The "non-game" game system dissection thread.

A lot of games, outside of their emergent gameplay, often hold a similar or common flow about them:

-Loading config/profile
-Intro/Title Screen
-Options Screen (Globals, Controls, Audio, Video)
-Game Mode and/or Save Selection Screen
-Player Setup screen(s)
-Level Select screen (includes song select in music games, ISMs in fighters, etc.)

-Level intro
-Gameplay
-End/Reward or Evaluation
-Continue?
-"Win" ending(s)
-Game Over/Credits

Both designing and programming for these elements (except for "Gameplay," clearly) are seperate and very different than doing so for the gameplay itself. So what do you think makes or breaks these elements of a gaming framework? Any really good frameworks of this out there that you really like, which stand out in your opinion?