10 GENIUS Ways Video Games Hide Load Times
2. Warm-Up Halls - Mega Man (1987)
The Mega Man series as a whole is fiendishly hard, and the one that started it all gave rise to that reputation for a very good reason. With boss fights as tough as these, having a special hallway before each one not only gives you warning that they're coming, but also serves to mask the loading screen that would otherwise have ruined your fun.
These hallways have a unique wall texture that varies between each one, and are usually filled with spikes, pitfalls and enemies that leap all over the place.
The narrow space really feels like some kind of preliminary gauntlet before an upcoming test, which, in turn, heightens the superior status of the bosses, shut away from all the lowly fodder enemies.
But their purpose in the game is not just to build suspense, as the sparser environment provides the perfect amount of down time for the game to load the next area - or, more specifically, the boss fight that will likely be your demise.