DELETED

[Bad Jim]

I noticed that pretty much NO-ONE in this thread named a game from pre-1996. So let me point out the one game that OWNS this topic.


SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: YOSHI'S ISLAND.

/thread

I'll see your Yoshi's Island, and raise you Ecco the Dolphin (1992)

 

[Tyelcapilu]

I ended up taking a minute to really absorb the fact that jupiter was taking up 80% of the sky.

Fucking hell, I remember that map. There is always something so ominously haunting about a planet, not just any planet, but a gas giant hovering over your head. Immense, toxic, suffocating, dark, both cold and hot, simply unknowable! It is like there are tentative forces beyond gravity propping up the planet, delicate in nature, always ready to snap and bring it down upon you, soooooooo far from home and a life sustaining environment (spoiler)...

Or maybe I just have an irrational fear of people dropping stuff on my head.

I actually found it stunningly beautiful.
Afterwards I ended up going outside irl and looking at the sky.
Tried to imagine the moon being so big that I could see it looking down either horizon, and I was like
woah
dude
woaaah

 

[Yopaz]

Bioshock has aged extraordinarily well, considering it was release over six years ago.

Wind Waker looked much better before HD ruined it with way too much haze.

Well of course a game from the current generation have aged well. Games are still made with the same hardware in mind. A new game with the same 8 year old hardware (which was never more than lower midrange) won't magically look better than a 6 year old game for the same hardware.

I'm going to have to say Donkey Kong Country on this. You can tell they put a lot of effort into making it look great and I still think it looks beautiful.

 

[blackdwarf]

The resident evil Remake on the Gamecube looks great. MGS1 still looks really clear. Sure, the graphics are bad, but it is always clear what they are trying to show. MGS3 still looks incredible, even compared to some newer games.

 

[Saulkar]

I ended up taking a minute to really absorb the fact that jupiter was taking up 80% of the sky.

Fucking hell, I remember that map. There is always something so ominously haunting about a planet, not just any planet, but a gas giant hovering over your head. Immense, toxic, suffocating, dark, both cold and hot, simply unknowable! It is like there are tentative forces beyond gravity propping up the planet, delicate in nature, always ready to snap and bring it down upon you, soooooooo far from home and a life sustaining environment (spoiler)...

Or maybe I just have an irrational fear of people dropping stuff on my head.

I actually found it stunningly beautiful.
Afterwards I ended up going outside irl and looking at the sky.
Tried to imagine the moon being so big that I could see it looking down either horizon, and I was like
woah
dude
woaaah

I think I have the perfect videos for that.


I wish more games did this as I cannot tell you how much this has influenced some of my art. Not only that but it seems to be a timeless trope that does well for any game no matter how old it is.

 

[b.w.irenicus]

I think many 2D games never get out of style, like some of the classic SNES and PSOne-RPGs. When it comes to 3D-graphics, games tend to age well if they aren't going for the realistic look. I recently played Tales of Symphonia and it still looks cool. For the same reason I think Final Fantasy VII looks better nowdays than VIII and IX, as the characters and the generel graphic-style were heavily stylized from the beginning.

 

[Mister K]

Hmm, I think that Final Fantasy X, Persona 3 and 4 look really good.
Also, most 2-d games and games with cell-shaded graphic.

 

[Drummodino]

The original Kingdom Hearts holds up pretty good for a 10 year old game. Also the original Ratchet and Clank.

I can't comment on anything pre-PS2 except Gameboy really as I never owned any of the older consoles.

 

[Artina89]

It has already been mentioned, but I have to agree with the assessment that many Gamecube games have aged really well. Titles like Super Mario sunshine, Pikmin, Resident Evil:REmake and Luigi's mansion all have the capacity to surprise me with how well the games have aged.

 

[The Hero Killer]

Barring cel shaded games, Resident Evil 0 and 1 remake still look good as well as Resident Evil 4. Also, I think Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes, Sons of Liberty, and Snake Eater all still hold up well.

 

[irok]

Etrian odyssey, I mean technically its cheating because its 2d art with very little animation and so it cant really "age" but I still love the graphics style from 1-2, obviously 3 and 4 are the same but they aren't really old enough to have aged as well as some of the older final fantasy's, and by old I mean 12, its 2006 , it counts.

 

[God's Clown]

I'll have to go with Xenosaga. First one was released in 2002 and still looks good and quite playable. Star Ocean Till the end of time as well.

If we go older school, I would include Super Mario Legend of Seven Stars, Final Fantasy 4,5, 6 and 9 and Chrono Trigger.

 

[Glongpre]

Spoiler: 1995

Spoiler: 2004

Spoiler: 1993

 

[the doom cannon]

you cant mention WoW without mentioning Guild Wars .

 

[james.sponge]

Well basically any cel-shaded game holds up quite well, same with stylistic cartoony games (TF2, Legend of Mana) and some 2d games from snes era. As for the 3d games you'd need some kind of artistic style and unique world that would transcend decades of graphical improvements I can't think of anything at the moment (but I bet Deus EX:HR will still look nice after a couple of decades thanks to its great art style)

Many people mentioned MGS series I think it can be attributed to the fact that in MGS Konami immensely focused on character details neglecting anything else. If you watch a couple of cut-scenes from MGS2/3 and even 4 ignoring character models you will notice how poorly textured and designed everything else is. I'm not saying it's bad it's just that economical distribution of assets in any given scene really help those games look relevant even today.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

And games like Shadow of the Colossus and Okami will always look nice. Style counts for a lot.

Shame that by current standards that games runs terribly. I used to have the original PS2 version and damn was the framerate bad. That game really did push the PS2 to its limits. Get the HD collection if you really want to see this game in it's proper glory.

OT: Katamari Damacy aged pretty damn well. It's got very blocky models, but they aren't blocky in a bad way because they're so stylized. It makes the whole game look like papercraft which I think is a very nice art-style for games.

 

[Glaice]

Doom still holds up almost 20 years later.

 

[Doom972]

Fallout 1 &2, Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale series, Planescape: Torment, and many other old 2D isometric games look great when using user-made patches that support modern screen resolutions. They look awesome, and show no pixelation whatsoever.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Company of Heroes and Dawn of War (original game) hold up remarkably well thanks to some spectacular unit animations. And since Dawn of War is part of the hyper exaggerated 40K universe, it shares the same cartoony yet still grimdark aesthetic.