Automatic New Game
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A Video Game which, the first time the player starts up the game, skips past the title screen or menu that the game will eventually display on every subsequent boot-up, and goes straight into the game itself.
Alternately, the game may still display its title screen with the opening FMV, but will skip the frontend menu and start an Automatic New Game if it could not find a previous save file.
Examples of Automatic New Game include:
- X-Men 2: Clone Wars for the Genesis dropped you into the first level as soon as the game was on, skipping even the usual opening credits, with a random character (Beast, 9 times out of 10). The title only appeared once you cleared this stage.
- Black and White prompted the player for his deity's name and symbol, then sent him straight into its Tutorial level.
- This is kind of necessary, since the game's menu system consists of an in-game building that's only constructed as part of the tutorial.
- Golden Sun and its sequel started by prompting the player to name his character, before proceeding into a New Game.
- Grand Theft Auto IV, as well as a few other titles developed by Rockstar, do this.
- It also does its logical counterpart, the Automatic Continue Game; if save-files are found, it will automatically load the latest one. This can get highly annoying if you have multiple different saves and will always have to endure an extra Loading Screen before being allowed to choose which one you actually wanted to load.
- LittleBigPlanet prompted the player to name his character and then automatically dropped him into the game's Tutorial level.
- The video game adaptation of the The Lord of the Rings films (the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers game) used the forging of the One Ring for its opening FMV, then dropped the first-time player right into Isildur's boots in the battle between the Last Alliance and Sauron's forces on the foothills of Mount Doom with no explanation and little in the way of tutorials.
- Ditto the later Return of the King game, you can only access the menu on subsequent startups, as on initial installation it runs through clips from the movies of The Battle of Helm's Deep up to Gandalf's arrival, at which point it crossfades directly from live-action to gameplay in the heat of his siegebreaking.
- In Pokémon, games from FireRed and LeafGreen (except Emerald) until Black and White still displayed their title screen, but automatically proceeded to a New Game when the A or Start button is pressed and there is no save file.
- Wii Sports Resort selected one of the player's Miis and placed him directly into the Skydiving event before unveiling its title screen the first time.
- The later James Bond games developed by Electronic Arts do this to mirror the tradition of a before-credits action sequence.
- No More Heroes did this, only pausing to let you choose your difficulty level and then throwing you in. After you save, it takes this trope further, automatically loading the most recent file whenever you turn on your Wii. To get to another save, you have to wait for the recent one to load, then go to the pause menu to access the load screen.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle does the same thing when starting a new game, but when you have files saved, it gives you the option to pick which one to load.
- Final Fantasy IV to VI for the Super Nintendo did this if there were no save files present, jumping you straight into the opening cutscene.
- In Famous starts with a Press Start screen...but as soon as you press start, a huge explosion goes off and you're right into the action.
- Chrono Trigger for the SNES has this with a clock pendulum showing up right when you turn on the game, then you're sent to the “Action/Wait” battle style selection before you name your main character. And then it's a stupidly long opening scene. But no file selection if there's no save data! And the DS version has an extra cutscene before the extra-long (due to the dual screens) pendulum/logo.
- Metroid: Other M gave you the option to turn on the subtitles then threw you straight into the intro. Bypassing even the title screen!
- Fate/stay night will start up at the beginning of the prologue narrated by Rin until you finish it and reach the main story narrated by Shirou, at which point you start up at the title screen.
- Sonic Colors, where, on the first play, the start button is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- This trend is continued in Sonic Generations, in which starting the game up the first time launches you into the game's first level, Green Hill Zone Act 1.
- Burnout Paradise drops you straight into an unskippable intro FMV, then into the city in your first car. Like Grand Theft Auto it also auto-loads your most recent autosave if one is found.