-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The most beautiful modern 2D games!
- Thread starter GreggTheGrimReaper
- Start date
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Damn, MSXboxworld.com is looking sick
Lend me some of your Castle of Cagilistro money so I can buy it, Ostinatto!
Lend me some of your Castle of Cagilistro money so I can buy it, Ostinatto!
MrCunningham
Member
John Rabbit
Banned
bastion.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Vinegar Joe
Member
This thread is beautiful.
Braid is a bit of a tough one to love, though.
Braid is a bit of a tough one to love, though.
The Awesomest
Member
Wario land: Shake It!
Although screens hardly do it justice. You need to see this game in motion to truly appreciate it.
Edit ahahah I've been beaten by a boat
I love how we even picked the same scenes and said the same thing
Although screens hardly do it justice. You need to see this game in motion to truly appreciate it.
Edit ahahah I've been beaten by a boat
I love how we even picked the same scenes and said the same thing
Boat five!
SaltyDoughnut
Member
Aquaria
Blueberry Garden
Windosill
Lume
Botanicula
Blueberry Garden
Windosill
Lume
Botanicula
Yeah, things like 00 (and Code Geass) had very nicely drawn fights. Parts of my memories get mixed up with the game CG (and other early 2000s-ish anime), lol. Let me rewrite my statement, taking that into account:
Even anime studios, which tried to insert CG for highly-detailed-character fight scenes into their works, gave way to the fact that hand-drawn depictions of such things just work out better! No matter how advanced the technology, it's just impossible to recreate the eloquence and emotional animation of a hand-animated fight scene! ^_^
The closest thing to the Saga 2 / Legends of Mana style currently out. Though I wish The Kid looked a bit more obviously-2D, he looks more 3D mesh-y than everything else.
Can't the same be said for almost every 2D hand drawn game, though? I think, even in stills (especially the ones chosen), the hand-drawn impact and speed effects automatically sell the game as something special. Nintendo really should make an HD Wii-U downloadable port of the game (and a sequel!), just so we have a chance to see the gorgeous work in HD.
I wish the "Get an animation house like Production I.G to do the 2D for us!" method of 2D game creation was employed by more developers... Imagine if they were to make something like a G.I.T.S SAC game using such a method...
That really depends on the animations, just because a game is hand drawn, it doesn't mean the animations are good.
Even with the sidebars, Wario Land: Shake Dimension is gorgeous. Stills don't do it justice.
Couldn't find better images unfortunately.
Game had amazing art, shame it's so boring it could be a viable implement of euthanasia.
Such buyer's remorse : (
ItAintEasy
Member
Came to post Machinarium and after reading through the post it would still be my pick. The game is just so atmospheric and you really get sucked into the world.
(the music was amazing as well!)
(the music was amazing as well!)
scorpscarx
Member
Even though it may not be the most beautiful, Dustforce has my vote, the art style is attractive with this clean look.
MrCunningham
Member
Wario land: Shake It!
Although screens hardly do it justice. You need to see this game in motion to truly appreciate it.
Edit ahahah I've been beaten by a boat
I love how we even picked the same scenes and said the same thing
I really do think that Wario Land: Shake it has some of the best looking hand drawn animated sprites of this gen. As impressive as Rayman Origins looks, its sprites still have a bit of a flash styled tweening look to them. While Wario Land: Shake it has 100% fully animated sprites that were all drawn by hand frame by frame.
FrankCaron
Member
That it took more than a dozen posts to get to Rayman Origins (or Blazblue for that matter) boggles my mind.
Oh yeah, easily agreed.
(Insert stealth jab to ASW fighting games here.)
Wario in 2D already stands out the same way CC2's Naruto games stand out in 3D; even in stills, there are some effects and details they do, that most other artist leave to things like cloned after-image shadows, or non-authentic looking 3D inspired effects. You can tell right off the bat, even in screens, that these games have a deeper layer of TL&C than most other games.
R
Retro_
Unconfirmed Member
Hell Yeah! (Sidescroller, PC/XBLA/PSN)
Gross
Ah yes, I agree.
Wow, this looks awesome.
The Whispered world.
Just checked the trailer and now I really want to play this.
FrostuTheNinja
Member
Muramasa is still king. Totally agree that the gameplay systems are underrated. Fun game with some of the best bosses in a long time.
It makes me happy to see Shake It mentioned. It's such an awesome game with some great animation cycles.
As for the whole Rayman Origins thing, yeah it's great to have the tech and ability to transpose art into a workable character, but they really should throw in some in-between frames. Just having such a small amount of key frames really hurt the game's visuals.
Edit:
Of course Viewtiful Joe counts, it's gorgeous.
It makes me happy to see Shake It mentioned. It's such an awesome game with some great animation cycles.
As for the whole Rayman Origins thing, yeah it's great to have the tech and ability to transpose art into a workable character, but they really should throw in some in-between frames. Just having such a small amount of key frames really hurt the game's visuals.
Edit:
Of course Viewtiful Joe counts, it's gorgeous.
Piercedveil
Member
Bastion and Swords and Sworcery are pretty high on my list.
Dust: An Elysian Tail has no place in this thread, an awful mish mash of artstyles.
Owl Boy blew my mind:
Now watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK5Qdzw7xEs
Owl Boy blew my mind:
Now watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK5Qdzw7xEs
ScraftyDevil
Banned
I'd post screens of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for the DS, but screens simply don't do the game justice. In order to truly appreciate the beauty of the best-looking DS game out there, you need to see it how it was meant to be seen: on a smaller-resolution screen where aliasing isn't noticable. To show how incredibly amazing this game's animations are, here a slowed-down, frame-by-frame gif of my favourite animation, containing an astonishing 287 frames:
(^_^)
This thread is about *Modern* games (as in, made recently), though! I think the "Best 2D backgrops" thread proved SNKP was king of atmospheric 2D, though. Stuff from Last Blade, KoF, and AoF 3 is jawdropping.
