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[SlimeGooGoo]

Sorry, I personally can't see the sprite work and animations as being lazy

If you compare "modern" pixel art with what you would find in arcade games and on the Saturn, and also taking into account devs back then didn't had as much tools as we have now, then yes, people really got lazy nowadays.

What are your personal favorites, both 2D and 3D?
Edit: And do you have modern examples, in particular as well?

Well I can post a few, both old and new (2D only)
Gonna put them in a spoiler

Spoiler

Rayman 1

Legend of Mana

Adventures of Lomax

Wonder Boy Dragon's Trap

Odin Sphere

But my point is, it's a wasted opportunity.
There are a lot of game engines and other software available now, and even graphics tablets are more affordable than ever.

We could be raising the bar in 2D visuals, but people make games as if they were under the same constraints as 30 years ago, it's insane.

 

[nial]

yeah, I'm with goo on this one

 

[FloopCookiefix]

If you compare "modern" pixel art with what you would find in arcade games and on the Saturn, and also taking into account devs back then didn't had as much tools as we have now, then yes, people really got lazy nowadays.


Well I can post a few, both old and new (2D only)
Gonna put them in a spoiler

Spoiler

Rayman 1

Legend of Mana

Adventures of Lomax

Wonder Boy Dragon's Trap

Odin Sphere

But my point is, it's a wasted opportunity.
There are a lot of game engines and other software available now, and even graphics tablets are more affordable than ever.

We could be raising the bar in 2D visuals, but people make games as if they were under the same constraints as 30 years ago, it's insane.

Thanks for the examples! Also I should note that, as in my original post, I'm not defending *all* modern pixel art, for sure.

So, to further elaborate: what exactly are you looking for, or expecting, that would raise the bar for 2D visuals? I see a number of different takes in your examples: From traditional frame-by-frame in The Dragon's Trap example, to a rigged, painterly aesthetic in Odin Sphere, to detailed sprite work in Rayman. I'm familiar with them all, and they are also appealing and admirable to me as well, for different reasons. I think it'd be cool to nail down some more specifics.

(And are there really no 3D examples? or any 3D titles you'd want to see inspiration from?)

Edit (but it's really like the third edit of this post): I can see where you're coming from with the Saturn comment, but I also still just don't see the effort still put in as lazy. Might not be as extensive nor meticulous, but in the case I experienced, I still personally appreciate, admire, and enjoyed the spritework/FX/lighting combo effort, even if in your words, it doesn't necessarily take full advantage. Again, I think we can agree to disagree?

 

[JC 1080P CRT]

chrono trigger doesn't hold up that much better than Jak and Daxter, Metal Gear Solid 2, Ratchet and Clank, Jet Set Radio Future, Halo, and Conker's Bad Fur Day. If the only thing you see is dated polygons, you've got a severe issue with your vision.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

Are you trying to play Chrono Trigger on an HDTV through composite video while stretching it to 16:9... upside down without wearing your glasses? Because that's the only way I could see anyone saying that its graphics don't hold up.

I didn't play any of those games growing up. Many of them still have great art directions that hold up well and bringing up images of how these games look at their worst isn't gonna change that. Not to mention that for as good as Chrono Trigger looks... the animations in it are also janky and terrible even by SNES standards.

I think most anybody who's played the game (at least not on some janky display) would disagree. Otherwise, show me games that you think make Chrono Trigger's animations look "terrible."

 

[Kataploom]

Gaming visuals aren't a binary choice between 90s graphics and realism. I don't know why people keep making it out to be this way ITT. There are literally 1000s of other art styles. There is anime style, cel shaded style, semi-realism, watercolour, etc.

Not saying they are, just that there are many styles and we choose to avois what we don't want to look at and go for the art style we prefer.

 

[Crayon]

I don't mind it in the Boomer shooters. Those always scaled it in and out and it looked messy anyway.

I don't like it in most to the indie games. Looks like s*** on LCDs. And a bunch of them are just pixelized art which look like double s***.

 

[Arsic]

I always play with the visual options as it’s generally possible to remove/add scan lines, filters etc in these games to make them look better.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

So, to further elaborate: what exactly are you looking for, or expecting, that would raise the bar for 2D visuals?

Dropping pixel art and expecting more from devs would be a start.

A lot of indie devs make games using pixel art because it's faster and cheaper to make.
If you make the resolution lower enough, even a programmer can get away with crappy art.

