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5 Gorgeous 2D Games
kukyfrope writes "With the advancement of technology, it's rare to play a game that doesn't incorporate 3D graphics. While 3D games are great, classic 2D side-scrollers are beautiful in their own way. GameDaily takes a look at what they believe to be the top 5 most visually striking 2D games, with less text and more screenshots because words don't do these games justice."
I always found the Oddworld games to be visually stunning. Abe's Exodus beats every game on their list except Yoshi's Island, for me.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
"?rp=49" like in "when I click on the link you get some money" ? :p
has got to be the Worms series. Since Worms 2, the Worms series has been visually fantastic, and the gameplay is second to none. Its simply a great game, in every way.
Not to mention the fact that even years after its release lots of cool online matches can be found in minutes, since the gamer community likes it so much.
(Oh and, Worms 3D is even sexier)
LL
I'm really, really surprised that Out of This World (aka Another World) wasn't on that list.
Less than 10 comments and the site is alread slashdotted, I got through it using Coral Cache: http://www.gamedaily.com.nyud.net:8080/Specials/To p-Five-Most-Gorgeous-2D-Games/?rp=49
The List:
5. LocoRoco
4. Lumines
3. Yoshi's Island & Yoshi's Story
2. Metal Slug
1. Guilty Gear
Not much is said on each page though they do talk about classics like Gunstar Heroes, Sonic, Marvel VS. Capcom, etc.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
5. Loco Roco (PSP) 4. Lumines (PSP) 3. Yoshi's Island & Yoshi's Story (SNES & N64) 2. Metal Slug (Multi) 1. Guilty Gear (Multi)
I always thought Alucard was animated with amazing fluidity. Sure, his sprite could've used more detail--like a face--but the actual animations were and still are impressive.
Is it still a shameless plug if you're not the one personally benefitting from the plug? Either way, a friend of mine has produced a gorgeous 2D game, Steam Brigade that is totally worth checking out if you like that sort of thing.
501 Not Implemented
5 games, 5 pages to load. These types of crappy banner-whore pages are sprouting up like crazy these days, and it's the most annoying thing since pop-ups. Does user experience mean nothing anymore? I'd rather have a banner between each of the games than put up with having to click through and load 5 pages
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
this article reminded me of Chu Chu Rocket, a prime example of a game that was great fun, but lacked all of the high end graphics or complexity of most modern games. Simple can be wonderful.
We are all just people.
Looking past the article's scarce content, I completely agree with its point. However, I look towards RPGs for support. Personally, I loved the old tile-based RPGs such as Final Fantasy 3, the early games of the Breath of Fire series, along with the first Dragon Warrior games. These were relatively simple games where you didn't have to worry about bad camera angles or how well you could control a character like in the bike races in FF7. I also dislike how in many games today, there will be some places where you have to stand in just the right position to make an event occur, which was obviously much easier in tile-based games.
I'm not saying that these things don't belong in RPGs, but that doesn't mean they are required either. I feel like there is still a market for simple, 2-D games. After every RPG I play, my dad asks me if he can play it because even though he loves the games, he can't play a lot of them due to his almost complete lack of hand-eye coordination (he played FF7, but I had to get him through a couple parts). Making games more realistic, and consequently more complicated, does not always make the games more fun.
I remember actually salivating over Xenon II for the Amiga. That and a few other Amiga games such as Shadow of the Beast were and will always be the most gorgeous games I've ever played. I also remember seeing the mode 7 fx in Contra wars for the snes, the first time the plane zoomed over. Pant wettingly good at the time.
Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
"Less than 10 comments and the site is alread slashdotted"
They're running it on a 2D server.
The page is slashdotted so I can't read the article itself, but after looking at the games on the list I have to ask how they could include Lumines but not a Castlevania game? The GBA Castlevania games (and the more recent, and equally excellent looking Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the DS) are really very polished, with smooth animation and a lot of artistic detail. Lumines was great and all, but I really think there are more deserving alternatives for good looking 2d games.
I think the visuals of Lemmings (Amiga) are beautiful, perfectly suited to the gameplay and executed flawlessly.
Even though there was a generation of 2d PSX games that came after it, with a lot more power to create even more beautiful 2d games, every time I play Final Fantasy 6 (3 in the US), I simply can't get over how gorgeous it looks. Amazing music, amazing graphics, amazing story, and tons of diversity. But mainly, Squaresoft designed such an amazing look and two completely unique worlds for this game.
