Randomized Title Screen

The title screen of a video game welcomes the player after the game is loaded. Most frequently it exists outside of the game itself, serving as the place to start a new playthrough, load an existing one, or adjust some options. Usually, it stays the same every time you start the game, but this is when some part of it changes randomly between a set of options when you start up the game.

Compare Evolving Title Screen, which is the title screen changing based on how far in the game you've gotten.

It is a Sub-Trope of Start Screen, Gameplay Randomization, and Couch Gag.

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Examples:

Video Games

• Animal Crossing makes this trope its bread and butter. While the first game had one of several pre-recorded demos with the title logo overlaid atop them, starting with Wild World, the game's opening centers on a random villager in the town. If the game doesn't have a save file yet, it'll center on a random house in a pre-generated town (which won't necessarily be the one the player ends up with). The first game's title screens generally don't count, as the demo videos used all appear in a specific order; the title screen's spot in the list is simply retained each time the player returns to the title screen via saving and quitting or hitting the reset button, and it goes back to the beginning of the list when the game is manually turned off and back on again (be it through the power button, the power cable, etc.).
• The Annoying Orange mobile game, "Splatter Up", has different quips from Orange at the title screen every time the game is launched.
• Anti-Idle: The Game has a mild example—the colors of the logo change every time it's loaded. Lampshade Hanging The Dragon will mention this as one of his wisdoms.
• BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle opens with two random characters flanking the title, who then read out the name with varying levels of fluency. The 2.0 patch for the game ups this to four characters (but only two characters still speak) and even gives the player the option to excise the Engrish from the readings.
• Brütal Legend: when the Double Fine logo comes up, one of the metal voice actors/singers (including Jack Black and Tim Curry) shouts/sings the name.
• Danganronpa:
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: The title screen has Makoto facing a random classmate
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: The title screen has a random pixel style classmate walking. They get replaced with a new one every few seconds.
• Darwinia: There are multiple opening sequences, playing a different one each time the game is loaded. These include things like a faux-ZX Spectrum Loading Screen and one that passes the game off as a cracked Platform/Amiga game.
• Devil May Cry 5: On an initial playthrough, the main menu is an exterior shot of Nico's van parked inside of Nero's garage. In a New Game Plus, the camera either moves inside or closer to the van where several of the game's characters are sitting or idling around, performing a randomized set of actions.
• Donkey Kong Country: The Game Boy Color version has three title screens, which one is shown is random.
• Dwarf Fortress's Start Screen features the subtitle "Histories of X and Y", where X is a synonym of "greed" and Y of "stubbornness."
• Eternal Champions features a random combatant attacking the SEGA logo upon booting the game.
• Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: There are randomized scenes upon leaving the start screen for a few seconds. Upon completing multiple playthroughs, it will add new scenes with some plot important scenes like Manfroy killing Lewyn and Forseti resurrecting him.
• Friday Night Funkin': In the startup sequence, various memes, phrases and jokes can show up before the title screen. These include:
  • "Better than Geometry Dash — Fight me Robtop"
  • "'dope ass game' — Play Station Magazine"
  • "shoutouts to Tom Fulp — lmao"
  • "ultimate rhythm gaming — probably"
  • ...and more.
• Hero & Daughter: The girl displayed on the title screen is randomly selected from the girls in the game. And if the game is not started for long enough, the image starts switching between different girls.
• Iji: The image before the title screen pops up, when you boot up the game or reset, is either, Iji facing an Elite and throwing down her nanogun, or standing ontop of a fallen Elite.
• Jet Set Radio's title screen shows gameplay of a random member of the GG's skating around in one of four levels; in order, Shibuya, Kogane, Benten, or Bantam Street (Grind Square isn't showcased).
• Kindred Spirits on the Roof always opens with the same image of all the main characters, but a randomly selected main character will read out the title of the game and then say a short sentence, usually something about yuri.
• LSD: Dream Emulator: The opening is randomly selected every time you turn it on.
• In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, either Bowser or the Mario Bros. will appear on the title screen and say "Nintendo!"
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time has the lower half of a giant clock as title screen with the Mario brothers and their baby versions sitting on its hands. They will randomly change their position when entering the screen.
• Mario Kart:
  • Mario Kart: Double Dash!!: Lakitu has a different item at random on the end of his fishing line just before the title sequence begins.
  • Every game from Mario Kart Wii onwards will feature a different character on the title screen after the player completes all of the cups on every difficulty, with said character usually giving a variation on the game's title. Luigi, for example, will say "Mario Kart! Could've been Luigi!" in Wii.
• Mario Party: The title screen changes depending on which character wins the board. Similarly, in Mario Party Superstars, the title screen and theme changes based on which board was last played.
• Minecraft:
  • The title screen's splash text is randomly selected from at least 360 different quips every time the game opens. A few of these only appear on certain dates and they're also customizable. Some of them are:
    • Follow The Train CJ
    • Reticulating splines!
    • MAP11 has two names!/Phobos Anomaly!
    • missingno ^note This one will only appear when the splashes.txt file in the game's code has been edited or deleted without also deleting the META-INF folder.
    • There is one message hidden in the files that reads: "This message will never appear on the splash screen, isn't that weird?" Indeed it won't, as even modifying the splashes.txt file to contain that line will crash the game. However, the message does appear on the splash screen of the Legacy Console and New Nintendo 3DS editions of Minecraft
  • There's also a 1/10,000 chance that the title will say Minceraft instead of Minecraft (good luck noticing it though).
• Nightmare Realm: In The End...: On the main menu, glowing graffiti fills in what will happen "in the end", switching between different possible grim ("love must die"), hopeful {"light will be shed"), or ambiguous {"who will prevail?") outcomes.