Also, those old games from the 80's had very limited animation. Something around 2-3 frames per animation.
So anyone can make animations by moving a pixel here and there with low resolution images.

Example:

To make things worse, a lot of indie devs just blatantly copy some popular game's sprites and only change things here and there.
It's not uncommon to see indie games having sprites that look identical to those found in Earthbound, Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6 and others.
They all look like as if they were made by the same person or that they come from the same game.

I believe a lot of those indie devs are just lazy, and most don't even bother learning the basics of art first.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of them never touched a canvas and a brush.
It's ok if you're a solo dev that doesn't have enough time to make your game, but unexcusable for already estabilished gaming companies (I'm looking at you Square-Enix)

This retro trend has been abused for more than 10 years already, as an excuse to make cheap games that never exceed the quality of their inspirations.
It's time for companies to drop that crap and get better. If they could do beautiful 2D art 20 years ago, there's no excuse that they can't do that now.

Vanillaware for instance has been doing HD art for quite a while now. And they put a lot of effort in it. I wish they got more appreciation from the public.

Ubisoft tried with Rayman Origins, but the tone and art style just didn't grab me.
Still, it was nice they put the effort in creating the UbiArt Framework, but unfortunately they haven't been using it for bigger games.

Then we have the devs of Wonder Boy Dragon's Trap, Streets of Rage 4 and Cuphead that use traditional frame-by-frame animation.

I believe those devs are showing us the path. That devs can do better than low res pixel art.

(And are there really no 3D examples? or any 3D titles you'd want to see inspiration from?)

I have, but I'm not in the mood to make an extensive post with examples.

What I have to say is that 3D always had more investment since the 2000s.
Things grew quickly with 3D, and we have some pretty sophisticated methods for photorealistic rendering.

But I also believe photorealism will make 3D games look all the same.
Specially now with very detailed 3D scans and UE5.

2D games require more intimacy to get it right. You can't just drop all the assets in a scene and expect the lighting system to do all the job.
That is, the artist has to "calculate" how things will look, not the computer.

Also, 2D animations always have to be done by hand (no motion capture available) and won't have that "interpolated" look that 3D animations have.

 

[CGNoire]

Canvas Cycle: True 8-bit Color Cycling with HTML5

this is a cool color cycle trick demo website.. if you want to see how people push it.

Makes me sad this art is forgotten by many.
Limitation often pushed people to get the most out of the tools they have.
Look at the 3d gba games

Loved that GDC talk given by the creator of Loom thar turned me on to this site

 

[CGNoire]

I think it's your nostalgia - not my eyes - that need to be checked, bud.

He probably means via emulation aka in 4k.

 

[FloopCookiefix]

Dropping pixel art and expecting more from devs would be a start.

A lot of indie devs make games using pixel art because it's faster and cheaper to make.
If you make the resolution lower enough, even a programmer can get away with crappy art.

Also, those old games from the 80's had very limited animation. Something around 2-3 frames per animation.
So anyone can make animations by moving a pixel here and there with low resolution images.

Example:

To make things worse, a lot of indie devs just blatantly copy some popular game's sprites and only change things here and there.
It's not uncommon to see indie games having sprites that look identical to those found in Earthbound, Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6 and others.
They all look like as if they were made by the same person or that they come from the same game.

I don't disagree with most of this, and I may be mistaken, but it sounds like again you're reading my post as if I'm defending all pixel art, everywhere. I just don't think pixel art in itself HAS to go away, and I personally like 2D/3D blends, whether that be pixel or more traditional. Who wouldn't love to see higher quality, mind blowing uses in the future overall? So I'm down to let people work it, and let what shines and sticks out with effort rise to the top. Not excusing the glut of less than stellar stuff here, but I hope you get what I mean

But I also believe photorealism will make 3D games look all the same.
Specially now with very detailed 3D scans and UE5.

2D games require more intimacy to get it right. You can't just drop all the assets in a scene and expect the lighting system to do all the job.
That is, the artist has to "calculate" how things will look, not the computer.

Also, 2D animations always have to be done by hand (no motion capture available) and won't have that "interpolated" look that 3D animations have.

