Radial Menu (Concept)

Radial Menu

CONCEPT

Radial Menus are menus that appear in a circular pattern to display the options the player has.

Overview

Radial menus tend to appear mostly in console games, in genres with traditionally heavy menus such as strategy or RPG. The radial menu, used in conjunction with the analogue stick, allows quick access to a large number of menu options with a small number of button presses. Both left and right analogue sticks are used in conjunction with menus in different games but the right stick is more commonly used. The concept originated from console RPGs, introduced by the Mana (Franchise) series, beginning with Secret of Mana (Game) (1993). Radial menus have often been used as a solution to the problem of porting PC-based genres to consoles, with prominent examples including Halo Wars (Game), Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Tom Clancy's EndWar, and Stormrise (Game). The dialogue wheel is a form of radial menu designed for dialogue trees. The dialogue wheel was popularized by the Mass Effect (Franchise) series.

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