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What Video games graphically hold up on their aesthetic? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by weirdbeardgame@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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[-] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 35 points 5 months ago

Team Fortress 2

Cruelty Squad (okay, the game is only a couple years old, but the art style is so intentionally shit that I just can't see it aging at all)

Jet Set Radio, Jet Set Radio Future, and (I predict) Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. BRC also is only a couple years old, but it shares the same style as JSR(F), which has aged very well.

Minecraft

Doom and Doom II (just remember to turn off texture filtering, or set it to nearest neighbor).

The Sims. No, really, I think The Sims games have all aged very, very well. Some better than others, but I feel like each one of them has a visual style that still works today.

[-] Ibaudia@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago

TF2 might be the best example of this honestly. It looks like it could have come out today.

[-] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Other than that god awful old-school Valve UI used for most of the menus/things.

[-] weeeeum@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

TF2s aged beautifully (in terms of graphics), the art style carries it astoundingly. Half life 2 and portal look definitively dated but TF2 holds up really well (I know it had graphics updates but still).

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[-] scarrtt@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago

I was gonna say Jet Set Radio Future too. I absolutely love the cel shading art style. Will check out Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, thanks

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[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 34 points 5 months ago

Wind Waker is probably the go-to answer for this. I think Xcom 2 is a good example too, even though it's fairly recent.

[-] Chozo@fedia.io 12 points 5 months ago

Wind Waker is definitely my answer whenever this question pops up. It's one of the few fully-3D games from that era that still holds up moderately well today. A lot of Gamecube games definitely look like Gamecube games when emulated with out-of-the-box settings, but Wind Waker looks like an indie game that could've come out last year when emulated.

The Zelda art teams really are masters at their craft.

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The art direction at Nintendo in general is really top tier. I was looking looking at their WiiU games not too long ago. I noticed they don't usually have a lot of complex shapes in their models, they use a surprising amount of flat area, but they jazz them up with extremely well done texturing and shaders.

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[-] missphant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 5 months ago

Mirror's Edge

[-] Toes@ani.social 30 points 5 months ago

Super Mario World. It still looks great.

[-] Mango@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Everything SNES still looks great! It just doesn't degrade!

[-] AmbientChaos@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 months ago

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island too! So stylized it could release today and still be considered beautiful

[-] Toes@ani.social 5 points 5 months ago

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

The music from that is still stuck in my head after all this time.

Great game!

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[-] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 29 points 5 months ago

Any game that isn't trying to go for realistic graphics. Some off the top of my head:

Braid
Okami
Outer Wilds
Ori and the Blind Forest

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[-] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 22 points 5 months ago

The Portal games.

[-] PureTryOut@lemmy.kde.social 17 points 5 months ago

RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2. They still look as good as the day they were released, while RCT3 looks terrible now.

[-] maidenless_prawn@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago

Okami

[-] otacon239@feddit.de 7 points 5 months ago

Yesss. The way the lines all sort of sway always gives it such a unique look. I was worried the remaster would take some of this away, but it looked just as good.

I wish we could have gotten a proper sequel. RIP Clover Studios.

While less popular, Viewtiful Joe also still holds up for similar reasons.

[-] weirdbeardgame@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

There's like a newer Capcom game in the works that feels very Okami

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[-] NemoWuMing@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago

Pong is still unmatched, even after all these years

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[-] FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 5 months ago

Wind waker. The cell shading will always look good.

[-] pjwestin@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Yup. Sly Cooper still looks great as well.

[-] Norgur@fedia.io 16 points 5 months ago

Age of empires 2

[-] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 5 months ago

Transistor

[-] Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 5 months ago

Definitely Minecraft

[-] CliveRosfield@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

Terraria

[-] felixwhynot@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

Journey

[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 12 points 5 months ago

The original XCOM has some of the best pixel art in any game, imo. Original resolution: 320x200. Somehow it is still visually detailed and clear. It has one of my favorite things in a game ever where the tiles you see are partially obscured by tiles you can't. Specifically, the tiles you can't see aren't fully blocked so silhouettes can still be visible. If you're good you can use it to ID aliens lurking in the shadows and sometimes it's literally like 3 pixels of difference for you to pick up on it

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

My son was playing Sunset Overdrive the other day, and I had forgotten how cinematic it was. Very fun, very punk rock.

[-] maltasoron@sopuli.xyz 11 points 5 months ago

StarCraft 2 still looks amazing.

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 11 points 5 months ago

Psychonauts. The design aesthetic is so well crafted. The gameplay and technical elements did age, but the level design and aesthetics are still mind blowing

[-] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 11 points 5 months ago

Halo 3

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[-] sushiman@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

Minecraft

[-] dukatos@lemm.ee 10 points 5 months ago

Crysis still looking great.

[-] oakey66@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

I'm still blown away with what SNES was able to accomplish with killer instinct. Based on the games around that time, it shouldn't have existed.

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[-] akafester@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

I would have to say L.A. Noire.

[-] Starayo@lemm.ee 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

When it comes to 3D games, if they tried for realism, they can't, IMO. Stylized 3D can look pretty good even when fairly old, but old 3D that tried for realism just looks dated. Even a lot of 3D games now that try for a more realistic style (outside of the huge AAA studios) look kinda bad to me, but I'm very sensitive to the uncanny valley effect. I mean, even before they updated the models and world, WoW still looked pretty decent long after release.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 months ago

Most 2D games. We're only slowly figuring out how to make 3D games not look janky...

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

I have a soft spot for pixel stuff. Stuff like the original monkey island, or heart star or cat tales never get old.

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[-] JWBananas@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Super Mario World II: Yoshi's Island

[-] nullPointer@programming.dev 7 points 5 months ago

total annihilation

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[-] linuxfiend@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 5 months ago

Interstate '76

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[-] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

"team fortress 2"

Man I miss Day of Defeat, it was the best half life mod IMO

[-] RedIce25@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Metroid Prime for the GameCube, but the remake on Switch really turned out to be the consoles best looking game

[-] Drusas@kbin.run 6 points 5 months ago

Borderlands

Many or most retro games from the 80s-early 90s (NES, SNES, Genesis)

Terraria

[-] FunkyMonk@kbin.social 6 points 5 months ago

Jet Set Radio

[-] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 months ago

Red Alert 2. Any N64 game at high resolutions. Command & Conquer Generals at high resolution. If you can't tell, I like cartoon aesthetics.

[-] davidgro@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Super Hexagon

[-] Spider89@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

LittleBigPlanet 1 & 2

Twisted Metal (2012)

COD: BO2 / MW3

Valkyria Chronicles 1 - 4

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this post was submitted on 31 May 2024

102 points (96.4% liked)

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