For this last part, I presume you mean 2D traditional frame-by-frame animation, because 2D puppeting can absolutely look interpolated/cheap. 2D traditional can... also not be done very well, so it's not like it's an automatic victory either- no method really is, but it could still be argued that there's a minimum required effort not present with many other methods

 

[NightmareFarm]

There's nothing objective about this statement -- that's why someone called you a philistine.

Congrats on the attention from your topic featuring your dumb opinion, though.

Pixelart (as an option) forever!

>There's nothing objective about this statement -- that's why someone called you a philistine.


A philistine refers to someone who is guided by materialism and is disdainful or intellectual values.

Why would wanting outdated blocky graphics in video games make someone an intellectual or artistic? Graphics evolve for a reason. People want games that have clear visuals and are pleasing on the eyes, it's that simple it has nothing to do with how "intellectual" someone is. There is no statistical correlation between people with high IQ and people who like pixel art games. And artistic? I guess by this logic if someone has an appreciation for a variety of other art styles but doesn't like pixel art then that means they have no appreciation for art either?

And I don't get what materialism has to do with this. But you realise that all video games are inherently materialistic right?

>Congrats on the attention from your topic featuring your dumb opinion, though.

You're welcome to not click on it.

 

[Danjin44]

>There's nothing objective about this statement -- that's why someone called you a philistine.


A philistine refers to someone who is guided by materialism and is disdainful or intellectual values.

Why would wanting outdated blocky graphics in video games make someone an intellectual or artistic? Graphics evolve for a reason. People want games that have clear visuals and are pleasing on the eyes, it's that simple it has nothing to do with how "intellectual" someone is. There is no statistical correlation between people with high IQ and people who like pixel art games. And artistic? I guess by this logic if someone has an appreciation for a variety of other art styles but doesn't like pixel art then that means they have no appreciation for art either?

And I don't get what materialism has to do with this. But you realise that all video games are inherently materialistic right?

>Congrats on the attention from your topic featuring your dumb opinion, though.

You're welcome to not click on it.

The issue here i you keep try convince others that opinion is facts, but its nothing more than your opinion. You are more than free to not like pixel visuals in your games but thats doesn't mean it shouldn't exist.

 

[NightmareFarm]

The issue here i you keep try convince others that opinion is facts, but its nothing more than your opinion. You are more than free to not like pixel visuals in your games but thats doesn't mean it shouldn't exist.

I think a lot of gamers would prefer if certain genres weren't so oversaturated with pixel art. There is nothing wrong with it existing but like literally every arena FPS game(besides DOOM Eternal and Shadow Warrior 3) released this decade is pixel art and it is tiring.

When there is more of a balance between pixel art games and other art styles then everyone wins. People can choose which style they prefer.

 

[three_muffins]

Like literally every modern arena shooter and most roguelike I look up has these archaic pixel art graphics. I literally can't find any modern arena FPS shooter games other than modern doom, shadow warrior 3 and splitgate which aren't pixelated. It wouldn't hurt to make a boomer shooter with at least PS2 level graphics akin to Quake 3. I get that it's done to cut costs and time but there are plenty of indie games with at least decent graphics like Ghostrunner or Rogue Legacy 2 so that's no excuse. It's just laziness which sells because of 90s kids who are nostalgic over their blocky childhood games. We live in 2023 not 1996 dammit. We need to be moving forward not being stuck in the past. If I wanted blocky 90s graphics I would play SNES and N64 games.

Your Neagaf posting right should be revoked. You are not fit to engange with games and gaming enthusiasts.

 

[Danjin44]

I think a lot of gamers would prefer if certain genres weren't so oversaturated with pixel art. There is nothing wrong with it existing but like literally every arena FPS game(besides DOOM Eternal and Shadow Warrior 3) released this decade is pixel art.

When there is more of a balance between pixel art games and other art styles then everyone wins. People can choose which style they prefer.

But thats true with every visual style, I'm fan of anime aesthetics in games but I dont want every game to have same style. At end of the day we all want variety in our games.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Your Neagaf posting right should be revoked. You are not fit to engange with games and gaming enthusiasts.

Because I prefer modern graphics over 90s graphics like most people???

 

[three_muffins]

Because I prefer modern graphics over 90s graphics like most people???

ermm..

 

[NightmareFarm]

ermm..

Including most people on this board.

