2D's glory -- in top five form

I find the addition of Lumines to be suspect. Yes it's got some nice graphics, but nothing that really warrants a spot in such a list (if it were music, that might be a different story). Where's the love for games like the Castlevania series? Dawn of Sorrow has some enormous, and gorgeously detailed sprites?

"Tetsuya Mizuguchi's acid trip [Lumines] may not have the nostalgic appeal of Rayman or Final Fantasy III"

Wha ... ? Not exactly sure I understand the relation among a puzzler, a sidescroller, and an RPG. I guess because it is a newer game it does not have the nostalgic appeal of games that were around a long time ago. Kind of a no sh--, Shirlock moment if you ask me.

Welcome to the team!! Whoo!

#1. I was actually wondering where Symphony of the Night was, although Dawn of Sorrow's graphics are good, too.

Astal! (Sega Saturn)

What in the hell? Check out number 3, Yoshi's Island/Story... at the bottom of the paragraph there appears to be a completely out of place House of the Dead 2 reference - "suffer like G did". Am I imagining things here? I can't see any reason for the quote but I don't see where else it could have come from.

Yeah to not have Castlevainia or Marvel Vs Capcom(or Darkstalkers) and have Lumines on the list is very suspect. But hey, I guess you can't ignore the highest selling PSP game.....haha...

This top 5 is laughable. They are nowhere near close, and it almost feels like they haven't actually played that many games.

Symphony of the Night definitely needs to be on there, I agree with ya there, that would be my number 2 slot.

Lumines and Yoshi's Story? You got to be kidding me.

I would even put games like Bangai-O or Ikaruga in front of those two.

Ikaruga would be a good choice were it not for the fact that it's a 3-D game...

The Castlevania series (Symphonies followed by all the handheld versions) should be on the list. A lot of Capcom Fighting games could have applied as well: the Street FIghter III series has undeniably better animation than Guilty Gear, and the DarkStalkers series has some incredible attention to subtle details (like B.B.Hood's attacks all being accidents, save for the ones where she actually has her eyes turn evil). And Marvel Super Heroes was the pinnacle of graphics for fighting games with Marvel characters. Still probably the most accurate depiction of comic book characters in a video game to this date. 3-D versions of comic characters just doesn't make sense.

I can't believe that Yoshi's Story made it onto that list. Yoshi's Island used a quirky, pastel look with big black borders that worked wonders. Yoshi's Story replaces it with kiddish 3D renders that look pretty average.

Also- Lumines? It's cool, but greatest looking? No way.

I'm surprised that none of the Castlevanias are up there- Symphony of the Night and Dawn of Sorrow expessially. Beautiful, beautiful looking games. And what about Capcom's fighters? They've had pretty great looking sprites too.

I think 5 isn't nearly enough for the most gorgeous 2D games. 10 would be better.

At the risk of sounding like an echo here... I definitely agree, Castlevania has to be there. Symphony of the Night or Dawn of Sorrow. It blows away any 2D platformers I've ever played. Safe for Metal Slug's... and Megaman's. (But Megaman was more because of the gameplay. Now Megaman Zero... :P) I also noticed how noone complained about the Metal Slug series. I think it definitely belongs there.

While visually entrancing, I don't quite know why they put Lumines up there. Aren't all puzzle games 2D? Puzzle games are kinda in muddy water here.

I guess this list is the list I've been waiting for though, while not completely accurate to my standing. This list is a sign that even if 3D games are visually superior (sometimes not), there is just some magic from 2D games that they could not capture. And I don't think it's nostalgia either. Is this a call to raise quality in games? Hmm.

All I have to say is where the hell is Donkey Kong Country on that list? 1, 2, or 3.

Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 is definitely the best 2D PS2 game that I have ever seen. Simply breathtaking.

Megaman ZX is looking to be quite an impressive 2D game... but since it's not out yet, the Megaman Zero series are still quite impressive.

Personally, I haven't cared much for Capcom's fighting sprites. Especially since they rarely ever upgrade them, and they look really dated over time. Morrigan's sprite, for example, looks really embarrasing and out of place in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2...

SNK, however, has done nicer 2D animations, if you ask me, with their fighting games. SVC Chaos: SNK Vs. Capcom looks pretty good (too bad it's a subpar fighter...)

And I definitely can't deny the awesome of SNK's Metal Slug series. Not only is the art style pretty neat, but the animation is so fluid and lifelike!

I haven't played the Guilty Gear series much, but what I have seen, it is a work of (2D) art. Not to mention, it's a pretty fun series from what little I've played.

