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[Mipe]

Or a gameplay demo playing behind the transparent main menu interface.

[xerus]

Animate your title screen in at least some way, even if its just a constantly moving background image.  It will be 100x more awesome automatically.

[TheLastBanana]

These are all really helpful, thanks.
I'm thinking of, at the bare minimum, having the icons animate when they're selected as well as having some faint scanlines that scroll by.  It's at least more interesting that way.

[jcsymmes]

Always been a big fan of Super Mario World, in which mario litterally runs at the bottom of the screen facing all the games ennimes. This was a suprising lot of fun. Less a screen then more an overlay of the game is a great idea which i am suprised i don't see more often.

[gunswordfist]

I love games that have gameplay shown on the main menu. You don't have to sit there and be idle to have some gameplay footage come up and you can see what the game is like while scrolling through the menu. Just awesome.

[GameRoom]

Just what I was going to say. I like the idea of seeing how the game is played before you do.

[fraxcell]

I think a sometimes neglected element in menus is sound design. I like having satisfying noises play when I press buttons.

[Quicksand-T]

I like title screens that tell or imply part of the story of the game.

Does anyone else miss those story-sequences that would play in old games if you stayed on the title screen too long?

[fraxcell]

I'm not a big fan of having to learn the story by waiting around on the title screen. Usually I ignore it, and then I'm all like "Who's this guy?" when the game starts.

[Chris Z]

Zelda II has the most resonant title screen for me.  Kinda conveys the desolate and mysterious nature of that game's version of Hyrule.  The image and the title music work really well together too which burned it in my brain even further.

[gunswordfist]

Just what I was going to say. I like the idea of seeing how the game is played before you do.

Cool. Great minds think alike.

Watching Ip Man's DVD menu recently made me think, "Man, it would be cool to have a game menu where you can see gameplay at the top and all the options at the bottom." This makes me wonder why menus where you have to scroll down are so popular. You should be able to pick gameplay modes/options like say uh...how you pick a fighter in a fighter game roster. No scrolling up and down and it would look cooler. Everyone wins.

I like title screens that tell or imply part of the story of the game.

Does anyone else miss those story-sequences that would play in old games if you stayed on the title screen too long?

Part of the appeal of the gameplay menus I've been talking so much about as not having the players be idle at the menu. But I'd be lying if I said I don't fucking love those story screens. 

[GameRoom]

Maybe have the menu scroll through screenshots that the player took.

[TheLastBanana]

That's an interesting idea, actually.  What would fill the screen with when there are no pictures, though?

[GameRoom]

Maybe add some screenshots in the game file yourself. I also like the idea of seeing the last time you played like in Mega Block Man 2.

[DYRE]

Maybe you could have some other type of main menu background (possibly of the 'panning the camera around a scene' variety, or maybe something else) and just show screenshots over that?  I think a background that shows screenshots would make a lot more sense if it was a game like Pokémon Snap or something, however (off topic: we need more games like Pokémon Snap).