Super Mario Bros. (NES) is a pretty good example. You start on the far left and are facing right, so you know you must move right. You’ll likely run into the first enemy and die. Then you quickly restart and probably jump on it, killing it. You will proceed to bonk some bricks and learn to jump gaps.
It also leaves some room to discover such as with pressing down into pipes and sprinting. So not everything is quite so obvious.
A better example is Bionic Commando (NES). A game designer can learn a lot about level design from the first area of the 1988 classic. The level teaches the player the mechanics of a game without beating them over the head with a tutorial. In this simple stage the player quickly learns how to shoot, dodge, swing over obstacles, climb, enter/exit required gates, swing across grapple points, and swing above platforms that are partially obstructed. You are essentially forced to try out all of these mechanics before you can complete this simple stage.
12 Comments
Tetris
Mega Man X
Snake!
Hollow knight
Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog is a masterclass in that respect.
SMB literally shows you everything on the welcome screen.
If you think you went through no tutorial, then the game designer crafted a perfect tutorial.
Basically SMTIV
All Super Mario games, but especially SMB1 and SMB3.
Fallout 4
CupHead I guess
Half Life 2’s ‘invisible tutorial’ is a masterclass in game design.