new players the game mechanics they will need to succeed later. Recent Madden NFL have used the playable intro as a tutorial of sorts.

I don't think we'll ever see the intro FMV come back, to be honest. The playable intro is just a better feature to achieve the same purpose, I think.

[Turbojugend]

Quote: Originally Posted by crandolph

Totally agree. Some of the best were the wrestling games. Wrestlemania 2000 was a great one (no pun intended).

Yes! The AKI wrestling games were great, but even if the game itself was sub-par (WCW Nitro/Thunder), a good rasslin' video intro usually got me hyped to play. And who can forget Sting driving the big rig at Hogan in the Revenge intro? Classic stuff!!!

[Fraser G.]

Quote: Originally Posted by garyjr33

I personally loved the NHL 99 intro and NHL 2000 intro. Also, loved the MLB: The Show 12 intro.

Although I didn't mention NHL 2000 in this article, I totally agree that it's one of the best. There's a segment where the music almost stops dead while a Nashville Predators player glides along the top of the bench...it's so well edited. I've always loved that bit.

[garyjr33]

Quote: Originally Posted by bcruise

My favorite EA intro:

I loved this video!