Plenty of 2d games are more impressive technologically, but I have a feeling that if FF6 were ever updated with higher-resolution graphics, with the exact same source art, it would be simply incredible.
Lunar is the best 2-d RPG series ever. Sad that there will never be any more, 3d or otherwise.
A friend of mine was such a well-regarded video card expert in the TH forums that Tom's invited him to an 'expert's round table' to discuss what could be done to improve their site and readership. In that meeting not one 'expert' mentioned that they don't need 38 pages to discuss 5 computer cases.
Simply stated, if you want to let Tom's know what you think of their 50 page articles, you'd be far better off letting them know. They would likely love to hear your feedback because whether you believe it or not, they are really trying to improve their site.
Fluid physics and dynamic lighting FTW.
Screenshots.
I don't see the point of an article listing five nice looking 2d games. "Here are five games we think look nice! Yay!"
Whoever these guys are, I'm really not impressed that they can think up five nice looking games. On that note, here's a few I like: Gish, Commander Keen, Rayman, and the Fallout series. Hey, you didn't even have to click through five pages to read my list.
RPG titles had awesome 2D graphics back in the SNES days, like FF3. How about Chrono Trigger?, this one even had a mini racing game that was 3D like (camera movements), graphics and gameplay blended very well on those games, I hope square-enix keeps producing quality titles.
C-x C-c
What? E.T. didn't make the list?
Those games are barely animated at all. Sure the sprites are high-resolution, but most of the moves have very few frames of animation and there are tons of 3D effects used as well. It's like watching a slide show.
Games like Last Blade 1 & 2, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special 1 & 2, Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves, and Street Fighter 3 are all much more impressive because of the fluidity of the animation.
Depending on your definition of 2D, I think the Fallout serious is perhaps the best looking computer game ever. Beautiful painted backgrounds, clever setting elements, and the consistency to truly create another world. Perhaps it is the best CRPG ever actually. They don't make em like they used to...
You know what? Fuck you. There have been many 2-D games that are absolute graphical masterpieces compared to whatever bullshit L33t-D00dz-3D pushes out to cash in on the post-Playstation poly whores. If you have to put a qualifier in to try and pidgeonhole something, just leave the discussion. You're not adding anything.
Excellent point, but a lot of the time older games were *more* complicated to control than their modern counterparts. Convoluted menus, awkward control schemes, or just tons of mapped keys. I'll throw out a few examples.
System Shock 1 -> System Shock 2
Dune II -> Warcraft 3
Nethack -> Diablo
TES: Daggerfall -> TES: Oblivion
Wasteland -> Fallout
Text Adventures -> Graphical Adventures (w/ icons)
I'm not "hating" on older games, but you must admit that the older ones I listed are more complicated to control than the newer ones.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
One of the best 2d games I have seen in a while was Starscape. Great visuals, great gameplay. Just a ton of 2d goodness. I'm just waiting for Moopod to finally finish up War Angles now.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
Viewtiful Joe?
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
Monkey Island 2? Sam N Max? Day of the Tentacle? Etc. Superb animation and locations even today. I'd definitely have put those in there above Lumines.
Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for an hour. Set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
If you haven't already, download it right now. Don't let the archaic looking graphics turn you away. Don't make the same mistake I did, initially dismissing this wonderful game. Download ane be enthralled by this spectacular work of art.
R-Type was one of the most visually pleasing 2D scroller space shoot'em-ups ever...
it could've replaced that stupid game with yellow balls easily...
Worms Armageddon introduced the ability to switch to higher resolutions. I always think how awesome that is -- high-res 2D! I want a next-gen game to coin 2DHD, so pussy developers have a new genre umbrella to work under. That way maybe, just maybe, we'll get some new 2D games instead of all these mutated offspring of Mario 64. Then people will catch on that 2D isn't all that bad, that we just forgot about it like animatronics, both lost in the 1990's wet-dream of "3D". 3D is the real enemy here! Nvidia and ATI will introduce Vector Processing into their video cards, and we'll be able to play high-res, fullscreen Flash games on low-end systems. And then Team 17 will pick its head up from the mound of 3D cocaine they've been snorting and say, "What have we been doing with our lives? Let's get to work on the best Worms game ever! High resolution graphics, tons of effects; the first of many! Thank you Slashdot post!"
...Awww, who am I kidding? 2D games have gone the way of voxels. Rest in peace, little buddies, I love ya.
The Ur-Quan Masters!. The Best 2D Game Ever.