/vr/ - Retro Games

>>3601936
They did stick to 2D. There were very few fully 3D games in the 16 bit era. Mostly it was isometric 3D effects, or sprite rotation based like vid related.

Even 5th gen consoles did not shift exclusively to 3D and fully 3D games were in the minority.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZKsQ09qOk4

You are also seriously overestimating the amount of 3D games, especially quality 3D games, which initially came out on PC. Even up to I would say 1998/9, most PC games were not fully 3D. Even those that were suffered from a lot of early 3D issues like art design, speed, and especially controls.

FPSes were easiest to design controls and interfaces for, and matured early on. But almost all other genres moved only with great reluctance to 3D. There was a lot of prerendered background and use of sprites, and not simply for technology reasons. 3D was and is hard to get looking and feeling right outside of FPSes.