/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.2570649]

What would you say are the most visually impressive (or just best looking) games for each of the retro systems?

Pic related would be my pic for the Genesis.

[Anonymous No.2570793]

>>2570649
I would say Yoshi's Island for SNES for pushing the just about every PPU feature to it's limits in one way or another during the game.

An honorable mention would be Seiken Densetsu 3.

[Anonymous No.2570997]

Getting the obvious out of the way.

[Anonymous No.2571073]

>>2570649

MSX- Space Manbow
NES- Recca (Performance) - Little Samson (Aesthetics)
MegaDrive - CV Bloodlines/Hard Corps(Aesthetics) - Virtua Racing/Cotton (performance)
SNES -
So many to pick here for different reasons
- Star Fox etc. for 3D
- Doom for Doom on a 16 bit console
- DKC for colour/detail
- F-Zero/CV4/RType3 for good use of Mode 7
- Axelay and Tales of Phantasia for just looking amazing
- Apha 2 for cramming that game onto a SNES cart
Neogeo - Garou for animation, Art Of Fighting for size of sprites, Metal Gear for number.
Saturn - So many arcade perfect/near arcade perfect ports. Something like DOA or PDS techically the most impressive 3D wise.

[Anonymous No.2571128]

>>2570793
Street Fighter 2 Alpha tho.

[Anonymous No.2571143]

>>2571128
>2 Alpha

[Anonymous No.2571145]

>>2570649
>That ships.
>That city.
God, Thunderforce 4 us beautiful.
Shame that's the better looking stage but it's my favorite anyway.

In SNES I'd say Axelay.

[Anonymous No.2571160]

Definitely pic related on N64.

The Zelda games get honorable mention for having the best art direction, and Sin and Punishment has the best set pieces.

[Anonymous No.2571165]

>>2571145
I have to agree, that game was so cinematic for the SNES. Subtle details like the background changing angle in the first level and especially the gradual decay of the space station in the second level really blew me away. The game even has a fucking brightness slider.

[Anonymous No.2571649]

I wanna say Ranger X for the Genesis. It's got the wireframes, actual 3D background pieces, a huge number of colors and generally just looks fantastic.

[Anonymous No.2571654]

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

Ultimately not released, obviously, but look at it. God damn. I wonder how the supposedly finished Virtua Fighter 3 Saturn port looked

[Anonymous No.2571659]

Comix Zone for the Genny.

[Anonymous No.2571703]

For Saturn: VF2, Dead or Alive, Sonic R, Radiant Silvergun, Cotton Boomerang, Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Saga. Maybe Last Bronx for the arenas.

Vampire Savior and MSH vs SF gets points for being so goddamn good arcade conversions with so little loading time (you can't skip the VS screens because the game is loading there... and that's it).

Burning Rangers has nice transparency and lightning effects, but the rest of the graphics look like a stack of cards falling down.

>>2571654
>I wonder how the supposedly finished Virtua Fighter 3 Saturn port looked

I'd imagine it as Fighters Megamix, but with the arenas looking more like they did in Last Bronx. I'm not confident if they could get the uneven ground done on the Saturn.

>>2571659
Comix Zone is more technically impressive than graphically impressive. You wouldn't even realize what a shit load of effort had to go into rendering the panel system, including using different palettes between panels, or limiting special effects (like the water rippling) to only the active panel, etc.

Most graphically impressive game on that system would be either Ranger X, Vectorman, SOR2, Thunderforce 4, Panorama Cotton, or Adventures of Batman & Robin. Maybe Red Zone too.

[Anonymous No.2571707]

>>2571073
>Art Of Fighting for size of sprites, Metal Gear for number.

You mean Metal Slug.

And honestly, Metal Slug 3 takes the cake in sprite sizes. The first boss alone is 2/3rds of the screen and fully animated.

[Anonymous No.2571715]

There was that Panzer Dragoon clone on the Playstation by the team who did Gran Turismo, I forgot its name.

That one game looked like something on the Xbox, just running at lower resolution. Motion blur up the wazoo.

