Automatic New Game

A Video Game which, the first time the player starts up the game, skips past the Start Screen 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.

Some games take this trope even further, skipping past any kind of New Game/Load Game option (even when a file already exists) and instead automatically loading the most recently played save file each time they start.

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Examples

Action Games

• The later James Bond games developed by Electronic Arts do this to mirror the tradition of a before-credits action sequence.
• The first time you start Kirby Battle Royale, the intro for the Cake Royale automatically starts. Only after completing the intro and watching the opening cutscene does the title screen appear. Subsequent start-ups always start at the title screen.
• No More Heroes does 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. The remaining games in the series avert the trope altogether.
• After completing the prologue missions in [PROTOTYPE 2], the main menu will display the area of your most recent save. Upon continuing the game, the camera will move to Heller nearby and the game instantly resumes.
• The video game adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers uses the forging of the One Ring for its opening FMV, then drops 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. The same goes for the later The 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.
• Speed Brawl sends the player into a prologue on the first play, then the tutorial. After these two events, the player is sent to the hub screen for configuration or campaign selection.
• When any game in the Splatoon series is booted for the first time, it throws the player into a tutorial stage where there are no enemies or hazards aside from some rival ink. Once the player reaches the end of the stage, they will be sent to the Hub World, where the game will always start with all subsequent boots. Since the game only allows one save file per user ID, this protocol has to be repeated for all following ones when the game is first booted with them.
• Transistor, after the introductory logos, either starts a new game or loads the last autosave.

Adventure Games

• Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail! does this if there is no previous save file present, throwing you straight into the intro.
• The first time you launch Journey (2012), it goes straight into the opening cutscene. On subsequent boots, you will get the main menu offering you to continue or to start a new journey.

Action-Adventure Games

• Metroid: Other M gives you the option to turn on the subtitles then throws you straight into the intro. Bypassing even the title screen (which only shows up when you boot up the game again after shutting things down)!
• The moment you start up The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the first time, you will get a brief and rudimentary title sequence before you cut straight to the cutscene of Link waking up in the Shrine of Resurrection. Its prequel/spin-off, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and its direct sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also do the same thing, dropping the player right into the gameplay after a few introductory cutscenes.

Platform Games

• Upon starting Kirby and the Forgotten Land for the first time, you are immediately asked if you want to use online features (alongside agreeing to the "Use of Gameplay Information" if online features are turned on) and which difficulty to start with. Afterwards, the game immediately plays the opening cutscene before transitioning to the Point of Arrival proper. Subsequent start-ups from this point forward always start at the title screen of the most recent save file that was used.
• LittleBigPlanet games automatically drop the player into the Tutorial level as the default Sackboy costume, unless you imported your profile from a previous game, in which case you'll be wearing your old costume.
• The Wii version of Sonic Colors, where, on the first play, the start button is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. This trend is continued in both versions of Sonic Generations, in which starting the game up the first time launches you into the game's first level, Green Hill Zone Act 1.
• The Super Mario World ROM Hack 'the has no logo or title screen. After loading the game, it goes straight to the intro screen.
• Toki Tori 2 drops the titular character into the game the first time you boot up. Toki Tori must learn the two controls and figure out how to interact with his environment until he reaches an open area where the logo rises up from the background. This is one of the many things Toki Tori must photograph, as well. It's kind of unique.
• X-Men 2: Clone Wars for the Sega Genesis drops you into the first level as soon as the game is on, skipping even the usual opening credits, with a random character (Beast, 9 times out of 10). The copyright disclaimers and title screen only appears once you clear this stage.

Puzzle Games

• Baba is You begins with a brief credits splash screen, then immediately after shows a cutscene of the first level coming into being via the rules blooming from lotus blossoms. Once the biggest flower blooms into the keyword "You", the gameplay begins properly. After beating the level and entering the overworld for the first time, you can access the title screen on subsequent boot-ups (even skipping the cutscene on a new save file).

Racing Games

• 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. Its Creator-Driven Successor made by the same company, Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012), does the same thing.
• Forza Motorsport 3 through 6, and all 4 releases of Forza Horizon immediately drop you into a new game after the title screen if you don't already have a save file.