• Nickelodeon's 3D Movie Maker has two different openings that are selected at random. There's also a sticky note next to the "Call for Stick" button on the title screen that always has a different message on it.
• Open Sorcery: Depending on which game is being played:
  • The original game's title screen's 1s and 0s that fade in and out on the title screen appear to be in a random pattern where they appear or at least which ones flicker into visibility.
  • The Jingle BEL/S DLC title screen has a black background has white "fa", "la", 1s, and 0s fading in and out apparently randomly and in random locations.
• osu! plays a different song on the player's song list when the game starts up. (This is no longer the case in a recent update, in which a specific startup music is played by default instead. It is possible to disable this music in the options and return to the old behaviour in which a random song is played.)
• Overwatch: The title screen shows a random character from the roster. It also combines this with Evolving Titlescreen, as the characters will be equipped with whatever skins the player has unlocked and assigned them.
• Persona 4: Arena: It acts like a TV show by having a sponsor message when you start the game, and the message is spoken by a different character every time.
• PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale doesn't have a randomized title screen, but rather randomized menus. When you proceed from the title screen to the main menu, you're greeted with one of the twenty-four fighters on the right side of the screen, with the background and menu options' colors and designs being specific to what character you pull; for example, Parappa's background is bright yellow and has disco lights. Whatever character is selected, the game's menus will follow their theme until the next time you boot up the game.
• Pokémon Red and Blue: The title screen will start off with Red and the starter Pokemon (Charmander in Pokemon Red, Squirtle in Pokemon Blue), but after a while of no interaction, the starter Pokemon then gets swapped with a random Pokemon.
• Project SEKAI: When you open the app, a random character sings the Sega jingle.
• Rise of the Triad: Inverted, applying to the exit screen instead of the title screen. It has several Guilt-Based Gaming quit messages worded along the lines of "Press Y to release the cyanide gas", "Press Y to drive your car off the cliff" or "Press Y to signal firing squad". In the registered version, the game plays a sound effect to match the message when you do press Y.
• Sam & Max Save the World (A.K.A. Sam & Max Season 1'') : Title sequences end with the duo making some kind of gesture (high-five, "right back atcha", etc.) In the season finale, the sequence ends with Max pointing upward and the car flies to the moon. Then the following seasons use the couch gag from the comics.
• Some Sonic the Hedgehog ROM hacks created by members of Sonic Retro tend to feature the Sonic Retro logo changing each time it is shown, with situations like Sonic running away from Amy, Dr. Eggman either stealing the Master Emerald or taking Sonic's place on the logo, and Knuckles coming up and yelling at Sonic to get off the Master Emerald.
• Spelunky : The narration text that appears onscreen before the opening cutscene is randomly generated among three lines, with a separate list of possible sentence fragments for each line. One such example:
  With fate guiding my every move,
  I squeezed the whip at my side,
  and wondered how long I'd be below.
• Super Mario Maker 2:
  • The game starts with one of seven randomly-chosen startup screens, formerly four screens before later updates. This contrasts with the first game, in which each startup screen is preset according to the day of the week.
    • Mario walks up to the Super Mario Maker logo and jumps into it to make a "2" fall down, then runs off.
    • Three Galoombas walk up to the Super Mario Maker logo and jump into it to make a "2" fall down, which knocks them offscreen.
    • Bowser walks up to the Super Mario Maker logo and jumps into it to make a "2" fall down, then hops into a Koopa Clown Car and flies away.
    • Mario, Toad, and Toadette walk up to the Super Mario Maker logo and jump into it to make both a "2" and Luigi fall down, then walk off while Luigi runs after them.
    • Added in version 1.1.0: Mario, Toad, and Toadette chase after Luigi offscreen to get a key and unlock a door.
    • Added in version 2.0.0: Mario avoids a Spike and Pokey and finds the Master Sword in its pedestal - all three of these course elements were added in this update.
    • Added in version 3.0.0: Mario escorts Peach on a Yoshi, before she gets kidnapped by the Koopalings - this references the addition of the Super World mode and the seven Koopalings as new bosses.
  • After the animation, the title screen has your selected character in one of ten different levels. You can play in them or even go straight to editing the course from there.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • In the opening of the original, Master Hand pulls out 2 random dolls of one of the starter characters.
  • In Brawl, due to the fact that the player can customize how common certain songs play on stages (and even the main menu), it can turn into this.
• Team Fortress 2 has a random render of one of the maps with a random render of one of the player characters. There are holiday versions, which follow the same setup, but might not be random in the background. In particular, on Halloween and full moons, the characters show up in costume.
• Trials of Mana: The 2020 remake of the game features a random member of the game's main cast saying the game title when booting up the game or returning to the title screen.
• Unreal Gold opens with either a title screen from the original Unreal or one from its Expansion Pack Return to Na Pali.
• WarioWare:
  • WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! has several startup screens, with things ranging from a 3D model of Wario riding his Cool Bike, to a mob of hands running past a button, to a magnet pulling in a bunch of random objects, to synchronized nose picking. The only thing most of them have in common is weirdness.
  • The title screen for WarioWare: Move It! has one of 19 characters in the game yell "WarioWare!" every time it is accessed. Most of these voice clips are reused from the alarm clock function in WarioWare Gold.
• The Witches' Tea Party: On opening the game, the witch in the picture frame is randomly selected from the nine witches that attend the titular tea party.
• You Don't Know Jack: The games' intro sequences are somewhat randomized in some, possibly all, of the games. Most of the visuals tend to be the same each time, but the game will mix up things like captions, sounds and dialogue, and a caption or two. The number of variations to choose from isn't necessarily huge, but it's enough to keep the intro from being the same each time.