The later Metroid titles have also had great amounts of detail. One of the few games I can think of where the main character has a different set of sprites for moving left and right. No matter which way you looked in Super Metroid and newer, Samus's Power Cannon was always on her right arm!

I've also liked the Wind Waker-esque look of Four Swords, and later The Minish Cap. TMC was beautiful (if only it was a longer game...).

The Boktai games have had some pretty cool 2D art, as well. It was kinda silly how Sabata was a recolor of Django in the first game (even though their official art show they are a bit different), but that was fixed in Boktai 2.

And, of course, the Castlevania games are chockfull of 2D-y goodness. :)

The lack of any Psygnosis game in the list is proof that they have their heads up their asses.

LOL@Ross

How harsh! I guess he needs to get used to criticism (cause these guys LOVE to give it).

As other's said, that list is very poor.
I would have put Raiden or Raystorm in there instead of the Super Mario World 2 flop.

#9

I disagree. The use of 3D rendering techniques for a 2D game is perfectly valid. Look what it did for Donkey Kong Country.

Yoshi's story was graphically excellent. Rather than just rehashing the wonderful crayon look of the previous game they set out to create something different. An entire world that looked like stitched fabric was great.

The big problem was in the gameplay. There just wasn't much to speak of in the original Japanese release and the change made for the US version only improved things marginally. They seemed to want a game accessible by small children but instead made something that bored the kids and sent them looking for something more challenging on the old SNES.

A better reason to disqualify the game is that it isn't purely a 2D game, as shown in the 'pop-up book' intros.

Heck yeah to the person who said Astal (!)
The Saturn could have been the best 2D console ever but it sold out to "technological advancement" or something.

Also deserving a definite honorable mention is Alien Hominid. Very crisp.

its missing suikoden 2, castlevania: SOTN, and Last Blade 1 and 2 for Neo Geo.

IREM's In The Hunt and SNK's Last Blade were nice 2D.

Wow. Guess they've never played Symphony of the Night.

Wow. I was shocked not to find Symphony of the Night on that list. That's one of the most polished 2D games ever, with awesome effects to complement the sprites -- transparencies, etc. The music, graphics and presentation of that game were so memorable.

@KNS

ASTALLLLLLLLL! You are the only person Ive seen that remembers that game. Flat out Gorgeous and Sega should be collectively slapped in the mouth for not making a sequel.

@ BPM...

I feel you on the Metroid comment. the only other game that did that as far as I know is Kenseiden for the Sega Master System. Awesome game too desperately in need of a sequel.
I agree that Symphony of the Night need to be there but Lumines needs to go.

@ Sean, you get cool points dude. Psygnosis during the Amiga days was one of THE companies you looked at for great 2D design.

A better list. I now it's supposed to be 5 but...

Secret of Mana
Astal

Earthworm Jim - I actual presented EWJ in an animation class after a teacher at UArts made the idiotic comments that games can't handle studio quality animation

Radiant Silver Gun
Symphony of the Night
Axelay
Musha
Marvel Vs Capcom 2
Actraiser 2
Samurai Showdown 2
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 3
Phantasy Star 1 and 2
Super Metroid
Metroid Zero
Metroid 4
Turrican - Amiga version
Gods - Amiga version
Agony - Amiga version
Out of this World
FlashBack
Gaires
ThunderForce 3
Spriggan - PC Engine CDROM
Valis 3 and Valis 4 - PC Engine CDROM
Gates of Thunder - PC Engine CD ROM
Lords of Thunder - PC Engine CD ROM
Metal Slug
Cabal 75
Mystic Defender
Forgotten Worlds...

Add to the list please...

@ BPM again

I don't know about the SNK vs Capcom Sprites. This is my take.

When Street Fighter 2 came out Capcom raised the bar considerably. SNK spent the next few years trying to catch up. they really didn't start to show promise until Fatal Fury 2 came out. By the time Samurai Showdown and Samurai Showdown 2 along with King of Fighters 96 came out, SNK proved that they could surpass Capcom quality in their 2D fighters.

But then Capcom made Super Street Fighter, Dark Stalkers and then the Xmen: Children of the Atom, then Marvel Super Heros and the VS Series. SNK never caught up, even to this day. Capcom animated the Marvel Characters so well, I can't think of a better representation in a game except for maybe the Konami 6 player Xmen arcade game. I still think SNK has better character designs overall. The King of Fighters series is proof of that. Rugal/Omega Rugal, Amakusa, Hoahmaru, Kibagami Genjuro....the designs are just awesome.
But Capcom slapped SNK in the face when they designed CApcom vs SNK for the Dreamcast and animated Terry, Kyo, Geese, Joe and Mia better than SNK ever did. Morrigan, Ehonda and Blanka sucked major wind though.

