Am I Weird for Missing Loading Screens? | Extra Punctuation

[@theescapist]

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[@eb-the-gamer6287]

With this I actually can relate. The most direct example was, oddly, Nicktoons Unite. The loading creens for each level were unique and showed that the devs cared. The Danny Phantom leves loading screen was the Box Ghost dragging a box across the floor, leaving a dust trail; and the SpongeBob one was Gary the Snail leaving a slime trail as he slid across the screen.

[@rocko7711]

I love this series

[@ParsnipCelery]

Resident Evil Chronicles on Wii had a thing where you could shoot and chase around the umbrella symbol until it broke. There's a couple others similiar to that but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

[@ryanwhittaker7675]

Not on a game, but edge web browser lets you play a version of ski free when you don’t have internet connection

[@MattSteele-r1l]

I remember blades of steel on the NES had a half time game of Gradiouse at half time the person wining though that was probably more of and ad vert.

[@ericcartman2995]

What about the early Assassin's Creed games, where you could just aimlessly walk around a grey, featureless infinite corridor? Does that count?

[@manavsridharan3811]

I used to admire the running animations when the game loaded.

[@jonathanrobles7377]

I always tried to get the clumpy clumpy swaey man to dance by going in and out of running position to make them dance. Ezio and Connor could cut rug man!!!

[@danilooliveira6580]

devil may cry and bayonetta you could could practice combos during the loadscreen.

[@The_Knife_Pie]

Honestly, I think they do. Even just bolting into the nothingness kept me entertained enough for the loading times in AC black flagon my xbox 1

[@beady123]

'If I sprint straight away maybe I'll be able to reach the edge' 😊

[@goingferal7393]

Bayonetta letting you practice the combos was a golden idea

[@DownClownTownFrown]

Although I’ve been playing the PS4 edition and I feel like the loading screens are so brief that yo have no time to practice anything

[@AlyxDps]

@@DownClownTownFrown if you push Select (or whatever equivalent, Minus for Switch) it locks you in the training room until you're ready to move on

[@ElTequilla]

@@AlyxDps man if this is true across releases, that will make me boot it up again :D thanks for informing

[@Godzeller3143]

DMC: Devil May Cry also let you do this. Pivotal for spectacle fighters.

[@pravkdey]

The reason we don't get more of this is Capcom I believe copyrighted this idea. So only they can do it

[@MrDrBoi]

Fevershingly rotating my control stick in DBZ Budokai 3 to try and spawn as many Saibamen as I could before the next fight is something I'll always remember fondly. I remember being kind of disappointed at how fast that screen passed by in the HD remake because I could never get nearly as many Saibamen as I used to.

[@Solidnypan]

My friend had some loading error and apparently there is an end to this minigame when a red saibaman appears. I think the color represented a critical error :D

[@pentagonofpeople]

The budokai games, tenkaichi included, all had good "mash the button" games. Eat as many bowls of noodles as you can! Pull out all the swords! Climb karin's tower!

[@MrValBar2]

LMAO I knew I would notice a comment about DBZ games here I freakin love the loading screens there, even if they have the ability to break your controller

[@peterjohnson4677]

Lets do two-finger push-ups with Vegeta while the fight loads! ✌️

[@petrarcheleven8816]

I knew someone would bring that up. I specifically had Budokai 2 and 3 (so spinning Roshi and Saibamen spawning) and BT3 which I think was the Z-sword one. Or didn't that one have several?

[@FioreFire]

my favorite instances of the loading-disguising hallway/animation are when you get through the whole thing and the stuff on the other side still isn't loaded yet

[@AileTheAlien]

😆I'd have just made the hallway look much longer, or put in some mist or fog or something. (Which then mysteriously disappears when it's actually done.)

[@Percival917]

That's a hilarious example of "you had one job!"

[@pieoverlord]

The loading screen minigames in various Dragonball games are a permanent fixture in the memories of some. Most were just "mash the button" with a small, charming animation to track your progress and it really showed just how little you can get away with.

[@FanZ2626]

I was going to comment about the Dragonball games if no one else had; I think they were published by Namco, which was why they were some of the few games that had them (not that they usually did MUCH with them; but I think some were better than others).

[@harofax7726]

Bayonetta allowing you to practice combos and stuff during loading was pretty brilliant imo

[@Ryumeyer]

That's what loading screens should be imo

[@harofax7726]

@@Ryumeyer yeah, at least where it applies. honestly don't mind lore/tips either, if there's a way to read them before loading is done

[@ObieCS2]

It was, although it didn't really translate to the PC port since with faster hardware you get like 2 seconds on those screens.

[@Potidaon]

You can press select to stay in loading screen training mode.

[@thgiEytnewT]

Didn't some of the Assassin's Creed games do that too?

[@MiciaSger117]

I like it when loading screens summarized what you had got up to in the story. Like Fable reminded you of a quest selected. Especially useful if you hadn't played in a while or been playing other games.

[@TENRAN432]

MGS and Amnesia doing that we’re cool as well.

[@oliverjurd]

I dunno when Witcher 3 did that I hated it because any time you wanted to reload because you lost a game of gwent it would give you an annoying monologue

[@boothefuzzyhamster3815]

Sonic Adventure did omethig similar, with a story recap every time you selected a character you had already started playing, which is a very good idea for a game with 6 chars that can be played in any order.

[@MusicByproduct]

I’d happily just browse the ridiculously massive ”codex” many modern games have. That’d be the best time for reading it. The small tips or lore snippets are annoying because the game doesn’t keep track of what is already seen, and the same cpt obvious tip for the 20th time is just bad design.

[@magnusm4]

My how useful that would be in an MMO especially when returning after months and not understanding why I have 10 bolts, 6 exp buff things, a cake launcher and multiple pieces of armor and weapons I can't use yet. Too bad the game loads up in 5 seconds nowadays so I couldn't read it anyway.

[@ystacalden]

It's obvious why it would have bypassed Yahtzee's notice, but The Sims 3 had a loading screen mini-game. Cashing in on the Venn diagram probability of people that play The Sims and people that play casual Hidden Object games having a substantial overlap, it would put up Scenes, probably from the promotional art for the DLCs, and ask you to find things. Doing so rewarded you with reward points, which would then be added to your Sim in order to purchase powerful in game items.

[@atlashugged2591]

And The Sims 3 even manages to beat the modern lack of load times because I'm sure it would still take about half an hour to load your save even if you were playing it on a supercomputer developed by an ultra-high-tech race of aliens.

[@covered_in_sponges7058]

Yes, yes it does. And the game slows it down too.

[@vipershark]

@@atlashugged2591You're bang on the money there. It's horrendously badly optimised. There is some kind of fan patch you can download to ameliorate this somewhat, but the last time I felt like playing it, I looked it up the fan patch and concluded that it was too fiddly to install.

[@Draffut2003]

When was it added? Didn't Namco have those patented till 2015? Yahtzee might have played it before then.

[@jonasfree2]

@@atlashugged2591 that and the whole game is ruined by the DLCs that EA never bothered to put any damn quality control on. A friend of mine straight up can't play the game because he made the mistake of buying the Island Paradise failure that may as well have been Malware.

[@zelatoth]

The Okami loading screen also gave you demon fangs if you did them. For those that don't know demon fangs were used to buy special equipment and items from certain merchants.

[@profdracko]

You only got the fangs if you did it in perfect time, too, making it an actual mini game.

[@lucian1311_]

Worth noting that this is only the case on ps2 iirc

[@moartems5076]

Honestly a little transition to set you in the right mood feels nice. When i load up deep rock galactic and my dwarves greets me with some grumpy sentence like "time to make a living", that can really help the atmosphere

[@MrDaylight]

There's an actual loading screen before that too, though.

[@fnorgen]

Personally I'm quite fond of loading screens simply featuring item descriptions, character portraits, little bits of lore, or just concept art. I find it really sets the mood by teasing you with little glimpses of parts of the game you haven't seen yet. They're great as long they don't last too long, and as long as there's enough such screens in circulation that you never get tired of staring at the same one over and over again.

[@thakillman7]

Loved it in Skyrim, really added to the experience. Especially since you often sprint past many fancy things or are locked in combat with bears and dragons and don't exactly go "oh so pretty" as you are engulfed in fire.

[@Ginrikuzuma]

I love these but I hate how they are sometimes implemented. Some games let you "press x to continue" so you leave the loading screen when you are done reading the bits of lore or tips others automatically have you leave so if you have an SSD you sometimes don't even get a chance to read the damn thing

[@onelongwordable]

Fallout 4 and Skyrim are the ones I think of and I agree it's pretty neat to be like 'Woah look at this big scary robot I don't wanna run into that guy yet at this level glad I get a safe look at him now'

[@MrGamelover23]

This actually is why they had to artificially lengthen the loading times on Ghost of Tsushima, people wouldn't be able to actually read the loading screen tips. Then for some reason they advertised faster loading times on the PS5 version, I guess the loading screen tips are for chumps now.

[@CharlemagneGuy127]

Spec Ops the Line did this idea perfectly by starting off with your usual gameplay tips like “shoot cracked glass to drown enemies in sand” and “shotgun enemies will rush to close the gap. Be careful.” before it pulls the rug out and starts breaking the fourth wall by giving you gameplay tips that highlight how messed up the game and it’s story has becomes chastising you the player for playing the game when you could’ve walked away, questioning you if you feel like the hero of this story yet or not.

[@OmniGundam777]

One of the Dragonball Budokai games had a small number of little loading screen mini games, though they were all just button mash to increase a number. Another DBZ game had a little thing where you could make a character fly around by spinning the control stick.

[@Agent47rulz]

Budokai Tenkaichi 3. You beat me to it lol. Very fun game.

[@TehCODKingz]

Was also about to mention this. When I was a kid, I used to think that the faster you mashed, the quicker the stage would load haha.

[@wigglenips8825]

I don't remember which one but one of the DBZ games also had a game were you shot capsules while loading. May have been either a budokai or raging blast.

[@josh8215]

Budokai Tenkaichi 2, or maybe it was Budokai Tenkaichi 3, had a series of load screen mini games featuring things like growing saibamen, having vegeta do push-ups, Goku eat bowls of food, or Gohan pulling swords out of the ground. I recall one of the Dragonball Z games even giving you a little prize for managing to get so far in the mini games before loading was finished.

[@BLeePrit]

Bandai Namco actually had a patent for loading screen minigames that didn't expire until 2015 so basically only their games were allowed to do that stuff for a long time.

[@Zorgdub]

A very good example of a transition hiding the loading was the lifts in Mass Effect 1. You'd get fun scenes of banter between your crew while waiting, and the duration of the trip could be adjusted if the loading time went down.

[@rollin340]

I love how it was brought up in the later games in-universe and the conversations they had during said times.

[@SorakuFett]

Great thing was the Remaster keeping those and giving you the choice to listen to the banter or skip the ride at your leisure.

[@tristenmagnoni7097]

I also enjoyed the loading screens in later games since it kind of gave some scale and immersion as to what was happening. Sadly the remasters go a little too fast and you miss some of that.

[@jeltezandberg6893]

I also kinda miss the installing screens of old pc games were they show you all kinds of screenshots and art of the game you are about to play. This also helps with getting you excited for playing the game.

[@russianbear0027]

The sims 3 had a loading screen game that involved you picking out what object matched the name it spat out in exchange for lifetime happiness points for the sims you were loading. It was very clearly geared to sell you things

[@ozzymandias5601]

Bioshock loading screens with 1920's music makes you feel like you are in a elevator, but in a good way. Also the music still maintain the aesthetics and vibes of rapture

[@SolaScientia]

Agreed. I've honestly not played much of BioShock and BioShock 2, but I love them in BioShock Infinite.

[@serpenttao]

How much IS that doggie in the window, anyway?

[@KumoKumiko]

the fun fact about Okami's minigame was that you were rewarded with Demon Fangs for doing well. sometimes it would assist in farming the things!! so handy, so clever, genuinely engaging every time

[@petergaley314]

How have I completed Okami twice and never even knew there was a loading minigame. Did they take it for the remaster?

[@KumoKumiko]

@@petergaley314 no, iirc this was only present in the original PS2 release for Okami. by the time the Wii version came out, the original dev studio went under, and Capcom were not interested in playing chicken with the Namco legal team by keeping it in, so it was phased out, and never made it back in for any subsequent versions / HD releases

[@scaper12123]

Ratchet and Clank did a thing during the PS2 era where they covered the loading screen with repeated cutscenes of the characters flying through space. *That’s* the kind of stuff I miss when I think of loading screens. It wasn’t much, but it made it properly FEEL like we were traveling across the vast reaches of the galaxy.

[@MaximumRabbit]

I can hear Ratchet's ship zoom in and out as I read this💀

[@GeneralNickles]

Yes. Even the new one on the PS5 does this, despite the fact that the game loads pretty much instantly.

[@Luneytoon]

The new ratchet and clank does that too except he falls through the dimensional rift

[@THB192]

I can literally hear it.

[@Vedrlaufnir]

I can't believe he didn't mention Symphony of the Night and how it allowed you to play around with the "now loading" sign while the damn thing loaded.

[@Amberpawn]

The CD rooms between areas as well in that game... Heck, they did it twice!

[@JF-bg5hv]

I miss the Easter egg of putting a Symphony of the Night disc in a CD player and listening to Alucard scold you for not using the disc properly

[@lúki-ang]

I've saw an argument from a Naughty Dog developer a while ago, I forget where, where they said that the main reason for long door and corridor sequences in modern games is to funnel the players on the right path and pace the story, which honestly annoys me more if this is true since they're so inorganic and do more to derail the pacing than anything else.

[@ArifRWinandar]

I like loading screens that give gameplay hints or lore tidbits. It's like reading audio logs or documents, but in shorter form because it has to fit into the loading screen.

[@lunarazure9969]

Except the games now load so quickly you barely have enough time to read the first two words before the game starts up again, so you know you'll never find out that handy gameplay tip that might be good to know. There's nothing worse than going back and replaying an old classic, seeing a loading screen pop up and looking forward to reading it, only for it to be gone in a flash because hardware is just so much better than it used to be.

[@massivive]

I remember reading the entire "history of resident evil" sequence of loading screen tips for Resident Evil 5 when playing that on the 360, and that covered a ton of events in the lore that I wasn't aware of replaying the game on PC with an SSD I can't even recall seeing the loading screens

[@markhackett2302]

Skyrim. Or, rather The Senile Scribbles' "loading screen" of "The Majestic Stag makes you run round like a lunatic trying to get the second hit in" made me literally lol.

[@SolaScientia]

Same. I also like it when it doesn't go away until the player presses a button. I've never tested to see if it'll start the next bit of the game without the player pressing a button if they wait long enough, but I imagine a loading screen with that setup would be there long enough for the player to go to the bathroom, get a drink, etc.

[@Daniel-yy3ty]

@@lunarazure9969 a few sensible games ask you to press a button before exiting the loading screen, after all if the loading time takes more than 2 seconds you might have moved your hands away from your input devices to take a sip or something Is it Monster Hunter World where you can pan 7 randomly selected hints with left/right and have to press the action button to start?

[@therascal8120]

I actually like loading screens because of their function as a palette cleanser. Theatrical productions have stage hands changing scenes, music fades in and out, and even films have establishing shots. Museums don't just put every painting next to each other; they're spaced out. At the same end, games have loading screens--important transitional periods for both game and player, to ruminate and then shift focus. Without them, you'd have to design such a shift yourself, and I don't trust game designers to be that good.

[@SpevaHR]

Devil May Cry 3 also had a similar loading screen to Okami where you could shoot and slash at the letters while waiting, but loadings in that game were short anyway

[@benedictrogers1478]

I think you could extend the loading times if you managed to destroy the logo? I don't actually know, never succeeded in shattering the thing.

[@CiromBreeze]

One thing I loved about older Monster Hunter games (and Rise) is that your current quest is always visible in the loading screen, complete with the (often funny) quest description. As the loading screens typically only take about 8 seconds, it's usually done by the time you read the quest description, if not before.

[@TheHowdyTank]

I quite liked the mechanic in L4D2 where on the loading screens you got stats about how you did in the last level. Kinda like a mini competition between you and your mates on who killed the most zombies or who was stupid enough to take a machete to the tank.

[@arepasxo]

Yeah. A "mini competition" in the l4d esports its part of the game

[@CommissarChaotic]

That part made me bolder at the game, the scary special infected you are supposed to stay away from looked like juicy chicken that gives you points for every bite

[@Ironbeagle5]

I distinctly remember Crash Tag Team Racing on the PS2 had a mechanic during the loading screens where you could press square or triangle and it would play a burp or fart sound effect. Needless to say this gave my brother and I endless amusement as children, honestly it was kind of genius.

[@BoardGamesBricksHobbies]

That sounds like a thing Jackbox Games would do

[@mrrandom2873]

And you could use the thumbstick to lower or raise the pitch of the burp or fart.

[@abbyysnet]

It's good to know I'm not the only one who remember the game so fondly when I think of a loading screen. Pure Nostalgia

[@gregoryfilin8040]

The right stick adjusted pitch. The left stick adjusted speed. It was really simple and cool you could play with farts and burps for a bit. It was appropriately simple and still is good fun!

[@AwesomeMooseSmile]

Rampage Total Destruction too, except in that one there were like 10-15 buttons

[@eudgenius46]

I seem to recall newer Rayman games putting you into a micro-level with simplistic geometry for you to run around in while the actual level loads, and if you were playing with friends you could punch each other like savages.

[@gigabyte2248]

IIRC, one of the things the devs were playing with in Rayman Origins and Legends was 'New Super Mario Bros. multiplayer has player-player interactions that players sometimes use to mess with each other. What if we made that deliberate?'

[@grahamwalker2168]

stop punching your friends. thats why they stopped coming round

[@thedogmaticdirector]

The patent from Namco came during their release of Tekken 1, when you could play Galaga while the main game was loading. Obviously such a good idea, and yet they never really did anything like it after the fact.

[@Jayyemi]

They also did it in Ridge Racer, I think with Galaga again

[@come_on_munster]

@Jayyemi ya I thought that Ridge Racer had Galaga too

[@michaelgrey1503]

It's insane to me that they were allowed to patent that considering Yahtzee literally points out an example of a loading screen mini game pre-Tekken 1.

[@DemonicEngineer]

The Dragon Ball fighting games.

[@michaelgrey1503]

@@DemonicEngineer which were made by Bandai Namco, the company that owned the patent. But it looks like someone else did it before Bandai Namco, so they shouldn't be allowed to patent technology someone else invented first.

[@geroni211]

Obligatory reference to Spec Ops: The Line, where the loading screen texts actually added to the experience in such a surreal way, that they actually became unconfortable. "Do you feel like a hero yet?" is such an iconic line, and its from a loading screen. I am surprised so few games don't try to play with the imersion break of loading screens, its a great time to have a fourth wall break or something like that.

[@XANApwns]

Splatoon 2 had this thing where, while you were waiting for your online lobby to fill, you could mess with the two sticks to alter the speed and pitch of the background music, and the buttons added little snippets of sound effects that sounded like they were part of the song. Not a mini game, but it was something to do

[@bird3713]

Every time that Yahtzee has brought the issue of loading screen games up in the past few years, I've always thought back to Splatoon on the Wii U; glad to see he's finally acknowledged it.

[@hoodiesticks]

I remember buying the Splatoon amiibo in part because I wanted the extra loading games. I ended up getting really good at that one volleyball game, too.

[@bird3713]

@@hoodiesticks Woah I had no idea there was more than one!

[@Hysteria98]

He acknowledged it every time I've heard him mention it.

[@Wolfs0n]

And then there's Bethesda games that just let you rotate and zoom in on models of in-game items and NPCs. While a little blurb of lore sits off in the corner, sometimes you get the really long blurbs you aren't able to finish before the loading time is done.

[@christianmccormack9245]

Came here to say this. I always found this a smart way to keep you engaged. It's not really a game but it is a sort of digital fidget toy. I approve of this.

[@GamingTonberry]

I spun the hell out of that dragon for many many hours. Would not change that.

[@GeneralNickles]

I played Skyrim on a PS5 recently, and the load times are so fast it don't even get to see the blurbs, much less read them. Depending on which environment it's loading, sometimes the 3D model doesn't even load in before the load screen ends.

[@thetominator6359]

In fire emblem three houses, on each loading screen a small sprite of the main character stood above the loading bar. You could make them move around with motion controls, and you could press a face button to make them jump, that's the most recent example of a loading screen minigame I can think of.

[@DNPsharp11]

This was such a nice little touch, it even changed the hair color on the sprite after plot happened.

[@Swamprat44]

Trying to make the sprite of Byleth take just one trip across the screen and arrive at the same time as the loading bar filling up was a little game I never got tired of.

[@samb1532]

Loading screens with a "press button to continue" prompt at the end are nice since you can walk away without worrying about dying once the new area loads. The modern "transition hallway cutscene" still incentivizes the player to remain present, while pausing the game fails to remove the forced cutscene duration.

[@designatedarkhorse]

That last idea- about a minigame where the only gameplay is seeing how many times you can press a button before the game loads, with the game keeping your high score on screen to tantalize you, sounds like a fucking phenomenal idea. I'd be shocked if this doesn't end up becoming one of those things Yahtzee predicts in Simpsons-esque fashion.

[@Crispman_777]

It's called Cookie Clicker

[@austinhoward9052]

That was basically all the loading minigames in the dragonball PS2 games. How many pushups can you make Vegeta do, or how many bowls of ramen can you make Goku eat?

[@mj4andrea]

I always liked Bayonetta letting you practice combos during the loading sequences. It was both a fun way to pass the time, but also reminded you to try out some different moves that you might not have been using.

[@DonChups]

And I played it on PC and never knew about them. Bummer.

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

I was surprised Yahtzee didn't mention Bayonetta, given he brought up and praised this feature himself when he reviewed it back in the day. But then, he HAS played about a thousand games between now and then.

[@blondepotatoboi]

I remember enjoying Bayonetta's load screens bc they'd display all the combos on one side and you could pretty much practice the combat while you waited

[@GurdevSeepersaud]

My favorite example! I don't feel bad about loading times ever in that game because I always get a chance to warm up.

[@realtalk13]

Came here to say this. For a game that's selling point is it's intricate combos, the fact that you could practice them with any weapon during the loading screens was really nice.

[@RocketSlug]

Yep! And my complaint playing it on a modern PC was that things loaded so fast that I didn't have time to practice in there XD

[@QuantumRipple]

@@RocketSlug lol same

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

That is the great reason to have loading screens too - breaks up the action enough to try and learn the new combo or read the hints. But there is nothing worse than a screen that drops those useful tips for a time too short to actually read - so I think Yahtzee is wrong on the flow breaking loading screen being too long being an issue - it just needs a skip button as soon as it loads or to auto advance at the human reading comprehension time friendly handful or two of seconds mark.

[@Ben_R4mZ]

idk if It counts but I recall hearing that ath the very least Bayonetta, (and possibly other spectacle fighters that I know nothing about), would let you practice combos during the loading screen... I'd definitely rather play a 2D sniping mini game while waiting for my open world game to load my fast travel than just stare at the loading screen.

[@EthansSpace]

Reminds me of how in spiderman on the ps5 you have to choose to turn on the little subway fast travel cutscenes because by default it loaded so fast you didn’t need them

[@paulwinfrey6637]

Greedfall, while ultimately not holding my attention, had a little mini crossroads where you could shop and manage your inventory and companions and such while you waited for the loading to finish. I thought that was a nice touch.

[@Jmaru7API]

Greedfall is an amazing game, and putting the shopping stuff into a loading part was great.

[@thepuzzlemaster64]

Loading screen minigames were much more common with old flash games when I grew-up. Some of these games took a good while to load-up initially, so having that little minigame right there made things a lot more bearable. It's oddly similar to your old cassette loading minigame story

[@JOCoStudio1]

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Guess they didn't feel the least bit threatened by the patent.

[@thepuzzlemaster64]

@@JOCoStudio1 Either that, or most teenagers who made Flash games didn't even know the patent existed

[@nathand6232]

YES! I remember playing little brick-break games while waiting for Disney flash games to load

[@thesquishedelf1301]

@@JOCoStudio1yeah flash games never made significant money, they were just an engagement tool most of the time. If Namco raised a stink it would never have been a big deal to just remove the game entirely. That said I remember being on Neopets as a kid and practicing the minigames while they were generating the world for the low effort rpg. That probably would have been a sizeable hit from Namco… But on that note, the minigames for the loading screen has their own loading screens on Neopets lmao

[@JOCoStudio1]

@@thesquishedelf1301 yeah, I'd be shocked if a company tried to go through all that legal stuff for a free flash game.

[@kobalt_ren01]

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland connected its various levels together in the story mode with corridors that you had to skate through while the next area loaded (or take the bus). It was pretty obvious that they were there to hide the loading screens, but continuing the flow of the Tony Hawk gameplay through to another level always felt fun. Also, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 had a little thing where you could spin the analogue sticks around on the loading screen to make Saibamen grow from the ground, which I remember tiring myself out on a few times.

[@XanderVJ]

It was not only Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3. I think all Dragon Ball Z games from console generation 6 had loading screen minigames, iirc. There was the Saibamen one, one in which you could form Yamcha's "Sokidan" technique, and I think there was another one in which you could make Gotenks to create as many of his ghosts as possible.

[@titan_uranus_0]

The only thing I can think of was in one of the DBZ Budokai games. During load screens, a little Roshi on a turtle shell would spin in the corner, and if you spun the analog stick, you could make him spin faster. I was compelled to oblige because if you spun him fast enough, he would start drifting to the other corner of the screen and it became a fun little game to see if I could get him there before the game loaded in.

[@Solidnypan]

In Budokai 3 there's a minigame where tapping a button would make Saibamen raise from the ground faster. It was fun sweing them populate the screen :)

[@DannyMexen9]

And another for ramen bowls

[@Lanilani27]

Which DBZ game had the loading screen with Vegeta doing more and more pushups as you pressed buttons faster?

[@Solidnypan]

@@Lanilani27 I think it was Tenkaichi 3, maybe a specific mode, not sure :)

[@williamgalley1481]

The Bayonetta games have your character in a featureless void, with a list of combos, so it was a training mode while you waited, that was pretty good! Entertaining and useful at the same time

[@satyasyasatyasya5746]

Loading screens are like opening/closing credits or something. Its a space where you can gather yourself. Without it, you're just under constant stimulation which while its something the corpos want, it isn't that good for us and diminishes enjoyment.

[@nomercy8989]

Another thing I miss is install screens. I remember installing Prototype back in 2009 on pc and being treated to this awesome sketch book style artwork that you can't really see anymore.

[@Dasaltwarrior]

I miss when games treated their boot up and title screens as opportunities to showcase the games premise and aesthetics Metal Gear Solid 1 is what comes to mind for that personally

[@TeamOmega27]

I really like long loading screens after beating a boss in a chapter/section of a game. It gives me a break and lets me process wtf just happened.

[@bikechan9903]

May I introduce you to ... The home button? Or The start button?

[@danilooliveira6580]

that is why things slow down after those sections, to give the player a breather. its called cycles of tension, and its really important to create a satisfying experience. you don't need a loading screen breaking the flow to take a break if the game designers know what they are doing.

[@teztheEverliving]

@@bikechan9903 Not Immersive. And I know the retort coming a mile away.

[@Colopty]

@@danilooliveira6580 Though slowed down action is still action that you have to engage with, so it's not quite the same opportunity to just sit back with your hands off the keyboard/controller to take in the moment. Granted, a loading screen isn't strictly speaking necessary to provide a "proper" break, but it is the simplest way.

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@Colopty but how many games drop a long loading screen just after defeating a boss ? usually its a short cutscene and then leaving you in the arena to take a breath and look around if you want. you CAN drop the controller, but it didn't force you out of the experience. some games drop you in a long and tense cutscene, what I personally think is the wrong way to go about it.

[@entropymanufacturing]

i think there's also something to be said for using loading screens for artistic effect, like the stanley parable's reminder across the bottom or games that have evolving load screens, as well as just being good for setting the tone or mood and/or giving the audience some light reading. skyrim's loading screen with the 3d models you can examine with ambient music and lore in the corner is a pretty good example

[@UnNuclear]

Not really a mini game during load screens, but I loved the loading screens for Spec Ops: The Line. It starts out with just hints and tips for how to play the game like, _"Use cover to avoid taking damage"_ and stuff like that. As the game progresses and Captain Walker begins to lose his mind, the loading screen messages get more and more unhinged and begin talking directly to the player. Messages like, _"Dubai's harbor was filled with sand when storms first wracked the city. The corpses were your doing."_ and _"The US military does not condone the killing of unarmed combatants. But this isn't real, so why should you care?"_ and my personal favorite, _"Do you feel like a hero yet?"_ . Spec Ops: The Line is a great game and everyone should play it. Devil May Cry 3 is an example of a "mini game" loading screen. While the game is loading the next bit, you can attack the DMC logo by mashing your buttons. It was mindless fun, but kept me engaged with the game until it finished loading.

[@MonkeezOnFire]

One of my favourite loading screen activities is in Warframe. It falls more into the fidget toy category than mini game, you just get to control the trajectory of your ship in a narrow cone. But just the feeling of getting to wiggle around your landing craft as it makes its way to the mission still hasn't lost its amusement factor on me.

[@ZiegIce]

That last idea about pressing a single button and your number of times pressed: Yahtzee is just describing the premise of cookie clicker lol.

[@BoardGamesBricksHobbies]

Haha, this made me laugh! As a teacher I still don't quite understand why all of the students were/are obsessed with that game.

[@Daedhart]

Also made me think of the basketball minigame in Phasmo. Some people care enough just to see the totally pointless number go up.

[@minor_edit]

Final Fantasy GFs had this

[@nuclearbiologist]

the dragon ball budokai tenkaichi games had a multiplier version of this in its loading screens. usually as something silly like vegeta doing push-ups or goku eating

[@satyasinghbhati8567]

@@nuclearbiologist was looking for this, it was fun as a child to do these. espically when the disk in ps2 took time to load somethime.

[@jadesapphira4325]

Symphony of the Night!! Not only did it have those loading corridors which still exist in later metroidvanias to break up different areas, but the proper "Now Loading" screens could be played with with the dpad

[@AdrenAlineSK]

Yes! I always try do do a little loop with the text :)

[@ezrato]

Sonic Frontiers let you practice combos while you waited on the Cyberspace levels, and I think the last couple of Rayman games let you run around the loading screen or something too

[@902496]

In the first No More Heroes, if you mashed the A button in the loading screen, the little spinning star symbol in the bottom right would start to rise up the screen, and as you mashed, it would accelerate until it flew off the top of the screen and came up from the bottom, "looping" the screen. It was fun to see how fast you could get it going and how many loops you could do before the game loaded. And they never tell you about it either, you just had to randomly figure it out by idly pressing buttons while the game was loading.

[@rickydjx]

Delta on the C64 had a fabulous music mixer. Many's the time I just stopped the tape loading and fiddled around with that awesome tune, applying effects and such that transformed it into something completely different sounding.

[@freedomscale2957]

Which would you rather have? Loading screens that take a bit long. Or all these new fangled ways publishers try and hide them in elevators squeezing past tight spaces? Are you sure it's bad to have a solid loading screen if you are just replacing it with busywork?

[@nicksmith9109]

I never realized that was why those sections existed. That explains a lot. But, I think I would prefer the loading screens if only because having better hardware can make them go faster.

[@todesziege]

The "hidden" loading screens were cool until you figured out that was what they were. Now I find them significantly more annoying than a loading screen. Making me hold down 'forward' is not engaging.

[@jarvis8635]

I liked the quick race to use the bathroom or to the kitchen to get snacks while the game was loading. It also was just kind of nice to take a mini break.

[@alisonpurgatory85]

Yeah it’s really good for pacing, doesn’t make the game feel like a slog- and also so you don’t forget that you’re a human in a ten hour gaming marathon lol

[@luismartins1150]

The FIFA games also had minigames (idk which). But I remember you could practice some skill while waiting fot the complete match to load. For me it was the perfect use of this idea

[@Tumeg2108]

I wish they brought that back, I totally forgot they had practice pitch minigames while you waited for an opponent online.

[@alisonpurgatory85]

I’m playing Dawn of War 2 at the moment and it’s loading screens for the campaign missions are great. A pretty screenshot/rendering of dynamically staged characters or units from a faction, info about factions, characters or events that are relevant to the mission you’re about to play. It’s a great supplement- definitely builds anticipation as you said, but in a way that adds to your understanding of the story and world. I’m a long time fan of the setting but for a new player I imagine they’d be very effective in generating mystery, like ‘ooh I wonder what is gonna happen with this character’ or ‘ow wow this faction seems pretty scary, how am I gonna beat them?’ Even after playing it so many times, they still get me excited.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Loading Screens are like when you want to watch something on TV, but you've got to get through the last program's credits and the channel ident first. It's a nice buildup to the fun game experience you're about to have. And the music is often great! The Loading Screen Music for The Settlers: Heritage of Kings isn't anywhere else in the game!

[@lullylew9083]

I hear you. I miss being able to read the helpful hints and lore tidbits. Not so much a loading screen but one of the Gradius games I played recently had a grid pattern for CRT geometry.

[@aoifesdomain]

My favorite loading screen minigame was I think in Devil May Cry 3 where you could mash the attack button to slash up the loading screen. Sadly that was removed from the HD collection :(

[@danyawelly]

Yahtzee's point on in-game loading screens of fixed length -- opening doors or squeezing through tight tunnels -- being woven into the game design is EXACTLY how I feel about them: When you play the games on more modern hardware, the amount of "squeeze through here while we load the next area" moments feel completely pointless and DESTROY the pacing. Despite my love for it, The Last of Us is a prime example. On a separate note, his mention of Okami's minigame loading screen is also pretty spot-on. Dragonball Z: Budokai's loading screens are some of the best in the industry, so much so that they patented "auxiliary games" in between the ACTUAL gameplay (which expired in 2015). It's hard to say what the best solution is -- I've never made a game before, so there are most certainly invisible technical hurdles I'm not privy to -- but yeah: Interesting video.

[@nicholasplant2129]

The first Tekken I believe let you play Galaga whilst the game was loading in. The cool thing about this was it continued to let you play if you were having a good game or high score run. Even after the game finished loading.

[@xShadowBlade83]

Sometimes even something as basic as a unique sound can make a loading screen fun. I haven’t played Crash Bash in over two decades, but I still remember the loading screen music and how the 3D LOADING text bobbed to it

[@thisguy64]

A few I liked was, in the Bayonetta loading screens you can practice your moves and combos.. or in resident evil the umbrella Chronicles on the Wii you can shoot the loading symbol and juggle it in the air.. in crash team racing during the loading screens you can press buttons to make burping and farting sounds and you can use the analog stick to change the pitch and tone..

[@stolenii8803]

Recently, Sonic Frontiers does a little thing of running you through combat mechanics while on loading screens where you can practice movement and recently obtained combat moves so that you'll be better acquainted with Sonics moveset. I thought that was pretty neat and wondered my more games didn't do that ever. Learning now about that Namco thing might've been why.

[@weedblaster2125]

Even I, a zoomer, miss the funny noise, on-screen imperfections and static artifacts of VHS tapes

[@brendanwhalen3607]

I definitely don't miss the pan and scan versions of movies you'd get on VHS.

[@D_2_da_K87]

I keep up with tech but as a dj a jungle record like valley of the shadows or the 45 rollers remix of the wolf by shy fx sound immense on decent needle with a kenwood amp and a pair of tannoy 607s I'd take vinyl all day long on that setup

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

For me I miss GBA-style music and just pocketable consoles with exclusive games in general. I never got the hate for GBA music, it always sounded pleasant to me (unless we are talking about Castlevania "Harmony" of Dissonance). And also there aren't really any portable games or consoles built like back in the GBA-3DS era. Now it is all tablets I need a backpack to lug around and games I already played on PC but now with worse graphics and a lowered framerate.

[@chrisfratz]

​​@@brendanwhalen3607 As a 22 year old, honestly that's why I like LaserDisc a lot, you get the aesthetic of old analog video but a lot of movies typically got widescreen releases on the format. I don't have the equipment to play the back myself but I was watching a really nice high quality capture of the LaserDisc for George Lucas's THX 1138 and something feels right about watching an old movie like that on LaserDisc. Yeah the Blu-ray technically looks nicer, as it should. But there's something about the LD version that looks really nice too, I think it's the analog noise which gives the image a textured look.

[@SneakySodomiser]

Righto champion

[@FLYNN_TAGGART]

I like Symphony of the Night's "CD" rooms for loading the next area's song. Just enough quite to build up mystique about where you were going.

[@RFC-3514]

This might seem a bit obvious, but one of the reasons why even games with long loading pauses don't bother with "mini games" is that, in modern systems, you can generally just alt+tab and play _any_ game you want during those pauses. This isn't necessarily true for games made by clueless people (cough*wasteland2*cough), that pause everything - _including_ loading - when you alt+tab out, though.

[@signa8]

I can understand the feeling of wanting/missing something old like that. I chalk it up to missing those moments because they were moments you could slow down and just take in more than the fast-paced modern era allows you to do. There is something just more... human about being able to take your time instead of fighting to keep up in time with a machine. Like trying to win a foot race with a car.

[@simonklus4222]

I liked loading screens in RPGs where the loading screen would be an artwork from the game plus some tips or lore at the bottom. Sometime there would even be gameplay mechanics you might otherwise miss.

[@svenbtb]

They still do that, and yeah it's fun

[@desserted5446]

Big fan of Total War’s loading screens. Great time to showcase beautiful artwork and give a handy tip or two to the player.

[@olivierl.anklebab2624]

There are quite a few of these. Just on the top of my head, Bayonetta had that practice-your-weapon- move-sets during the loading screen, and Castlevania SOTN allowed you to twist and play with the "loading" word.

[@WhisperingNostrils]

Bayonettas 1 & 2 (haven’t played 3) let you practice combo attacks during their loading screens. That function was always a standout.

[@tommydplayskeys]

I don't mind loading screens. It's a good reminder to rest your eyes/focus on something else, or answer a text, have a drink/snack - generally a way to remember to look after yourself in between bursts of video game hypnosis.

[@CommDante]

Beats a blackscreen with just an icon turning.

[@helplmchoking]

​@@CommDante still better than blank white loading screens, that shit needs to stop

[@CommDante]

@@helplmchoking Haven't seen that yet, I think. It's gonna burn your eyes out on HDR. >_

[@akmal94ibrahim]

​@@helplmchokingAC3 burned my eyes with their blindingly white loading screens and Animus custscenes. Whichever idiot decided on that needs to be reprimanded

[@jezo-matic991]

Katamari had that thing where you make the king of the universe's head fly around for no reason

[@RexMatical]

even just being able to move the "Now Loading..." text around in symphony of the night is enough to keep me engaged during those loading screens, and it's genuinely fun for me every time

[@helplmchoking]

Yeah even the very basic approach Bethesda took with Skyrim and especially Fallout 4 is a nice touch even if it took me ages to figure out how to turn off the green hologram filter

[@nicolasriveros943]

You can shot /slash the "now loading" text in Devil May Cry 3 if i recall it correctly

[@8bitthemepark]

The Korg Minilogue synthesizer has a fun feature where whilst it's loading if you turn one of the knobs the tiny display will start a breakout game

[@fguocokgyloeu4817]

When binge watching network TV, sometimes I miss the commercial breaks. Not the commercials themselves of course, but the 2 minute interlude added some tension.

[@PartTimeBox]

In Wave Race Blue Storm you could move a little circle around the loading screen that would ripple the water. It was...something to do.

[@Scrambles_Deathdealer]

The only loading screen game I can think of was being able to fiddle with the "now loading" text in-between areas in Castlevania Symphony of the Night period

[@kappanova1302]

Okami was pretty great since the collected demon fangs were added to your inventory. I also liked the ones in the DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi games. They were simple, yet very fulfilling

[@overseastom]

Bayonetta had the best one, where you could practice combos while the next stage loaded! Genius.

[@maromania7]

I'm personally fond of when modern ones do give you the quick load, but have different screens of characters that jump or emote when you press buttons. Not a game, but something that'll keep you occupied for that 10-20 seconds. If nothing else, I'll take trivia like in fallout, or even tutorials like in frontiers. A bit clunky on the execution, but not a bad place to remind me of something I haven't used in a while.

[@prashanthb4565]

Yes, you are weird for missing them Yahtzee

[@sassas6420]

I miss the breather between levels and checking out the cool loading screen art.

[@Killbauer]

I honestly appreciate how Yahtzee manages to shit on the AAA-industry once more in an unexpected manner.

[@danb.709]

It was definitely a part of the feel of old resident evil games, it added to the tension and decision making. Each area was more individual, you could be in a room with a zombie, know you could get away by running through a door they couldn't, but also know the next room could be more dangerous, or definitely is more dangerous because you left it that way by running away previously, it was a gamble. It made running away mean you often had to face the consequences later. In newer games the zombies seem to have doors figured out a lot better.

[@hukama6911]

0:52 form hanging around online audio forum too much I can tell you that, vinyl more often than not has better mastering.

[@tom4972]

Vinyl is by far the best quality audio format going. The scratch and pop only occurs with old, worn out vinyl but put a new one vs CD or MP3 and theres no contest. I say this because it's the first yahtzee analogy that made me say "That makes no fucking sense" as opposed to actually caring that much. Don't @ me.

[@michaelwebster5967]

Vinyl does NOT make music”low-quality.” I listen to a modern track on MP3 and then play the same track on my record player, and the contrast is STARK. This sorta thing depends on the set-up but audiophiles know what’s up.

[@angelnickl]

It might be a situation of limitations breed creativity. And loading times also made pacing of games different, where you have literal downtime while you wait for the game to load the next segment. A situation that might seem quaint to people of modern day and the always go-go-go of entertainment abundance, but moments of downtime can highlight and allow breaks from extreme concentration or high levels of input precisian.

[@JusticeSoulTuna]

There was a charm to loading screens. From the helpful hints you see, to quotes from in-game or real life sources. Mini games were the rare treat.

[@kingsleycy3450]

X Men Legends had these gorgeous artwork during the loading screens that really added to the atmosphere. But of course the loading screens were ungodly long and it killed my desire to replay the game

[@fedupN]

Not a game, per se, but the Symphony of the Night loading screen when transitioning between sections of the castle, where you can move the text around in swirly fun ways. Was super fun.

[@AltimeterAlligator]

Yahtzee you're _wrong_ about vinyl and it's _obviously very important_ that you understand why. Digital audio is just a computer's best attempt -- thousands of very small slices that don't quite fit together, but resemble the recording well enough. Vinyl may introduce imperfections, but it holds analog data, meaning the audio is *one big slice of uninterrupted sound.* You'd be surprised how many details get averaged together in a digital recording.

[@Shadowreaper5]

Yatzhee you are completely forgetting the zone where you can practice combos in Bayonetta during loading screens.

[@NightBiscut]

From around FIFA 10 onwards the game would put you in a practice mode while it loaded the match, which would then transition into the stadium once it had loaded.