Attract Mode: Difference between revisions

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== Film ==

* Game-within-a-movie example: ''[[The Last Starfighter]]''. "Greetings Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada!" (Especially noteworthy in that the movie also shows the game's '''glitched''' Attract Mode, when the machine goes nuts {{spoiler|in response to detecting either Centauri or an alien assassin in the vicinity.}})

== Video Games ==

=== Arcade Games ===

* In the famous arcade game ''[[Berzerk]]'', one of the earliest uses of a voice chip in arcade games is apparent when the game says, "Coin detected in pocket," during the attract mode.

* In the equally famous game ''[[Sinistar]]'', the game does more than simply try to attract players — it actually ''taunts'' them, using its voice chip. Phrases such as "Beware, I live!" and "Run, coward! I am Sinistar!" were frequently heard in arcades whose managers didn't shut off the voice during the attract sequence (according to MAME, each Sinistar machine is fitted with a HC-55516 voice synthesizer chip). It wasn't a cheap game to own for most arcade owners.

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* The arcade game ''[[Galaga]]'' had an attract mode that, due to a bug, you could actually control...and reset the machine, even.

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** ''[[Gradius|Salamander 2]]'' also has an interactive attract mode, though it's implemented on purpose.

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* ''[[Soul Edge]]'': ...to GO!! to SHINE!!

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** "Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords eternally retold." (title screen without intro)

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** "The heroes finally meet under the star of destiny" (gameplay demo)

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* Not all classic coin-ops had gameplay demo sequences. The attract mode of ''[[The Tower of Druaga]]'' consists entirely of the title screen, the high score table, the title screen again, the [[Opening Narration]], the title screen again, etc.

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** Other examples are ''Baby [[Pac-Man]]'', ''[[Spy Hunter]] II'' (not to be confused with the sequel to the remake), and ''[[Xenophobe]]''.

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* Later ''[[Ace Combat]]'' games would feature a video sequence if left alone at the title screen. Most of the time it's just a trailer for the game itself.

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* ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' and ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' games alternate between replaying the opening movie and gameplay footage. Generally not very exciting footage, for some reason.

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* ''[[Wangan Midnight]] Maximum Tune 3DX+'' has a song during the attract mode called "Stay Where You Are" where a female singer repeats the title over and over. Guess what the game wants you to do.

=== Console/Computer Games ===

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'''s idle mode was somewhat controllable. In some versions of the game, holding A, B and C would prevent Sonic from being able to jump. Most notable during the Green Hill Zone Act 1 section, as Sonic would run straight into the game's first enemy and die.

** ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Super Mario Land 2]]'' also had demos you could control with a specific button combination. Normally, the demos would end after a set number of button presses, but one of the demo stages was actually beatable in that amount. Doing so would crash the game.

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* ''[[Mario Kart]]'' games have always had several attract modes, playing in sequence if you left the title screen undisturbed. The original SNES game had modes showcasing two-player Grand Prix, Time Trial, Battle Mode and one-player Grand Prix.

** The Wii version even has Mario and Luigi demonstrating how to race with the included Wii Wheel like they are the players in the real world before going to a more traditional in game attract mode.

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* The arcade game ''[[Galaga]]'' had an attract mode that, due to a bug, you could actually control...and reset the machine, even.

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** ''[[Gradius|Salamander 2]]'' also has an interactive attract mode, though it's implemented on purpose.

* ''[[Star Wars]]: Jedi Power Battles'' had a pretty cool one where the different Jedi show off their powers.

* ''[[Metroid|Super Metroid]]'' has several sets of demos, the initial ones just showing normal gameplay but progressing far enough into the game would unlock demos that actually show various tips and tricks, most of them being obscure stuff you wouldn't think of doing such as the [[Charged Attack|charge beam]]-powerbomb combos and fancy ways to use the [[Super Speed|Speed Booster]].

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*** It also [[Trailers Always Spoil|spoils certain plot-points in the game]].

** The ''[[Tales Of]]'' series generally has anime cutscenes with fast-paced (often vocal) music. Sometimes it's the only anime cutscene other than the ending. Similarly with ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]''.