I wonder if it's a decision of style + memory restraints all at once, in Rayman's case. High Detail / Resolution + Hand-drawn tweening normally doesn't go together well, and whenever one DOES try to do it on current consoles, you either get horrible loading (Like with Clash of Heroes HD), or hybrid-styles (Like with Dust: An Elysian Tail, where Dust is more traditionally animated than some segment-style enemies)
Hopefully, all the RAM that'll come with the next-gen consoles will allow artist to start having more well-animated HD 2D without as much compromise.
If it was a 60 dollar retail project made by a large team, I'd come close to agreeing. As a 15 dollar download made by 1 man, I think you're exaggerating.
It's all Noggy's style. His hand. His way of foing Backgrounds. His way of making characters. It's not too far from the fact that the foreground elements in Wario have strong thick outlines, but the background elements are drawn linelessly, to draw focus off them. All elements of a style, used to suggest depth, importance, and different textures, in a 2D world.
It is a very awesome looking game, that benefits from the fact that pixel work pretty much ALWAYS makes a games art fit perfectly together (one of the aspects I love about it.)
Ghost Trick is definitely amazing. The fluidity of it all was breathtaking at times.
They're modern to me, damn it!
They're modern to me, damn it!
Can we get some Mother 3 love in here? Beautiful game:
Sadly, I can't find a video of Mother 3 without some one talking over the top trying oh so hard to be funny.
The La Mulana remake needs some attention too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgPHW_99ay4
Sadly, I can't find a video of Mother 3 without some one talking over the top trying oh so hard to be funny.
The La Mulana remake needs some attention too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgPHW_99ay4
FrostuTheNinja
Member
I was actually talking to a buddy of mine about that, recently. I decided that it's more than likely, Ubi just being more budget conscience with 2D efforts. Why pay a team of animators, when you can basically have the design team take care of "sprite work"?
At the same time though, I'd argue the original Rayman wasn't necessarily known for its animation but it's design/aesthetic. So yeah, it can go whichever way.
UnlovedJew
Member
Not enough Sonic Generations. Severely underrated.
IdreamofHIME
Member
You really do read some mental things on this site.
Well, that's only 6 years old... I guess that still counts as modern now!
WOHOO! Ok, cool, moe and fanservice haven't overtaken a huge amount of anime, I can still treat Trigun and Slayers like they're currently super-relevant, and the Neo Geo is still on life support! And the Dreamcast will NEVER DIE! I'll happily allow this fantasy world to persist, then!
No, really, I'm not being jerky! I'd visit that time if I could!
Maybe... I do have to wonder. Not every artist (or group or artist) believe in animation as much as style consistency, or amount of content either, however. The larger the team, the harder it is to maintain these things, some maybe it was just a "this is better for the overall project" decision, more than monetary? *shrug*
Sega's Sonic Games have some gorgeous 3D artwork. I do think they're one of the best at bringing 3D-art games to a level where they might be as colorful and "fun" to visit as 2D.
Seriously, come on. I know it was made by one person but that does not award it any points. That deer looks like a bootleg bambi and what's with the blurred line and sharp lines. It's all over the place. And don't get me started on the tree.
Didn't realise Mother 3 was 6 years old, guess I only got into it a year or so ago when I found the fansub.
Flying_Phoenix
Banned
Muramasa is a great game. Its pretty much a modern Ninja Spirit. Highly replayable and entertaining.
A Boy and His Blob is the most under-rated game this generation. It was incredible.
This. I wanted to be wowed by Rayman Origins, I really did. But at the end of the day it just reeked of "Flash Animation". It looked good but knowing how they did it I wasn't really impressed.
A Boy and His Blob is the most under-rated game this generation. It was incredible.
This. I wanted to be wowed by Rayman Origins, I really did. But at the end of the day it just reeked of "Flash Animation". It looked good but knowing how they did it I wasn't really impressed.
That's a bit of an older screenshot, but still, I wouldn't say it's that bad at all. Line-art, cel-shaded characters married with smooth-shading, lineless background is a very common animation tactic. Besides, I still think it gets more coherent as the game has gotten further in production:
I'd rate Dust higher, personally than things like Dustforce or Braid, and closer to Wario Land Shake it.
Those look a lot better but not a fan of that soft art style. Can't hate on those new screens though, assume the animation is quite nice too.
chixdiggit
Member
That's a bit of an older screenshot, but still, I wouldn't say it's that bad at all. Line-art, cel-shaded characters married with smooth-shading, lineless background is a very common animation tactic. Besides, I still think it gets more coherent as the game has gotten further in production:
.
When is this supposed to release? It seems like I have been seeing screens of it around forever.
Dog Problems
Banned
August 15th as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion on XBLA. I'm hoping there's a PC release at some point.
Adam Prime
hates soccer, is Mexican
Bans for people who posted fucking New Super Mario Bros images! Seriously.
Not direct feed, but some of the most recent gameplay from Gamespot during E3. Native 720P at 60fps. Should look great in person!
I like soft styles, use it myself in coloring at times! Fairly rare to see it in animation, which usually relies on cel-shade style. I liked it in Disney's Tarzan, for example. I've always felt it to be a coloring style close to smoothed pencil shades, which I've also always loved.
Visualante2
Member
Man I clicked this thread just to see 'em post it. Too funny.