 

[nkarafo]

I think we can all agree to this:

Modern 2D Pixel Art:

Low-res pixel art = Bad (we are not constrained by the NES specs or low-res CRT TVs anymore)
High-res pixel art = Good (as long as it's detailed/shaded enough and not like the shitty Cal-Arts style)

Skeletal animation = Bad. ALWAYS bad. It's lazy, cheap and the easy way out.
Frame-by-frame hand made animation = Good (The more frames the better)

One more thing. Cup Head looks amazing but i don't think it counts as "Pixel Art".

 

[three_muffins]

Including most people on this board.

"most" is a really vague word and pretty sure you did not do an independent study on user preference concerning graphical styles.

I like options and the fact that pixel art exists does not threaten your preference in games. That fact that you "hate" graphical styles is kinda weird to me. Hate is a pretty strong word for an option that does not lessen your enjoyment of your prefered games.

 

[NightmareFarm]

"most" is a really vague word and pretty sure you did not do an independent study on user preference concerning graphical styles.

I like options and the fact that pixel art exists does not threaten your preference in games. That fact that you "hate" graphical styles is kinda weird to me. Hate is a pretty strong word for an option that does not lessen your enjoyment of your prefered games.

Lmao like a quarter of the threads on the front page are about graphics most of the time. The "Graphical Fidelity I expect this gen" thread constantly gets bumped. People care about graphics and graphical styles whether they want to admit it or not.

I don't care much for graphics as long as it is at least PS2 level and not pixel art. And I don't care if pixel art games exist as long as it doesn't completely dominate a genre to the point where it's hard to find anything else.

>I like options and the fact that pixel art exists does not threaten your preference in games.

Again, certain genres can be completely dominated by pixel art like arena FPS games and also roguelikes with a few exceptions. I cannot find any other arena FPS games besides modern doom, SW3 and splitgate which is not pixel art.

 

[EruditeHobo]

A philistine refers to someone who is guided by materialism and is disdainful or intellectual values.

Yes, and calling for a decrease in graphical variety is somewhat anti-intellectual...

Also, words don't just mean one thing based on one definition. Not sure where you got your weird esoteric definition, but regardless of that philistine applies pretty easily, perhaps in a colloquial sense, to someone doing what you're doing. If you just said "I'm not really into pixelart" that would be one thing, but you aren't.

I'm not super into cel-shaded styles, but I certainly don't say it shouldn't exist! That would be stupid.

You're welcome to not click on it.

No problem at all, I'm always happy to contribute to someone's education. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Yes, and calling for a decrease in graphical variety is quite anti-intellectual...

Also, words don't just mean one thing based on one definition -- philistine applies pretty easily, in a colloquial sense, to someone doing what you're doing.

If you just said "I'm not really into pixelart" that would be one thing... but you clearly aren't.



No problem at all, I'm always happy to contribute to someone's education. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

>Yes, and calling for a decrease in graphical variety is quite anti-intellectual...

But that's the thing. Pixel art is completely DOMINATING certain genres to the point where we can't see any other type of art style. Go look up "Arena shooters to play in 2022" and check how many are made to look like the first few doom games graphically.

I could say the same for Roguelikes to a slightly lesser extent as well like two thirds of them seem to be done in pixel art.

Not only that but the pixel art style inherently looks homogenous. There are different ways it can be implemented but most of the time they don't stand out from each other since they try are trying to emulate a 64 bit look or lower where there aren't as much bits to represent different colours and create a wider variety of textures. The only games i've seen which stands out from the rest in this regard is octopath traveler.

Pixel art dominating certain genres is what's killing graphical variety.

>Also, words don't just mean one thing based on one definition -- philistine applies pretty easily, in a colloquial sense, to someone doing what you're doing.

What I brought up was the official definition for the term, you can't just redefine what terms mean.

 

[EruditeHobo]

Words don't have "official definitions", they have usages.

Anyway, a quick google yields a completely different definition than the one you gave, which is much, much more in line with what I understand the word to mean in the parlance of our times. So... what can I say? I just find you to be wrong on all fronts.

Thanks for the back and forth.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Words don't have "official definitions", they have usages.

Anyway, a quick google yields a completely different definition than the one you gave, which is much, much more in line with what I understand the word to mean in the parlance of our times. So... what can I say? I just find you to be wrong on all fronts.

Thanks for the back and forth.

The mirriam-webster dictionary gives me the definition I referred to above.

The cambridge dictionary gives me

"a person who refuses to see the beauty or the value of art or culture"

Again more or less the same thing.

