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[OnPoint]

In today's "Games that never got enough love" segment, we have Threads of Fate (Dewprism)

 

[dark10x]

Was about to comment on the posting of Thunder Force VI as well. It's not the best looking PS2 game but it looks far beyond what they could have achieved on a system from the prior era. TFV is much uglier.

 

[Kazerei]

Most of what is being posted looks great in motion, not so much in screenshots. It's hard to show how smooth Virtua Fighter 2 looks in high resolution at 60 fps in a screenshot. The Tobal 2 gifs posted look like they're going slow because they're showing all the frames.

A good example of this is the Sega Super Scaler games, they look really bad in screenshots:

But in motion they look incredible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6nmsQhOkRo#t=7m35s

But that draw distance :\

 

[Uncle Rupee]

Was about to comment on the posting of Thunder Force VI as well. It's not the best looking PS2 game but it looks far beyond what they could have achieved on a system from the prior era. TFV is much uglier.

Yeah, yeah. But Einhander and R-Type Delta (and even G. Darius to some extent) are all pretty good looking in motion. Not to mention StarFox 64, Sin & Punishment, and Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Omega Boost.

 

[Akzel]

Legend of Dragoon
Final Fantasy IX

 

[Seik]

It has some low res textures as anything has from that era, but I still find the Banjo games to be pleasing to look at.

Most of their charm comes from the good animation on everything and the stylized models of everything. Tick Tock Woods with it's massive central tree is still pretty impressive as well as how the entire aesthetic of the level changes as you change the seasons. Even the enemies will dress differently.

Clanker's Cavern was also a really cool, great looking level, especially how Clanker actually moves and breaths:


It's all very subjective, though I'll admit. Games like Metal Gear Solid are very impressive to see knowing they were made back on the PS1, but the textures (especially on people) are so bad and it has all the built in PS1 polygonal limitations. However I still find it to be pretty impressive when you account for the era it was made. Maybe not as "timeless" looking as Super Metroid or stuff like that, but still impressive.

I still like how Final Fantasy 7 looks, LEGO mini-fig character models and all.

I've been playing a lot of Banjo Kazooie lately and I can agree with this, game is aging pretty well.

 

[Lijik]

I love a lot of the old ps1 capcom games. The chunky unfiltered pixel look and vibrant colors make them still hold up imo

(battle and chase, megaman legends, rival schools)

I think if you played this stuff at a higher res and without the problems the ps1 forced (wonky textures etc.) theyd look really nice. The low poly models with the clean but still pixelated textures evoke this cool "3d pixel" vibe kind of.

 

[radios shipping overview]

Internal Section

This is an emulator shot, but Xenogears still looks nice in many examples.

Threads of Fate (Mint is queen, Rue is a boring putz)

 

[lazygecko]

I actually hate those 3D polygon shmups like Thunder Force 5 and Einhander. The transition from polished 2D to primitive 3D lost a lot of clarity and quite often just ends up confusing me (is that a powerup or an enemy/projectile?)

 

[Cikay]

Vagrant Story.

 

[trixx]

No n64 games, dang. Well i think Mario 64 looks phenomenal especially since it was a launch title, one of the best launch titles ever as well.

 

[Claptrap]

The Crash Bandicoot games still look pretty good, especially on a vita screen.

 

[oneida]

But that draw distance :

it's an arcade game from 1988...

 

[Sapiens]

Virtua Fighter 2 is very impressive - mostly due to the crazy resolution - very clean.

 

[Shadow Hog]

No n64 games, dang. Well i think Mario 64 looks phenomenal especially since it was a launch title, one of the best launch titles ever as well.

?

It has some low res textures as anything has from that era, but I still find the Banjo games to be pleasing to look at.

Most of their charm comes from the good animation on everything and the stylized models of everything. Tick Tock Woods with it's massive central tree is still pretty impressive as well as how the entire aesthetic of the level changes as you change the seasons. Even the enemies will dress differently.

Clanker's Cavern was also a really cool, great looking level, especially how Clanker actually moves and breaths:

I also think Powerslave and Doom 64 look quite ace, although those are using 2D sprites in a 3D world (well, pseudo-3D, at least in Doom's case), so it's a bit more debatable how much they count.

Mario 64 still looks pretty damn good if you ask me.

Personally I think just about every first and second-party N64 game look good.

I think a number of 64 games still look great; Mario, both Zeldas, BK, SSB. They don't try to make things too busy visually, so while the graphics look simple, they still look visually appealing.

Banjo Kazooie gets my vote as well. fly up to the top of any level - no fog anywhere and it keeps a pretty good framerate. impressive

Last Bronx, Wave Race 64 and the Mega Man Legends games are some notables I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Banjo was one of the best looking games of that gen.

I've been playing a lot of Banjo Kazooie lately and I can agree with this, game is aging pretty well.

