The sound of galloping hooves is the only thing you can hear as the moon shines above a field, until a moody piano jingle plays and the hero rides across the world, alone but for his horse, before the introduction of the infamous ocarina’s melancholy cry and the iconic Zelda logo fades in... 

The original Red Alert trailer. especially after the story cutscene is over and Hell March kicks in:

Also, for it's sheer memetic status, Zero Wing:

I'm not a big fan of the game or series but I have to agree, at least from technology standpoint. I wish Unreal had a better intro, the Nali Castle flyby was very impressive at the time but it wasn't an intro.

Unreal is amazing in the opening, but that's past the 'intro'. Same with Silent Hill 2. I don't remember much from the intro movie, yet the first part of the game is one of the best openings ever.

I guess ICO and SotC are early 00s as well, great opening movies to set the tone.


Especially the music of SotC

Good thing they included blood types for the characters. Wouldn't be Japanese without it.

Dune II in 1992 had the first (?) cinematic intro with longer voice acting I believe.

"The spice controls the empire"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tC32ZIYXlE

On the PC:

On the N64:

On the multiplatform(as Baddman already mentioned LoK):

I GET KNOCKED DOWN



Fithos



And of course the best one:

Actually Dune beats that, came out in the same year

It's Final fantasy VIII

I love Dune (it was the second game I played through after SMB1), but I always hated that lengthy intro a bit, as it is so drawn out and quite spoiler-heavy to boot.