Not wanting 64 bit graphics to completely dominate the genres I like to the point where I can only find three games in the genre which are not pixelised, does not make me unable to "appreciate the beauty of art and culture". I would be more open to "appreciate" them if they weren't forced down my throat so much.

I don't see how I am proven wrong about pixel art dominating the arena FPS genre or the pixel art style being inherently visually homogenous as you haven't made any counterarguments to that either.

 

[Futaleufu]

AAA HD pixel art isnt cheap

You'll never see something like this in a game ever again

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

@OP there's amazing pixel art out there my guy

 

[March Climber]

This "retro" trend needs to go.
It's just an excuse to make cheap graphics and throw in the trash the potential that current hardware has for 2D games.

The easier and more intuitive tools like Unreal Engine become, the sooner you’ll get your wish…at least on average. There’s no way ‘retro’ as an art style fully goes away. It’s on you to simply ignore it at that point.

 

[NightmareFarm]

AAA HD pixel art isnt cheap

You'll never see something like this in a game ever again

I'll admit that looks a lot better than most of the pixel art i've seen.

 

[CoreyFlawless]

Idk, some of these retro/pixel art games have been some of my favorites games. It just an art you don’t like. Don’t be hating on it. It just not for you. Ones that enjoy it. Let them.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Idk, some of these retro/pixel art games have been some of my favorites games. It just an art you don’t like. Don’t be hating on it. It just not for you. Ones that enjoy it. Let them.

I have no problem with people like it as much as I do it dominating entire genres.

Name me 6 Arena FPS titles released in the past 3 years which aren't 64bit pixel art. I challenge you. I can name like at least 15-20 which are.

 

[cireza]

I'll admit that looks a lot better than most of the pixel art i've seen.

Each character required months of work by a professional team to be achieved. By far the most impressive, high-res pixel-art I have seen. With proper shading. Hi-res pixel-art usually drops any attempts at elaborated gradients, as well as cutting on animation, because it is simply too much work.

Hi-res and pixel art don't make much sense together. If you are going to draw pixels one by one, it quickly becomes a tremendous task when upping the resolution. Iconoclasts is a bit higher than your typical pixel-art resolution (360 lines instead of 240 I think) and you can already see how much more work it involved.

Because of low-res pixel-art, even someone like me can make a complete Game Gear game all by himself on his free time. So it is something precious in a way, as it is an enabler. But professionals working in teams ought to do better. At least 16 bits pixel-art.

 

[64bitmodels]

Because that's the only way I could see anyone saying that its graphics don't hold up.

What? No I think chrono triggers art style has aged gracefully. But you don't need to put down 6th gen games to push pixel art up.

I am saying that games from the early 2000s have also aged gracefully in terms of artstyle and visuals.

 

[Merkades]

I like pixel art, what I don't like is the 8-bit (or worse) style almost everyone uses. It is pretty cruddy that I actually have to study some of those to determine what I am actually looking at. If devs used 16-bit or better, I would have little to no problem with it.

 

[poppabk]

I have no problem with people like it as much as I do it dominating entire genres.

Name me 6 Arena FPS titles released in the past 3 years which aren't 64bit pixel art. I challenge you. I can name like at least 15-20 which are.

Name me 15 - 20 arena shooters in the 2015-2020 range. It was a close to dead genre until the Doom style game revolution.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Name me 15 - 20 arena shooters in the 2015-2020 range. It was a close to dead genre until the Doom style game revolution.

I don't see how that is relevant to the domination of the pixel art style in arena shooters.

 

[sobaka770]

I hate hate HATE pixel art. It's cheap sure, but also looks horrible on modern screens and no - CRT émulation does not make it better, it only adds artifacts everywhere. Every indie is using it and it screams - made on a dime. Kill it with fire.

UbiArt was amazing back in the day.

 

[supernova8]

I'm guessing you're (more specifically) referring to shit 2D pixel art graphics that are bare-minimum in terms of character and environment animation.

I was playing the Sea of Stars demo on my OLED Switch today and honestly it looks and plays awesome, and I'm usually not one to enjoy old-school pixel art type games.



It's not exactly Hades level of crisp gorgeous 2D animation but it certainly looks nice on the OLED Switch screen!

Having played Sea of Stars (demo) I now wish we had a 2D Pokemon or Advance Wars with graphics like this.