Yeah, no N64 games at all.

Honestly, I'm more surprised the Saturn's getting as much love as it has, given 3D really isn't its strong suit.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

Honestly, I'm more surprised the Saturn's getting as much love as it has, given 3D really isn't its strong suit.

I know people say that, but Saturn 3D isn't anywhere near as bad as the 3DO or Jaguar. It's really not that far off from the PS1.

 

[sörine]

I know people say that, but Saturn 3D isn't anywhere near as bad as the 3DO or Jaguar. It's really not that far off from the PS1.

Saturn development also halted early. If we cut N64 and PSX off at mid 1998 the Saturn is highly competitive with both for top games imo.

 

[kick51]

Not only does Tobal no.1 run at a pretty solid 60fps (a few effects in Quest Mode bring on frame drops), but it's also one of the few PS1 games to run at 480p.

The game has basically no textures in the background, but it manages to look nice and clean, without a lot of the issues that plague more complex PS1 3D games.

This, however, is mostly 3D:

ah that game, everybody's played that game. I love that game.

 

[Banzai]

Spyro games still look pretty good, but i couldnt find a better shot.

 

[Host Samurai]

I think all the Resident Evil games still look good. Yes Resident Evil 1-CV

Fear Effect

AKI wrestling games from Revenge-No Mercy still look great

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

 

[vagabondarts]

I'm biased but I love the 3D in most games from this era.
It was the perfect step from 2D sprite pixel art to full 3D worlds.

I love the chunky pixels and low poly elements. *shrug*

Also it leaves more room for your imagination to fill in the gaps or maybe I'm just imagining that


Also a lot of these games look worse when run through an emulator on the PC instead of rendered at their original designed resolution.

 

[Tain]

Not only does Tobal no.1 run at a pretty solid 60fps (a few effects in Quest Mode bring on frame drops), but it's also one of the few PS1 games to run at 480p.

480i, actually. Unfortunately! But full 480i.

 

[KalBalboa]

Nix the emulator shots!

 

[luka]

Soul Edge still looks really impressive I think. Arcade perfect with fully 3D backgrounds, neat lighting and shadow effects and moving stages. Only runs at 30fps though, sadly.

 

[Deckard Cain]

Chrono Cross
/Thread

 

[womp]

Not only is Silent Bomber one of my all time favorite PSX games, it still looks and plays awesome to this day.

http://youtu.be/OLHPVxGJ66M

 

[kick51]

480i, actually. Unfortunately! But full 480i.

i thought 640x480 was 480p....then again, i always get screwed up on resolution issues.

in any case, it's pretty impressive. both 1 and 2 ran at that at a rare 60fps on ps1.

 

[JordanN]

The Crash games were in their own league.

The 12 principles of animation in game form.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Saturn development also halted early. If we cut N64 and PSX off at mid 1998 the Saturn is highly competitive with both for top games imo.

The last official Saturn games came out in 2000 though...

 

[Raptomex]

This is Thunder Force VI on PS2.

Here's Thunder Force V on Saturn.

I knew something was wrong with those images.

 

[sörine]

The last official Saturn games came out in 2000 though...

Sure but Sega killed internal development in 1998 and most of what we saw after that were just arcade ports or 2D games. Dreamcast had official retail releases through 2007 but I wouldn't say developers were really pushing it past 2001.

 

[Celine]

Of the games I ve played recently on real hardware/TV:

N64
Top Gear Rally: fast framerate, almost no pop in and good use of the AA filter.

Banjo Kazooie: it s remarkable how well it still hold up.

Doom 64: at the time of release Doom 64 was criticized for not being an "advanced" FPS like Turok or Goldeneye however the "simple" gameplay, fast framerate and moody lightning (it s a 3D engine) makes this game well worth to be played to this day (it s basically the third Doom)


Saturn

Virtua Fighter 2: high resolution + fantastic animation + great attention to detail = one of the most impressive game on the system.

Sega Rally: there is some pop in and the track float in the void yet SR good framerate, good detail makes it the best racing game on Saturn.

Panzer Dragoon 2: the tech behind it is solid but what really up the level is the fantastic art design.


Truth to be told, often gameplay of "full 3D" games is what aged worse compared to simple graphics...

 

[sixteen-bit]

Sure but Sega killed internal development in 1998 and most of what we saw after that were just arcade ports or 2D games. Dreamcast had official retail releases through 2007 but I wouldn't say developers were really pushing it past 2001.

Under Defeat, a 2006 Dreamcast release is far and away one of the best looking DC games and looks miles better than 2001 output.

 

[nkarafo]

Say whatever you want

This still looks amazing in motion. On the real system, don't bother with 30fps crappy youtube vids...

Of the games I ve played recently on real hardware/TV:

N64
Top Gear Rally: fast framerate, almost no pop in and good use of the AA filter.