Non-Video Game examples

Film — Animation

• Bambi II: The DVD menu has a spring and winter theme which differs depending on whether or not the groundhog sees his shadow in the intro.
• Home on the Range: The DVD menu had three different openings each time you began the disc.

Film — Live-Action

• Star Wars: Some DVD editions of the original and prequel trilogies have menus that will randomly display one of three locations from whatever movie you're watching. For A New Hope, for instance, the menu will show either Tatooine, the Death Star or Yavin 4 at random.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: The DVD issue of the story "The Aztecs" shows a title screen with a random pick from four lines by different members of the cast in character.

Other

• The LaserDisc Database at lddb.com will show a random message in the top bar every time you load the page. They contain some LaserDisc-themed Shout-Outs as well.
  • My name is Disc. Laser Disc.
  • You're gonna need a bigger LD player...
  • Hasta la vista, LD
  • This is my LD Player; there are many like it, but this one is mine
  • I... see... dead... videoformats
  • Laser rot is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get
  • Open the LD player tray, HAL
  • It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a deadly rotten LD thrown in anger by its owner!
  • Here's... LD!
  • What player is this? It's a LD player, baby. What's a LD? LD's dead, baby, LD's dead...
  • A thief once tried to take my HLD-X9 player. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti^note The HLD-X9 is a Pioneer Laser Disc player that is capable of playing MUSE Hi-Vision discs, an early form of High Definition that came before the now-widespread digital HD formats
  • Even Three Laws-Compliant is referenced
    • First Law: A LD Player may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
    • Second Law: A LD Player must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
    • Third Law: A LD Player must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws
• In Steam: The background for games in your library will change randomly between your screenshots of the game. If you have no screenshots, a selection of pre-set pictures is provided by Steam.
• Wii U: The player's Mii does a different pose every time you return to the main menu.

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