[Anonymous No.2571717]

>>2571703
>I'd imagine it as Fighters Megamix
But Megamix looked significantly worse than VF2. I read somewhere that AM2 had twice as many polys as VF2 and it was running at 60 fps, that would have been crazy to see.

[Anonymous No.2571719]

>>2571715
Omega Boost? That was a terrific game

[Anonymous No.2571720]

>>2571703
Actually I feel like you're mixing graphical and technical together, and confusing objectivity with subjectivity.
Ranger X, Vectorman, SOR2, Thunderforce 4, Panarama Cotton, Adventures of Batman & Robin and Red Zone are all fine looking games, filled with graphical and technical tricks and niceties. But I personally like Comix Zone better graphically than any of them. It's well animated, consistent in its art direction and looks like a comic book.
Therefore it was my pic.

[Anonymous No.2571731]

Tides of Time is the best looking Genesis game by a sizable margin in my books. Every inch of it is gorgeous. The skyboxes alone in the future levels still blow my mind.

[Anonymous No.2571741]

>>2571731
An honorable mention goes to Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition for me as well, thanks to the savanna level. Overall it's a pretty good looking game, but that level in particular has SIX layers of parallax going in the background. Running back and forth there looks amazing.

[Anonymous No.2571896]

>>2571717
>But Megamix looked significantly worse than VF2

Mostly because it ran in low-res and used gouraud shading. In return it had some lightning effects... somewhere. The models look the same as in VF2 otherwise. Except that their mouths aren't animated, what the fuck.

>I read somewhere that AM2 had twice as many polys as VF2 and it was running at 60 fps, that would have been crazy to see.

I highly doubt they could get that going AND have uneven ground as well. The only thing I know for sure about Saturn VF3 is that they first did it in hi-res, didn't like it, then did it in low-res (presumably with higher polycont or maybe extra effects like lightning).

[Anonymous No.2571898]

>>2571720
>confusing objectivity with subjectivity.
>I personally like Comix Zone better

OK, whatever you say.

[Anonymous No.2571913]

>>2571898
There is no objectivity when it comes to aesthetics. They're intrinsically subjective. Vectorman is technically impressive for example, but I find it aesthetically hideous.

I would also say that I think Comix Zone is overall a better looking game, but it's all just opinion. Neither come close to >>2571731 if you ask me though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq6_EFcQnqY

[Anonymous No.2571924]

FFIX for PS1. Like the cartoony style or not, it by far shows the best the system can do in 3D. It puts some early PS2 games to shame.

[Anonymous No.2571929]

>>2571924
That's really only because of the prerendered backgrounds though. The 3D rendered real time is nice but not amazing.

[Anonymous No.2571981]

>>2571073
I'd say Kirby's Adventure probably pushes the NES to its limit.

[Anonymous No.2571997]

Slap Happy Rhythm Busters is basically Jet Set Radio for the PSX, visually speaking. Shame it's style over gameplay though.

[Anonymous No.2572006]

>>2571924

The textures on the characters on that game are depressingly detailed. "Depressingly" because most of them never get close enough to the camera to appreciate it. It's a damn shame.

[Anonymous No.2572039]

I'd nominate Evangelion for most visually impressive N64 title.

[Anonymous No.2572052]

>>2571981
I was going to say that as well. I haven't personally played Little Samson, then I checked it out, it's pretty amazing.

[Anonymous No.2572065]

>>2572039
I'd say Turok 3

[Anonymous No.2572147]

If a game used extension chips inside the cartridge, should it be counted as a game that pushed the limits?

[Anonymous No.2572158]

>>2572147
Yes.

[Anonymous No.2572248]

>>2572158
Why?

[Anonymous No.2572261]

>>2572248
Because chips often vary in games, they're still running on the same basic hardware. Essentially though it's just a silly distinction for no reason. So Star Fox should count. It's not even close to winning, but no reason for it not to be in the running.

[Anonymous No.2572375]

>>2572261
But counting Virtua Racing with the SVP feels like cheating, it doesn't compete with the other games on the same terms

[Anonymous No.2572827]

>>2572375
It's an inherent property of the system, though, that expansion ports are supported. I see no reason they should be excluded.

