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Really old games whose visuals have best stood the test of time

What 20+ year-old games to you still look good today. The first two that come to mind for me are:

-RType (Arcade) - 1987
-Crash Bandicoot (PSX) - 1996
 

Platy

Member
Soul Calibur is less than 20 years.

Yoshi Island looks better than a good amount of games today

If we count 2017, Pocket Fighter is perfect in every way
 

BiggNife

Member
I mean, there are plenty of 16/32 bit era games that still look great visually. I feel like this question would be harder if you said 30 or 35.

Rayman (1995)

Foret1PC.png


Metal Slug (1996)

54288-Metal_Slug_(J)-14.jpg


Super Mario Bros 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)

885x.jpg


I could keep going but these immediately spring to mind
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
usually 2d stuff holds up...well, forever really. Its not even a case of "man look at this crisp hd 2d we have today (like the Blazblue games for example), the old stuff looks shit in comparison" except it doesnt, it still looks fine.

3d games on the other hand, you go back to most stuff pre-PS2 and yeesh.

Although Mario 64 still looks good I think, if blocky. Held up better than Ocarina of Time imo.
 

Anno

Member
Tactics Ogre (and even more the PSP remake) will forever be one of my favorite looking games. The amount of detail they pack into the game is amazing.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Mega Man X

Mega_Man_X_Armadillo_stage_running.png


SNES--Mega%20Man%20X_May6%2013_50_13.png


It actually got worse as it continued to get remade

Mega%20Man%20Maverick%20Hunter%20X_ULUS10068_000021434228890-full.jpg


screen480x480.jpeg
 

Fbh

Member
Almost all the good looking games from the SNES era look great IMO.


Resolution aside, I still think Chrono Trigger lookes better than almost every indie game going for a 16bit era graphic style:
 

Clessidor

Member
Still love the realistic look of Settlers 2. Looks still good today and modern Settlers games never tried to achieve that visual style.

440767-settlers2_gold_1.jpg
 

Gaspard

Member
I can probably count the amount of early 3D games that aged well on one hand. And two of those are Mega Man Legends games.
 

Aquova

Member
Alice in Videoland on C64 is still what I think of when I think of Alice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNkjmTQ3AiA

av01.png


I mean, there are plenty of 16/32 bit era games that still look great visually. I feel like this question would be harder if you said 30 or 35.

Rayman (1995)

Metal Slug (1996)

Super Mario Bros 2: Yoshi's Island


I could keep going but these immediately spring to mind

These three are some of the best. Metal Slug still blows me away

I would also say

Final Fantasy VI (1994)

14-ffvi_039.png


Ecco the Dolphin (1993)

History-of-Ecco-the-Dolphin-3.gif


Sonic CD (1993)

specialstage4shot2.png

(Not a great picture, but I couldn't find any others that looked really stunning)
 
kirbysadventure.gif


super-mario-bros-3-virtual-console-20071112022240220.jpg


For the NES, Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario Bros. 3 still look really damn good. Even with the limited colour palette, their aesthetic is really vibrant and still pops.
 

lazygecko

Member
It's not the kind of 16-bit game that will dazzle you with tons of technical effects. Just pure, brilliantly realized pixel art.

flink_titleavs52.png
gfs_92660_2_7vjsm0.jpg
flink7sstp.png
flink53isoc.gif
 
It's not the kind of 16-bit game that will dazzle you with tons of technical effects. Just pure, brilliantly realized pixel art.

flink_titleavs52.png
gfs_92660_2_7vjsm0.jpg
flink7sstp.png
flink53isoc.gif

Never seen this before in my life. Just had the most difficult two minutes trying to sus out what the title actually read, and it's not The Misadventures of Hiob.
 

eso76

Member
I think most 16 bit pixel art you'd consider good looking back in the day still looks sexy to us today, at least when viewed on the correct display/with the right filters applied. That actually goes for 8 bit stuff too now that I think of it. That scanlines screenshots thread is one of the best looking on neogaf to me, so..

It has to do with a lot of things, really but I actually have a harder time pointing out once good looking titles that haven't aged well. They all still look perfect to me, I guess it's just I am unable to judge them outside of their context.
 

gelf

Member
For 3D I'd say almost any Model 2 board Sega arcade game, and especially Virtua Fighter 3 and Scud Race on Model 3 which just make the 20 year cut off point.
 
I'm gonna fudge this a little and say Street Fighter III, which is a few months out from being 20 years old. To the best of my knowledge, the spritework for the game wasn't really updated in the translation to its console port, meaning that the stuff released in the original arcade cabinet is as it was almost 20 years ago, and some of it is just remarkable.

http://www.zweifuss.ca/index.htm

colorswap.php

colorswap.php

colorswap.php


alex01.png
 

stuminus3

Member
It's extremely basic, but I still find the original Pac-Man to be particularly pleasing to the eyes. Everything is exactly as it should be.

Pac-man.png
 
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