Rhythm Games

• Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory skips the main menu on first boot and instead has you immediately play a shortened version of "Simple and Clean", followed by the tutorial and then the story mode's world map.

Role-Playing Games

• 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.
• The Chapter 1 of Deltarune skips directly into the "avatar creation" sequence when you open the chapter for the first time, and until you save for the first time, there's no title screen nor load save menu. When the Chapter 1-only demo was released in 2018, this helped reinforce its disguise as a "survey program" it was advertised as◊ the day prior.
• Final Fantasy IV to VI for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System do this if there are no save files present, jumping you straight into the opening cutscene.
• Golden Sun and its sequel Golden Sun: The Lost Age start by prompting the player to name the character before proceeding into a New Game if there are no other save files.
• In Pokémon, games starting from FireRed/LeafGreen (except Emerald) until Pokémon Black and White still display their title screen, but automatically proceeded to a New Game when the A or Start button is pressed and there is no save file.
• SaGa Frontier 2 does this if the game doesn't find a savefile on the memory card, skipping the title screen and jumping straight into the beginning of Gustave's scenario.
• Tales of Xillia first shows the player the settings, to change to their liking, and then immediately jumps into the beginning animated cutscene and shows you the two protagonists Jude and Milla, if no savefile is found on the console. Taken further when the game doesn't get a 'proper' Title Menu, until the player has decided which route they'll play and have seen the respective route's opening.

Real-Time Strategy Games

• Command & Conquer: For the original versions (Remastered averts this trope):
  • The first game, Tiberian Dawn, first avoided the main menu before playing its TV-surfing intro and then asking the player to choose either the GDI or Nod campaign.
  • Red Alert skips the main menu during the first time playing the game. Then, it immediately puts the player into whichever campaign disc is loaded (Allied or Soviet) with its opening cutscene. For The First Decade Compilation Re-release, it begins the Soviet campaign.
• Kingdom immediately drops you into the tutorial. It also automatically loads your game if you have a save file. The only menu is the pause menu.
• On the first run of War Inc., the game skips the main menu and places you directly into a combat mission. This was not the main campaign, but actually a generated battle area where you had to eliminate a map-worth of enemies.

Simulation Games

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons: The first time you start a new save file, you begin in an airport where Timmy and Tommy Nook check you in for your Deserted Island Adventure.
• Black & White prompts the player for his deity's name and symbol, then sends him straight into its Tutorial level, which is necessary since the game's menu system consists of an in-game building that's only constructed as part of the tutorial.
• Mini Metro immediately dumps you into a new game with stations to connect when you load it up for the first time. On subsequent plays you'll be given the title screen instead.
  • Its sequel, Mini Motorways, functions the same way. After the title screen, it takes you to a tutorial sequence and then you jump into your first city.
• Star Wars Squadron first launches with the accessibility menu, and character customization, before starting the story mode. Subsequent launches have the main menu.

Sports Games

• NBA 2K11 (which focused on Michael Jordan's career) starts by placing the player into a recreation of Game 1 of the 1991 NBA Finals between Jordan's Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers before allowing them to access the menu.
• Wii Sports Resort selects one of the player's Miis and places him or her directly into the Skydiving event before unveiling its title screen the first time.

Stealth-Based Games

• Upon booting up Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain for the first time, it will first display a This Is a Work of Fiction disclaimer, then immediately load into the opening cutscene, when Snake awakens in Cyprus as Midge Ure's cover of "The Man Who Sold The World" plays. After this, a special menu — used only for the first time booting up the game — appears, which shows a third-person perspective of Snake's bed. From here, you can change several settings before starting the game proper.

Visual Novels

• Doki Doki Literature Club! skips the menu if the player opens it during Act 3, entirely preventing the player from starting a new game during that sequence. Not that they could restart anyway, because all the characters but one have been deleted by this point.
• 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.

Wide Open Sandbox

• All of the 3D Grand Theft Auto games as well as a few other titles developed by Rockstar. 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. This is averted with the PC and mobile versions of the 3d to HD-era games, which loads into a menu screen instead, except if the launcher to the PC version of GTA V is bypassed (such as the cracked version).
• InFamous 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. The only way to see this start screen again is to delete your save files, as it is the only time you ever see pre-catastrophe Empire City.

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