here's a game that meant a lot to little Ash: Shining In The Darkness, a Genesis dungeon crawler geared toward beginners and children. as expected i'm not going to go over how successful the gameplay may have been, rather how excellent and packed with character the shop menus are.
each merchant in the small hub village gets a detailed, unique space of their own (extra bonus points for having the weapon seller literally be Gilius Thunderhead from Golden Axe, note also the little Thief sign on the left wall too). a genius touch to add a little bit of 4th-wall-breaking charm is when you choose to sell an item; a sidebar menu slides in from the right, surprising the shopkeeper and pushing their own window over!
i mostly wanted to show off some of the shop menus but i can't neglect the animated buttons. perhaps as a way to cater more to children, menu buttons are mapped to the cardinal directions on the controller's d-pad, and feature cute little 2-frame animations that could be understandable even without english/japanese literacy. wonderfully friendly little game.