Perhaps we should also discuss the most impressive game without additional chips?

[Anonymous No.2573023]

>>2571073
Good picks for NES games. I would add
Uchuu Keibitai SDF Recca and Gargoyle's Quest II. There is much to be chosen from.

[Anonymous No.2573109]

>>2571913
I dunno man.

Some of the levels in Vectorman were insanely baller.

And the title screen alone was one hell of a trip.

[Anonymous No.2573123]

>>2572147
>>2572248
Because the chips in the cart were made in a way so they can interface with the game console to produce the best graphics.

If the SVP and SFX chips don't count, then neither do NES memory mappers, neither do SRAM saves, even Super Street Fighter 2 for the Megadrive should not count (it used more memory than what the machine could address, and hid it behind bank switching hardware logic on the cart).

Fact is that the SNES had cart pins specifically designed for communicating with the CPU, meaning that on-cart graphics chips were as much intended to be there as ROM chips.

[Anonymous No.2573127]

I guess Defender of the Crown on Amiga 500. It was a beautiful game for its time.
Anyway I'm not much into pure arcade stuff anymore, so it's either this strategy/simulation stuff, or graphic adventure like Monkey Island, or RPG. Lots of nice screens in those games...

[Anonymous No.2573140]

>>2570649
Blazing Star is one the prettiest Neo Geo games imo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLpLqgqimtI

[Anonymous No.2573158]

>>2573140

Mah nigga. Although have a look at Top Hunter sometime. The backgrounds blow me away.

[Anonymous No.2573160]

>>2573140
Fucking love this game. And if you want a more r-type-ish experience check out pulstar and last resort, I believe they shared some of the original irem r-type staff.

[Anonymous No.2573161]

If I had to choose one for every retro system I'm especially familiar with...

Atari 2600: Nothing on this system is beautiful. There are some fun games, there are some games that do more with the limited graphics, but none of them are beautiful.

Okay, Pitfall. You made me choose.

NES: Gargoyle's Quest II. So much detail packed into such a small system. Honorable Mention: Mega Man 6, for the blazing, setting Sun in Tomahawk Man's stage.

Game Boy: Donkey Kong '94. This game is seriously a 10/10, 100% game for me. Every fucking aspect of this game is perfect. It is the Best Video Game Ever Made.

Genesis: Piers Solar. Unfortunately. Of games made during years of official development, it's Gunstar Heroes. The color, the speed, pitch-perfect sci-fi manga style, and JESUS CHRIST, SEVEN FORCE. I'd have gay sex with this game. But not with DK'94. She is m'lady and she is a delicate flower not to be sullied.

PSX: I really want to give this to Misadventures of Tron Bonne, I really do. But let's be real. It looks awesome because it sticks to a very simplistic but appealing style, and so it isn't really pushing the limits of the system.

That's why I've got to give it to Final Fantasy IX. It is so lush, so tantalizingly organic, so overwhelmed with detail for a PSX game. Yes, it suffers in speed for this, but I think it was worth it.

Okay, I'm bored now.

[Anonymous No.2573193]

Panorama Cotton, for Genesis. Stills don't do it justice.

[Anonymous No.2573195]

Soul Star for Sega CD. Incredible soundtrack too.

[Anonymous No.2573534]

>>2570997
Who is this metal slug

[Anonymous No.2573559]

>>2573161
Deep dream is cool when it's not all puppy slug.

[Anonymous No.2574034]

>>2572375
It's the exact same thing as with Star Fox. Sure it had a special chip for the 3D, but it's still essentially the same hardware. And anyways the point is moot, the game looks like a blocky mess. Sure it's impressive that they shrunk it down onto a Genny cart, but nowhere near the best looking game. At least I don't think so. Maybe you do?

>>2573109
That's what I was talking about aesthetics being subjective. No doubt that what they did was impressive, but I didn't like the bally look everything had personally.


Anyways back on topic, my pick for Dreamcast is Bangai-O