A video game's opening stage or starter zone has an extremely important role: it sets the tone for the rest of the game. Getting it right is essential. Below, we've collected some of the best-looking and most iconic starting zones, first stages and opening missions.

A single button push takes a Portal 2 cube on an incredible journey through Ben Perry's astounding Rube Goldberg-inspired custom level.

I bet when you woke up this morning, you didn't think you'd be starting out the day with five minutes worth of Professor Layton spinning around an ice rink.

Yesterday I got a double dose of Ubisoft's Far Cry 2, getting a chance to check out the level editing features of both the console and PC versions of the game. While there are noticeable graphical differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions versus the one they had running on a PC you can't afford, all three…