I still like SNK fighters but SNKs biggest problem is they stuck with old hardware for too long. Last Blade is a great game but I still think Samurai Showdown 1 and 2 are better and probably the best that SNK has made. SS 3 I hated. SS 4 and 5 are suspect because the animation is not as smooth as 1 and 2 even though the character designs are great.

Look at Street Fighter 3. I wish more of the old characters were in that part of the series but look at the quality of animations. Alpha is nice and all but if you want to see capcom at its highest, look at Street fighter 3. Makoto alone is animated better than almost every other 2D character ever to grace a fighting game

Almost all this games are for consoles and what about PC? There are many wonderful games: PoP, Lines, etc.

i think a lot of you are missing the point of the list. it's talking about GORGEOUS 2-D graphics (not gameplay). the people who are listing off games like symphony of the night and secret of mana are way off. while these games are fun to play, they cannot stand up against newer graphics (guilty gear x2 for example). you can't compare a sprite character that has stumps for arms and cannot even make out facial features with the newer 2d games available today. once again, not to say that they are terrible or bad games, just that the graphics are beginning to show their age.

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who immediately wondered where the hell Castlevania was. When I think big, beautiful, complex sprite-based gaming, I think of games like AoS or DoS.

They want a looks good now, not at the time, right? Also we're talking SPRITES? Excluding Donkey Kong Country for that reason.

Symphony of the Night
Secret of Mana (who doesn't see that and think lush goodness?)
Soldat
SvC Chaos
Final Fantasy Tactics (it's Sprites on a 3D grid, just refering to the sprites half).

That's my take.

#24 - Godfather...

How can you say SoMana is showing age? It looks beautiful still, same as Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past. I can pick up either of those games and not think "eeeshk, this is ugly". It pulls me in, they have a STYLE to them. Which is what art is about. Not "we have more technology now so we can store more sprite frames to make the animations look more fluent". Now that you mention it, I almost wanna place FF6 on there. The facial animations were great. The designs were awesome. Not my favorite FF by far, but still a great looking game that can pull me into the world with just watching the intro.

@ Godfather

I didn't think the list was limited by era. I thought it was open ended. Being open ended, yes, you can include games like Secret of Mana and Crono Trigger. These games have lush 2D environments, well designed bosses and great use of color and effects. Guilty Gear is good because it's in a higher resolution and has great effects. But SNK still has better character design (King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Last Blade) IMO and Capcom still has better animation overall. Marvel vs Capcom 2 proves this as well as Street Fighter 3

I too was disappointed not to see Symphony of the Night, Radiant Silvergun and Marvel vs Capcom in there.

I can't think of many that has not been mentioned, But Dragon Force was a visual orgy of sprite action.

Games that are missing:

1503 AD: I know you Americans didn't like it that much, but it is still one of the most beautiful 2D games ever.

Baldur's Gate II: Beautiful Hand-drawn landscapes.

Zelda Minish Cap: Obvious choice.

Also the Square RPGs that were mentioned above: Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger and more...

All of these games are as deserving to be on that list as the 5 that made it. Maybe the list should have been longer, because there are so many games with equal graphical quality that definitely should have been there.

Also why were only games with a "from the side" perspective chosen? There are soo many top-down RPGs and Strategy games that should have made it. (I only chose the 3 I mentioned above, because they are in my opinion the most beautiful, but there are far more of almost equal beauty) You can maybe not see as many details from that perspective, but since when has the zoom-level been a criteria for graphical beauty?

How about Oddworld: Abe's Oddysey ...

SoM does show a LOT of age. If Seiken Densitu 3 came over here or if any of you played a translated version you would see how SoM has showed its age.
I love SoM and it IS one of my favorite games of all time. At the time and for awhile afterwards it had graphics that were 2nd to none. However, it DID come out very early in the SNES' life. It DID have a sequel come out (in Japan only) that improved the graphics drastically. So despite all of its lush goodness we couldn't put it on the list from a technical standpoint even though its aesthetic appearance still holds up with the test of time.

To be honest, I think graphics are still nice and inviting but the game doesn't crack the top 5 for games on the SNES. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, Donkey Kong 1 & 2(didn't care for 3), Killer Instinct,
Super Mario RPG, Yoshi's Story, SF2 Turbo, Super Metroid, etc, all have strong claims to be on a list of top 5 looking SNES games.

Although I am digging all the Secret of Mana props!