Banjo Kazooie: it s remarkable how well it still hold up.

Doom 64: at the time of release Doom 64 was criticized for not being an "advanced" FPS like Turok or Goldeneye however the "simple" gameplay, fast framerate and moody lightning (it s a 3D engine) makes this game well worth to be played to this day (it s basically the third Doom)

I agree with all 3 choices. The desert stage in Top Gear Rally (sunny, no fog) still looks great.

 

[metareferential]

This thread is full of emulator images. Some of these games originally rendered at something like 320x240, guys. The most impressive were certainly the higher-res ones, like VF2. That was like double the usual resolution at 60fps.

 

[bengraven]

I really wish PS3 upscaled PSx games, but I will say that I'm still loving Chrono Cross and FFIX after all these years.

 

[DrPreston]

Pre-rendered backgrounds suck for two reasons:

1. You can't rotate your view
2. The low resolution images don't scale well (as 3D backgrounds do with emulators)

Most pre-rendered backgrounds didn't even look good back in the day. That (now low-end) CGI look just didn't look good, and they tried to cram too much detail into a 320x240 framebuffer. Shigeru Miyamoto agrees with this sentiment. After the popularity of the all-CGI Donkey Kong Country, Nintendo wanted him to make Yoshi's Island in a similar fashion. He responded by giving the game a very crayon/hand-drawn design that came out looking amazing.

 

[sörine]

Under Defeat, a 2006 Dreamcast release is far and away one of the best looking DC games and looks miles better than 2001 output.

It looks miles better than Shenmue II or Sonic Adventure 2? Under Defeat's a great looking shooter (as was Border Down before it) but come on. Naomi helped DC more than STV helped Saturn I guess, but ground up Dreamcast development essentially ended after 3 years. After Sega dropped the system it was basically like Saturn; a home for lower budget arcade conversions and 2D games.

Would you say there were impressive 3D Saturn games in 1999/2000? Would you say development progressed like it did on N64 or PSX in those years? Would you say the same for Dreamcast 2002-2006 compared to PS2, GC and Xbox?

 

[Sickboy007]

 

[revolverjgw]

This thread is full of emulator images. Some of these games originally rendered at something like 320x240, guys. The most impressive were certainly the higher-res ones, like VF2. That was like double the usual resolution at 60fps.

That's alright with me. There are PC games that weren't feasible for me to run at 1440p back in the day, but I do it now and it looks good and feels good. I don't have any problem cutting old console games the same slack. Some PS1 games have detailed textures and objects that weren't even discernible back then with that postage stamp sized res. They deserve some clarity and now I can give it to them and they can give back.

 

[entremet]

Soul Edge still looks really impressive I think. Arcade perfect with fully 3D backgrounds, neat lighting and shadow effects and moving stages. Only runs at 30fps though, sadly.

System 11 represent!

Didn't System 11 use PS1 hardware?

 

[SmokedMeat]

I know people say that, but Saturn 3D isn't anywhere near as bad as the 3DO or Jaguar. It's really not that far off from the PS1.

3DO and Jaguar were also older systems. I believe seeing years ago that 3DO could only push something like 20,000 polygons per second.

 

[metareferential]

That's alright with me. There are PC games that weren't feasible for me to run at 1440p back in the day, but I do it now and it looks good and feels good. I don't have any problem cutting old console games the same slack. Some PS1 games have detailed textures that weren't even discernible back then with that postage stamp sized res.

I guess that's fair reasoning, but I was under the impression the OP implied we should talk about older games that still look good in their original form.

 

[3bdelilah]

I'd say Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie looked very good in their time:

 

[sn00zer]

Not only is Silent Bomber one of my all time favorite PSX games, it still looks and plays awesome to this day.

http://youtu.be/OLHPVxGJ66M

Really disappointed this isnt on PSN

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Some of the best looking games from that era were a mixture of 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds, and imo they still look great today:

Breath of Fire 3
Breath of Fire 4
Xenogears
Final Fantasy Tactics
Grandia

Yup, this was the best.

 

[lazygecko]

I prefer sticking closer to the original resolutions in older games, even for PC titles. I think the added pixelation on the upscaled resolution adds a layer of abstraction to the graphics which makes the simple lowpoly geometry and low resolution textures less noticeable than they would be otherwise. Plus, games that rely on pre-rendered backgrounds scale up terribly since the sharp polygon characters start clashing with the blurry, stretched out images. Same goes vice versa for 2D sprites in 3D environments.

 

[Rlan]

 

[SmokedMeat]

I guess that's fair reasoning, but I was under the impression the OP implied we should talk about older games that still look good in their original form.

I agree with you. I figured it was console games of that era that still held up today in their original form; not enhanced via emulators.

And huge thumbs up to the Silent Bomber mention. I found it rather ugly, but damn if it wasn't one of the best games on the system that hardly anyone bothered to play.