** Add [[Atelier Iris]] do that list.

** Add [[Atelier Iris]] to that list.{{context}}

** The ''[[Wild ARMs]]'' series also uses anime cutscenes set to some song. Later games alternate this with some random battle demonstrations, but the [[Wild ARMs 1|first game]] actually showed a very plot-related ingame cutscene of some backstory... that you never see anywhere else. The [[Wild ARMs 1|remake]] kept this.

** Both ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' and ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 2'' feature orchestral remixes of their main themes accompanying a few verses of poetry and quick cuts of scenes that take place within the game.

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** [[Nippon Ichi]] games either show story-related cutscenes or cycle through clips of gameplay demonstrating some of the more interesting moves available.

* Madden games pick two random teams (that are not historical teams or NFL Europe teams), and pits them head to head in a full CPU-controlled game, using the current settings.

* Many early [[First-Person Shooter]] games, starting with ''[[Wolfenstein 3D~~|Wolfenstein 3-D~~]]'', would display demo recordings of the game if left idle at the title screen. Interestingly, such demos almost always ended with the recording player's death.

* Many early [[First-Person Shooter]] games, starting with ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'', would display demo recordings of the game if left idle at the title screen. Interestingly, such demos almost always ended with the recording player's death.

* Both ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' and ''[[Rock Band]]'' would have random songs being performed if left at the title screen for too long.

** ''Guitar Hero 5'' takes it a step further and has the attract mode be "Party Mode", which takes random on-disc or DLC songs (no customs, including Neversoft's) and has the currently set up band onstage performing them while allowing people to jump in and out at will on any instrument without worrying about failing. Additionally, anyone playing can pause without interrupting the song and switch difficulty or handedness, or even request a song change (which is one of the few actions that ''does'' stop playback).

** ''[[Rock Band]] 2'', on the other hand, loops between two songs: "Let There Be Rock" and the "Hello There" video.

* Leaving the start screen on ''Zelda games idle for a time usually brings up something. In the two original NES games, players were treated to a scrolling explanation ([[Gannon Banned|famously misspelled]], in ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'') of the game's plot. Most recently, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: ~~Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda~~ Twilight Princess]]'' features an attract mode with a lengthy montage of cutscenes and game action set to some of the game's best music. ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'' also has one that shows brief scenes of the Fire Temple, the Spirit Temple or the Forest Temple.

* Leaving the start screen on ''Zelda games idle for a time usually brings up something. In the two original NES games, players were treated to a scrolling explanation ([[Gannon Banned|famously misspelled]], in ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'') of the game's plot. Most recently,{{when}} ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' features an attract mode with a lengthy montage of cutscenes and game action set to some of the game's best music. ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'' also has one that shows brief scenes of the Fire Temple, the Spirit Temple or the Forest Temple.

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* ''[[Soul Edge|...to GO!! to SHINE!!~~]]''~~

⚫

** "Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords eternally retold." (title screen without intro)

⚫

** "The heroes finally meet under the star of destiny" (gameplay demo)

⚫

* ~~Movie example, or rather game~~-within-a-movie example: [[The Last Starfighter|"Greetings Starfighter!]] You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada!" (Especially noteworthy in that the movie also shows the game's '''glitched''' Attract Mode, when the machine goes nuts {{spoiler|in response to detecting either Centauri or an alien assassin in the vicinity.}})

* ''[[Glider]] PRO'', if left too long on the title screen, will start an automated playthrough of Demo House.

* Some games in the ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' series allowed you to move a joystick or press a button to show certain high score lists during attract mode. Very nice if you wanted to see whether someone had beaten your best score without waiting around. The arcade version of ''Ultimate MK 3'' had a fake character, a [[Stealth Pun|purple ninja named "Rain"]], appear in attract mode, although he became playable in the home versions and later games.

* ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' has a particularly [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLTTXjxlZSU chilling one].

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* Not all classic coin-ops had gameplay demo sequences. The attract mode of ''[[The Tower of Druaga]]'' consists entirely of the title screen, the high score table, the title screen again, the [[Opening Narration]], the title screen again, etc.

⚫

** Other examples are ''Baby [[Pac-Man]]'', ''[[Spy Hunter]] II'' (not to be confused with the sequel to the remake), and ''[[Xenophobe]]''.

⚫

* Later ''[[Ace Combat]]'' games would feature a video sequence if left alone at the title screen. Most of the time it's just a trailer for the game itself.

