History Main / PlayableMenu

'''Note:''' This is distinct from games featuring creative menu-cursor icons (such as the protagonist's head, hand, or full body sprite) but whose menus are still navigated in the traditional manner of highlighting/clicking on text labels or icons; a PlayableMenu ''must'' be navigated using actual gameplay controls and in-universe interactions.

Also note that the following tropes, while related to the concept of PaintingTheMedium, are not considered examples of a Playable Menu:
* JustifiedSavePoint: Checkpoints and/or {{Save Point}}s manifested as in-universe objects, like using a typewriter to save your game in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''.
* AttractMode: Demo gameplay that proceeds automatically, even if it takes place in the background while the player navigates a traditional menu overlay. Note that the player character representing the menu cursor but still working as one also falls under this category (''[[VideoGame/{{Pitfall}} Pitfall 3D]]'').
* HubLevel: An actual level used to connect other levels via pathways, warps, or portals (possibly with a SavePoint for good measure). Please describe the hybrids between main menu and the HubLevel only if it's indeed something special (and not just save/load screen).
* MiniGameCredits: Playable credits (''[[VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead The Typing Of The Dead]]''), which are an interactive form of '''CreditsGag'''.

** Subverted in ''I Wanna Be The Shrine Maiden'': you have two options to choose from: "Start" and "Tutorial". "Start" is self-explanatory, but when you try to jump on "Tutorial"... [[ButThouMust Splat.]] Okay, [[EstablishingSeriesMoment let's just say the main menu is the first level after all]].
** ''I Wanna Be The Better Er- Engine'' has got a regular Load Game menu, but, at the same time, allows its' users to have difficulty selection passages, as well as the point where you may redefine the controls "on the fly".

* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'''s menu is a large cave chamber... with only two doors (and the HubLevel, if you unlocked the shortcut), a flare you can toss around and logo you can jump on and off (you can't die this way, no matter how much you try). Averted in the remake, as there's now an ordinary menu in the game (the large chamber is still there, now purely the main mode's HubLevel).

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' manages this, particularly in Travis' apartment. In [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes the first game]], the city of Santa Destroy was a WideOpenSandbox, with visitable buildings and areas within it being nothing more than menu screens with a different backdrop, unless there was a side-job or assassination mission set there; in ''Desperate Struggle'' this is reversed, where now the city itself is just a glorified menu screen and all of the places you can go to from there being fully-rendered interiors you can walk around in. As above, the apartment is the most notable example as, unlike the other buildings where you have to walk to the one person in them to do whatever it is they do, here you can walk all over the apartment to do various things (walk to the closet to change clothes, sit down on the chair to watch TV or [[ShowWithinAShow play a game]], go into the bathroom to [[JustifiedSavePoint drop a save]], etc).

* ''VideoGame/TimeTraveler'': If this is your first adventure, select "Learn"!
** Or, if you won't move him left to the above mentioned tutorial, Marshal will automatically enter the "Play" portal.

* The first ''{{VideoGame/Quake|I}}'' is one of the earliest examples of using this trope, combined with HubLevel: first, you choose the difficulty level by entering one of the portals. After that, when you're inside the episode select part, it starts acting more like a HubLevel... [[spoiler:Although it's the only part where you can access the secret Nightmare difficulty.]]
** With this game's multiplayer support, it can be taken to the next level by allowing you to play the Hub Level ''in deathmatch mode.''
* Latest versions of ''VideoGame/{{Sauerbraten}}'' do throw you into the "multiplayer map by default", should only you run the executable, but the catch is this: press ESC to summon the options menu, and you not only may point the menu buttons with your crosshair... you may actually '''freely walk''' around them.
** Remember, though, like in ''VideoGame/{{Cube}}'', TimeKeepsOnTicking.
** If you have "2D menus" on, then this trope is not valid.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' - the main menu actually has the player strapped to a chair, with the options appearing on a TV nearby, though it acts more like a traditional menu once you select one of the options. [[spoiler:You can also repeatedly hit a button to break out of the chair and explore the room you're in.]]
* ZigZagged in ''VideoGame/HardReset''. The [[PointBuildSystem upgrade]] interface has you control the PlayerCharacter...while he uses a point-and-click menu. Your mouse cursor controls the cursor on his screen.

* ''VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage'' consists mainly of level selection hubs and has nothing to do with this trope. Nothing, except this curious example: in the home of the first world, Hunter may propose you to switch the camera from active to passive and vice versa.
** Likewise, Zoe will do the same in the first homeworld of the third game.
* Counts for just about everything (except the credits) in ''Concerned Joe'' from Website/ArmorGames, starting with the logos, going through the main menu, and finishing with ending. Considering there is NoFourthWall either...

[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Earth 2140}}'' uses fully panoramic menus, mission selection and briefing screens, all scrollable and clickable with the mouse. Emphasis on ''scrollable''. Well, you know, scrolling the area and clicking on units is exactly what you do during the gameplay.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* ''[[VideoGame/BitTrip BIT.TRIP BEAT, CORE, VOID, and FLUX.]]''
[[/folder]]

* ''MagiNation'' uses it. You can even reach the NewGamePlus option by a secret area that you need a later-game item to access.

* ''[[SpyroTheDragon Spyro The Dragon 2]]'' consists mainly of level selection hubs and has nothing to do with this trope. Nothing, except this curious example: in the home of the first world, Hunter may propose you to switch the camera from active to passive and vice versa.

* Counts for just about everything (except the credits) in ''Concerned Joe'' from Armor Games, starting with the logos, going through the main menu, and finishing with ending. Considering there is NoFourthWall either...

* ''UsefulNotes/{{Mc|Donalds}}Kids'' allows you to control the character on the main menu this way also.

* Latest versions of ''[[VideoGame/Cube Sauerbraten]]'' do throw you into the "multiplayer map by default", should only you run the executable, but the catch is this: press ESC to summon the options menu, and you not only may point the menu buttons with your crosshair... you may actually '''freely walk''' around them.

* In the ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' ArcadeGame, gameplay begins with a screen in which Indy selects Easy, Medium or Hard difficulty by entering one or three doors. Naturally, the "Hard" door is the least simple to reach.

* Latest versions of ''[[CubeEngine Sauerbraten]]'' do throw you into the "multiplayer map by default", should only you run the executable, but the catch is this: press ESC to summon the options menu, and you not only may point the menu buttons with your crosshair... you may actually '''freely walk''' around them.

* ''{{Mc|Donalds}}Kids'' allows you to control the character on the main menu this way also.

* A bland ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighter Street Fighter 1]]'' [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct knockoff]] on the [=NES made by ASDER=], called ''Fighting Hero'' also has a [[HubLevel similar feature]] for the country selection. [[HitboxDissonance Only this time, it didn't work]].

* ''SuperCosplayWarUltra'', partially as the result of being programmed on ''Fighter Maker 2002'' engine, allows you to choose one of the four singleplayer modes... [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential by hitting cosplayers that represent these modes.]] Oh yeah.

** Subverted in ''I Wanna Be The Shrine Maiden'': you have two options to choose from: "Start" and "Tutorial". "Start" is self-explanatory, but when you try to jump on "Tutorial"... [[ButThouMust Splat.]] Okay, let's just say the main menu '''IS''' the first level after all.

* The ship selection screen in ''[[RogueSquadron Rogue Leader]]'' is a hangar that you explore on foot with your character.

** A bland ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighter Street Fighter 1]]'' [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct knockoff]] on the [=NES made by ASDER=], called ''Fighting Hero'' also has a [[HubLevel similar feature]] for the country selection. [[HitboxDissonance Only this time, it didn't work]].

** There is also a button in the Scores door where you have to push a block down a path to push the block onto it. The button resets the scores.

* ''VideoGame/TakeshisChallenge'', [[HeAlsoDid from the creator of]] [[Series/TakeshisCastle Takeshi's Castle]]. Moreover, you don't even have to leave the menu in order to get an ending! Just punch the title screen '''20000''' times and you're done.

* ''Bumble Bee'', a ''VideoGame/LadyBug'' clone for the BBCMicro, had a playable high score name entry screen. Letters were entered by walking the insect over them.

* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'': The room you start in acts as a overworld map, a [[BreakingTheFourthWall settings page]], a place to [[CompletionMeter track all the quotes you've found so far]], and the place you can [[ResetButton escape to anytime when stuck]].

* The menu of ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}}'' doubles as a sandbox mode.

So, instead of navigating an abstract cursor across a set of icons and text labels that correspond to the various menu options, the protagonist essentially ''is'' the cursor, and the player approaches and interacts with menu options the same way they would interact with actual, in-universe objects. "New Game" and "Load Game" might be presented as literal doors for the player character to walk through, literal buttons to [[GoombaStomp stomp]] [[GroundPound on]], literal [[CrateExpectations crates to smash]], literal [[BlockPuzzle blocks to slide around]], or so on.

* ''[[TimeTraveler If this is your first adventure, select "Learn"!]]''