Meh even though they couldn't really count since they were released in Japan only (and I am sure only a few of us have played them), you would have to count

The very first Star Ocean for SNES (On a massive 48 Meg Cartridge) as one of the most beautiful games.

http://www.animeboredom.co.uk/Uploads/Greview/3031091051431.jpg

You would also have to count Seiken Densetu 3 as one of the top (definately top 2 for SNES)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiken_Densetsu_3

Finally, Bahamut Lagoon is another game for the SNES that would have to be considered the best.

http://www.fantasyanime.com/squaresoft/bahamut_shots01.htm

These 3 games came out towards the end of the SNES' life and I know at least the first 2 were legit as good games overall. I haven't played the third much. They are 3 of the best looking games on the SNES. Oh well, the things we miss out on.

Hey dummies what about Viewtiful Joe? That game was so packed with color, flashes, wooshes, POWs, and BAMs, that it gave me a mild seizure...actaully it puts me to sleep...seriously...I'll be playing it and all of a sudden I'll be like hyptnotized and start to fall asleep...
P.S. Super Metroid was amazing...

I wonder why there aren't more HD 2D games? With modern PCs (or even consoles, though some neat code jiggery-pokery might be needed to turn all that power geared to 3D to 2D ends) you could make fantastically detailed 2D games.


On that note, does anyone know of any open-source 2D engines? The only programs I know of are ones along the lines of 'adventure game creator PRO!' or somesuch, which are usually fixed-grid sprite engines with limited scope.

I though Megaman X4 on saturn was excellent.
Oh and what about Astal, Radiant Silvergun (for anyone who ever got to the final stages it was incredible), Chrono Trigger, and Silhuoette Mirage.

Shadow of the Ninja was pretty damn hard.

AAAARGH!!! This list is so cheesy! I'm betting they spent 15 minutes of research and 2 hours making the pretty site designs. Puzzle Games should have their own category. I'm going to repeat what others said, and list some games not already spoken for by others...

For the Neo-Geo:
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Matrimelee
Waku-Waku 7 (weird and funny)
Last Blade 1 & 2
Samurai Shodown 1-4

Capcom: notable landmarks include
Most of the 2D Mega Man series post NES (not all)
Street Fighter Alpha 1-3 (arcade and Saturn)
X-Men: Children of the Atom (arcade and Saturn)
Marvel Super Heroes (arcade and Saturn)
Darkstalkers 1-3 (arcade and Saturn)
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (arcade and 3DO)
SFIII: all of them
Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2
Puzzle Fighter and Pocket Fighter (cute overload)

Anything 2D from Treasure Studios (Contra Hard Corps, Astro Boy: Omega Factor, Silhouette Mirage)

Disney's Aladdin for Sega Genesis/MD
Earthworm Jim 1 and 2
Shantae for GB Color
Valkyrie Profile
Tales of Phantasia (SNES, not GBA)
ALL of the 2D Kirby games FTW!
Adventures of Lomax (PSOne...look it up)

Umm...I'm done for now...

Sorry, this list sucks.

I can't believe that everyone commenting on how georgous some of the Saturn games missed such an obvious one.

Guardian Heroes

Sure the game looked kinda chunky when zoomed in, but the look was just stunning to behold at times, not to mention a great game to boot.

#39; Mega Man 6 looks much more awesome than Mega Man 7. The NES Mega Mans (Mega Men?) pushed the NES to it's limit while the SNES and Playstation ones were just flashy.

Also, Tales of Phantasia SNES?! What the hell man. Those character sprites looked horrible. The PSX Phantasia was much better- better backgrounds than the SNES version, the same character sprites as the GBA version. Plus the world rotated more smoothly and there were some nice effects.

Have to agree with you on Shantae, though.

@ Kent houseman

Great links! They reminded me of on gorgeous 2D RPG that needs a DS sequel or a Wii update...

Golden Sun

What about the Sonic or Ecco the Dolphine series???

Yeah, this list was pretty poor. As many have said, the omission of Castlevania SotN is glaring, as is the lack of any of Capcom's many worthy titles, which were long considered the pinnacle of 2D animation.

Also, I wouldn't count out some of Konami's classic arcade games. The Simpsons and TMNT were hugely popular in part due to how authentically their animation mirrored the style of the shows to a degree past videogames had not reached.

At the risk of sounding like I'm repeating myself, it should also be pointed out that Radiant Silvergun, like Ikaruga, is a 3-D game. As is Viewtiful Joe.

Remember, I don't think they are talking about 2-D gameplay. They are referring distinctly to sprite-based games.

The hard part is when you do have a game like Symphonies of the Night, which is mostly 2-D, but with some nifty 3-D parallax scrolling backgrounds, like the really beautiful stain glass window church room. Does that disqualify it from being considered 2-D graphics?