⚫

* ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' and ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' games alternate between replaying the opening movie and gameplay footage. Generally not very exciting footage, for some reason.

* Atari's eight-bit home computers (the 400 and 800 and later variants) had what was commonly referred to as "attract mode" built-in. In truth, this feature was more akin to a primitive screensaver, simply cycling the color palette after about nine minutes of no input, in order to avoid screen burn. (This, of course, didn't preclude games from including a "real" attract mode).

* ''[[DJMAX]] Technika 2'' has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYEu5c7Hlr0 one of the more interactive examples]; during the Attract Mode, most of the time there are buttons that allow you to cycle between the tutorial, the score rankings, and the song preview. The former two are [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|straightforward enough]], but song preview allows you to select a song to hear a brief clip of, so you can hear what it sounds like before starting a game.

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* Coin operated kiddie rides gotten on the bandwagon since the early 90s. Many Japanese and Italian made rides would play a snippet of the song that it would play while running (which may or may not be accompanied with speech inviting kids to ride the thing). Those made in the UK plays back speech snippets (which among other things, invites any passing kids to play with it, explains the type of coins accepted by the ride as most rides originating from the country are multi-coin capable, as well as the vendor's service phone number), but music sample is optional and not all rides play it. Some are just plain illogical (the interactive van series of rides by R.G. Mitchells are often cited by parents as [[Nightmare Fuel]]- [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSMkriaDwkM this is why]). Certain new ~~china~~-made rides are starting to have an attract mode too, which has nothing to do with whatever music the ride actually plays. Many new lower end rides however do not have an attract mode at all.

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* [[Wangan Midnight]] Maximum Tune 3DX+ has a song during the attract mode called "Stay Where You Are" where a female singer repeats the title over and over. Guess what the game wants you to do.

* Left to its own devices, the main menu of [[Devil May Cry]] plays some helpful demos of Dante's moves in combat, as well as a story trailer.

* ''[[Kirby Super Star]]'', a game made up of several sub-games, will play a series of story sequences explaining the plot of each of the sub-games if you let it sit at the title sequence long enough. What most people don't realize is that letting the game cycle through these scenes twice will play an extra scene that acts as a prologue to the final sub-game, Milkyway Wishes. Since many players are unlikely to ever find this scene, the final boss appears to be a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]].

** Though each sub-game will show its plot at its own sub-title screen as well.

* [[Night Trap]] has this.

* ''[[Night Trap]]'' has this.{{context}}

* The ''[[Touhou]]'' games do the standard showing off how the game is played thing. Why isn't entirely clear, considering that you're not going to find them in an arcade and there's not a whole lot of tricks to show.

* Some ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' titles have a sequence of Mecha performing their signature moves with theme songs playing.

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** The latter's actually contained ''over 40'' possible scenes, progressively unlocked by completing multiple playthroughs or ending with a better rank. Most notably, some confirm important plot points that are only hinted at in the actual story, such as Levin {{spoiler|dying at the end of the 1st gen and being resurrected by Holsety.}}

* ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' has one that shows some events that [[Trailers Always Lie|don't actually happen in the game, and with characters that you can't have at the points displayed]], and has ''The Dream That Time Dreams''/''[[Spell My Name with an "S"|Time of the Dreamwatch]]'' play. Except for in one obscure [[Multiple Endings|alternate ending]], [[Wasted Song|this is the only time it plays]].

== Other Media ==

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* Coin operated kiddie rides gotten on the bandwagon since the early 90s. Many Japanese and Italian made rides would play a snippet of the song that it would play while running (which may or may not be accompanied with speech inviting kids to ride the thing). Those made in the UK plays back speech snippets (which among other things, invites any passing kids to play with it, explains the type of coins accepted by the ride as most rides originating from the country are multi-coin capable, as well as the vendor's service phone number), but music sample is optional and not all rides play it. Some are just plain illogical (the interactive van series of rides by R.G. Mitchells are often cited by parents as [[Nightmare Fuel]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSMkriaDwkM this is why]). Certain new China-made rides are starting to have an attract mode too, which has nothing to do with whatever music the ride actually plays. Many new lower-end rides, however, do not have an attract mode at all.