 

[NightmareFarm]

I'm guessing you're (more specifically) referring to shit 2D pixel art graphics that are bare-minimum in terms of character and environment animation.

I was playing the Sea of Stars demo on my OLED Switch today and honestly it looks and plays awesome, and I'm usually not one to enjoy old-school pixel art type games.



It's not exactly Hades level of crisp gorgeous 2D animation but it certainly looks nice on the OLED Switch screen!

It looks ok

 

[supernova8]

Dropping pixel art and expecting more from devs would be a start.

A lot of indie devs make games using pixel art because it's faster and cheaper to make.
If you make the resolution lower enough, even a programmer can get away with crappy art.

Also, those old games from the 80's had very limited animation. Something around 2-3 frames per animation.
So anyone can make animations by moving a pixel here and there with low resolution images.

Example:

Plus back in those days the visuals/sprites etc only looked like because of the hardware limitations. It's not like they were doing it because it was "cool" or anything. Also there are some pretty cool Youtube channels out there showing how to make really intricate 2D pixel animations using all sorts of math to make the whole process faster. There's probably also a way to do stuff in 3D and then sort of "convert" (or downscale) it to 2D sprite type stuff that kinda looks like old stuff but still has way more detail than, say, Pokemon Blue.

Sorry I'm rambling now but hopefully you know what I'm getting at.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Pixel Art is peak 2D graphics for me, it allows more creativity and experimentation with colors, shapes and animations. I think it has it place among the other styles. I love games of all types, from the smooth lines of Hollow Knight to the jaggies of Axiom Verge, for me, it's about conveyance of an idea and aesthetic of the game. Also love chip tunes for the same reason, sure nostalgia can be a factor, but let me tell you, there is merit for this approach, a lot of gamers that weren't born in the 80's and 90's also love pixel art, it became synonymous with indies titles and sidescrollers. This is some of my favorites.

• Celeste
• Blasphemous
• Axiom Verge
• The Messenger
• Rogue Legacy

 

[diffusionx]

I hated pixel art games for a long time when the indie stuff started up, but it was because it was all pretty awful. There are some actually great looking pixel art games these days, like Owlboy and Crosscode, although none get close to the high watermarks of pixelart like Metal Slug, SF3, KOF12, and others.

There is one I really hate, which is the low detail, blobby, thin leg pixelshit graphics, like Yes, Your Grace. Then to go one step further, some of them slather on modern lighting and effects that just look awful with the pixel art, or add stuff that has way more detail so nothing gels, it's just a massive mismatch. Children of Morta did this.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Some of them have a really ghastly art style but hating on pixel art just because it's pixel art is just silly.

It can be just as beautiful and visually appealing as your 40 billion polygonal model with parallax smacked butt cheeks. Hate the artist, not the style.

 

[peronmls]

I don't like it either. They were better when done by an actual company.

 

[poppabk]

I don't see how that is relevant to the domination of the pixel art style in arena shooters.

Because that was the art style that allowed a resurgence of arena shooters - a deliberately retro look for a retro game style. I get where you are coming from, I kinda missed the Doom era and jumped straight to the Quake with 3D acceleration era and so that overly pixelated Doom style holds no real familiarity for me.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Because that was the art style that allowed a resurgence of arena shooters - a deliberately retro look for a retro game style. I get where you are coming from, I kinda missed the Doom era and jumped straight to the Quake with 3D acceleration era and so that overly pixelated Doom style holds no real familiarity for me.

DOOM 2016(and Eternal which is what really kicked off the arena shooter revival) featured very modern state of the art graphics, not pixel art. If anything that should have influenced other arena shooters to follow in it's footsteps, especially given that the modern doom games are considered by most to have surpassed the original games.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

I really love good pixel art, it's just that most modern (indie) releases do not have good pixel art. Which I get, because good pixel art requires skill, dedication, time, a good understanding of the techniques used in the past and how they got the best representation of their artistic vision within the limitations of old hardware.

As for a recent example: it's still not out yet, but judging by the trailer, I feel Shinobi non Grata reaches perfection. The color palette, backgrounds/setpieces, bosses and animation give me the impression they 'get it'.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

I love detailed pixel art/animation. The problem is, we don't get a lot of that these days. It peaked decades ago and most indie stuff doesn't even get close to the quality that we got from SNK and others back in the day.

 

[hemo memo]

Me too but some exceptions as some games do it very well.