Best Looking 2D Games?

[marginwalker]

I hear people rag on ggx animation and compare it to better animated games like sf3, and it just doesn't make sense. gg is a fast ass game, it can't have a lot of frames of animation. it's the keyframes that are important, and I always thought ggs keyframes were very well done. if you want a truly choppy game look at mortal kombat or something. anyways

I can't believe Elysian Tail slipped under my radar. God damn. 2D really is alive.

I third(or fourth?) Last Blade 2 as one of the best 2D games on the neo, with Samurai Shodown 3 also having some of the best animated characters ever on a screen. Garou is great but the characters were a little on the small side. Graphically it seems a little overrated to me, with all the impressive ass things SNK has done before it.

I don't think anyone has said this yet, Castlevania Symphony of the Night. It will forever wow me.

[shion]

May 25, 2009 16:06:59 GMT -5 marginwalker said:

I don't think anyone has said this yet, Castlevania Symphony of the Night. It will forever wow me.

Go back 3-4 posts

[daimakaimura]

i call any parodius game for this title

[baracus]

Valkyrie Profile also looks very good, even tough the characters are much smaller than Odin Sphere they are decently animated and the backgrounds are gorgeous.

[Ganelon]

May 25, 2009 16:06:59 GMT -5 marginwalker said:

I hear people rag on ggx animation and compare it to better animated games like sf3, and it just doesn't make sense. gg is a fast ass game, it can't have a lot of frames of animation. it's the keyframes that are important, and I always thought ggs keyframes were very well done.

There's no correlation between speed and animation. Just because a game is fast doesn't give the animators leeway to draw significantly fewer frames.

[Feynman]

Popping in again to add that Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean are absolutely gorgeous.

[zzz]

Well this thread sure got big fast.

May 25, 2009 10:38:26 GMT -5 Ganelon said:

3rd Strike will probably go unbeaten for best looking in-game 2D animation.

It has incredibly smooth animation, that's for certain, but any game that uses the technique of panning the segments of multi-segmented sprites technically has even smoother animation (as they don't skip any space when they move). And the actual character designs look like shit. I've never considered 3rd Strike to be a very good looking game, no matter how smooth the animation is.

Anyhow, here are my picks:

Super Mario Bros. is hands down the most memorable looking game of all time. Anyone who was a kid in the 1980's should be able to visualize the entirety of stage 1-1 from that game at will.

Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World are two more games that I think most of us will remember for a long time to come. Who could forget Racoon Mario, Yoshi, etc.?

Duck Hunt. There's probably no other game where every single screen is so memorable (even if there are only two of them).

Tetris. Without a doubt the most easily recognizable game ever made.

Pac-Man, Pong, and Donkey Kong all deserve a mention, as they are almost inarguably among the most memorable looking games ever made.

Final Fight has some of the most memorable character designs ever. Street Fighter II deserves a mention for the same reason.

Joy Mecha Fight has some of my favorite character designs.

Samurai Shodown 1 & 2 are probably the best looking of SNK's early titles, and the Metal Slug series would rank as their best looking series overall, but I'd still rank King of Fighters '99 as their best looking game.

Every Fire Pro after and including Special. Forget 3rd Strike. These are the best animated games ever made.

Every Parodius. Probably the best looking series ever overall.

Pu-Li-Ru-La has to be seen to be believed.

When I first heard about King of Fighters XII I expected that it would look like shit. Needless to say, I was pleasently surprised.

The original SFC version of Tales of Phantasia is probably my favorite looking RPG ever. Everything from the sprite are itself to the movement effects is just incredible.

I don't think any game has ever used its visuals to tell a story better than the remake of Famicom Tantei Club Part II for SFC. If there's any contender for this title then it would have to be the original Clock Tower for SFC.

Rob's article on HG101 completely sold me on all things relating to the Splatterhouse series. What a fantastic looking bunch of games those are.

Am I the only one who thinks that the original Castlevania is still the best looking game in the series?

The only other game that comes to mind immediately is Majyuuou, but I'm sure there are craploads of other games that I'm forgetting.

[MRSKELETON]

Yes actually you are the only person who thinks the original castlevania game is the best looking. Order of Ecclesia is the best looking game in the series, hands down.

and Elysian tale doesn't actually look that great, dig up some screenshots

[derboo]

Elysian Tale has awesome visuals, but sadly looks like a dull game to play.

[lvbrown]

May 25, 2009 16:43:53 GMT -5 @shion said:

May 25, 2009 16:06:59 GMT -5 marginwalker said:

I don't think anyone has said this yet, Castlevania Symphony of the Night. It will forever wow me.

Go back 3-4 posts

...or the second reply on page 1.

[shion]

May 26, 2009 4:48:35 GMT -5 lvbrown said:

May 25, 2009 16:43:53 GMT -5 @shion said:

Go back 3-4 posts

...or the second reply on page 1.

D'oh!

[kitten]

May 26, 2009 3:46:47 GMT -5 derboo said:

Elysian Tale has awesome visuals, but sadly looks like a dull game to play.

That's what I thought of Odin Sphere after playing it :[

Elysian Tail looks considerably less boring, enough so that I think it'll be better than Odin Sphere to me.

[android247]

A few I can think of are:

Cybattler
Salamander 2
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike
Ninja Gaiden trilogy's cutscenes (both NES and the SNES remake's)
X-men (Arcade)

[Revolver Ocelot]

Martial Masters
Fallen Angels
Gundam Battle Assault 2
Waku Waku 7
El Dorado Gate
Rhapsody of Zephyr
Elemental Gimmick Gear
Breath of Fire III
Breath of Fire IV
Seiken Densetsu 3
Legend of Mana
SaGa Frontier 2
Valkyrie Profile
Kolibri
Beyond Oasis
Misadventures of Flink
Legend of Xanadu 2

Can't think of anymore at the moment...

[gamesnob]

I thought the first few seconds I saw of Magic Knight Rayearth looked fantastic. Dissapointed I couldn't find an english Saturn RPG that looked half as good.