Games that should of happened

[Lyris]

Air NiGHTS

[hankwangford]

Air NiGHTS

Amen.

[darkangel]

Cheers guys!

[Ady]

Actually, the in-game graphics aren't that bad. The design is quite generic, but I honestly don't find the actual execution much worse than Lament of Innocence (which at least had Ayami Kojima character design as a redeeming feature). The cinematic hi-poly character models, however, are truly frightening.

Hmm.. to these eyes, it looks more like Castlevania 64 than LOI (which obviously isn't a good thing...).

[Wild_Cat]

Well, to mine, either way it isn't a good thing. With Symphony of the Night being the best Metroid-like game ever created (not to mention the PS1's best soundtrack), I still wonder why Konami ever felt the urge to jump onto the 3D bandwagon (with mostly half-assed attempts, might I add).

Just imagining what a 2D Castlevania game might be on current-gen consoles makes me wet my pants.

[anephric]

Just imagining what a 2D Castlevania game might be on current-gen consoles makes me wet my pants.

Meh? How much power do you need for decent 2D?

[hankwangford]

tbh how much more pant wetting can you get over Symphony of the Night?

[Flompy]

On Xbox Live.. WITH VOICE!!!!!!!!!!

[anephric]

SUCHT-GEFAHR!

[Wild_Cat]

Meh? How much power do you need for decent 2D?

As much as you can get!
Symphony of the Night looks (and plays) incredible, but it still has some technical shortcomings:
- It's in low resolution. (Also compare Capcom/SNK fighting games to Guilty Gear X)
- Alucard is the only hand-animated character with a really smooth animation (wow, must I say). All of the other sprites either have very few frames of animation, or an animation that solely relies on a special effect (rotation, 3D, multiple moving sprites) -- in which case it is indeed smooth.
- The 3D effects (despite being very cool -- see the chapel's background) look PS1-ish (well, duh).

For examples of what current consoles can give us as far as 2D graphics are concerned, have a look at all Cave shooters (for that "yo, we got LOTS of sprites" feeling), Guilty Gear X/XX/X#$*?^%!! (for hi-rez, crisp graphics), or Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (for sheer beauty). Here: