No wonder 2D gaming is on the wane....

[eastyy]

Was a shame, 2D hadn't reached its potential, and both PSX & Saturn, from what there was of original 2D programming, showed what could be done still.

That is EXACTLY what i thought.

I always thought how good could they make a 2d animated game.Guilty gear x2 and streetfighter 3 looked good but streetfighter 3 did not have the hi res and effects from guilty gear and guilty gear did not have the animation quality of Sf3 (still good though).I would love to see the psone version of castlevania updated with great 2d animation and backgrounds.

On topic is it true that 3d graphics actually use less memory than 2d graphics?

[eastyy]

I don't mind 3D or 2D graphics in games, what I can't stand is old 3D graphics on N64 or PS1 as it is horrorble for me to look at.

I defintely noticed that i recently got chrono chross and thunderforce 5
and the graphics seem really horrible and pixelly now.Just seems graphics wise the psone has really dated far far more than the 16bit games have

[Leon Retro]

3D took a long time to reach it's potential- so by 1995 when it really hit it's stride with Tekken-Ridge Racer-Daytona-Tomb Raider etc... people were stunned by this new revolution in graphics and it overshadowed the long established 2D style.

This new 3D generation reinvigorated the industry- bringing even more people in to gaming and creating new experiences and franchises. Within all this excitement 2D lost it's appeal in the mainstream- but the Japanese still enjoyed and appreciated the style with many great Saturn and PS1 2D titles being made such as Guardian Heroes and the many shooters that graced the 32bit era.

I agree that a large percentage of game journalists did add to the apathy towards 2D. The style was largely ignored or dismissed during the mid to late 90's. Many reviewers were caught-up in the 3D hysteria just like the majority of gamers- but maybe in their eyes 3D deserved all the attention.

Now that we have been through the birth of 3D- people have got used to the style and it has lost a lot of it's mystique. Imo a lot of people are now seeing 2D as a fresh alternative and once again appreciating the unique qualities 2D games can have. I don't think 2D will ever be able to compete with 3D for the mainstreams attention- but at least the style survives and new games are being produced.

Long live 2D!

[Madbury]

I would love to know what the Japanese press were churning out in this era. I suspect that in a culture where manga and anime have a broad appeal that the press weren't so dismissive of 2D gaming. I could be wrong though. Does anyone have any old famitsus to check back?

[Big Seany]

I can confirm that in some Japanese DC mags I have at home, at least 50-60% of the games in there are 2D. Most of them are incomprehensible and involve scantily clad girls, or are Jap only RPGs - but mad coverage is given to the likes of SF Zero 3, and the charts were topped by Dream Match 99. I wonder when was the last time a 2D fighter topped the charts over here? I am guessing it was probably a SNES Street Fighter title. In fact, would be interesting to see how many chart topping titles over here have been in 2D in recent years. Not many, I reckon.

[Applefiend]

Yup, it's pandering. Joe Journalist knows if he tells the 3D graphics whore guys reading the mag to go out and buy a 2D game he'll lose his job.

[gunrock]

I went down the car boot sale on Sunday and picked up a load of copies of Official Playstation Magazine. I have been slowly reading through these and it occurred to me that throughout the PS1 era. Journalism such as what was contained within the pages of this magazine were basically telling gamers that 2D is wrong; that 2D is completely redundant.

Some of that was the view of "da kidz" (apparently). Back in the PS1/N64 era, I was a game programmer. I worked on the original, but pretty dire "Rat Attack!", published by Mindscape (as it was back then). Now the game concept was thought up by our games designer and one of our artists, who came up with the premise, back story and strong visual art style I think.

The visual art was for the band of cat heroes to be in a cartoon (and as the artist was big into the super-deformed style), somewhat far-eastern styled look with a strong Austin Powers sixties kitsch. Got that?

Anyway, the idea was to have the boxart, front end graphics and cut-scenes with the 2D representations of the cats and the game proper with glorious ps1 "warpo-texture-can't-you-spare-me-vertex-guv'nor" 3d versions of them. Now 70% through the games development, the publisher read an American study that found that the majority (70 or 80 percent, from memory) of kids couldn't relate 2d characters to their 3d counterparts. That's right! The study found that the 2d Mario cartoon versions weren't recognised by the children as the same 3d character found in Mario 64!!

The publishers own focus group study found their sample of British kids to be not quite as stupid, but even so there was tremendous pressure to drop the 2d characters completely and only use the 3d versions. In fact, if I remember rightly, the boxart for the US N64 release (and maybe PS1) didn't use the 2d character models.

Anyway, the kidz are to blame. I don't know whether it's because they watch telly instead of read comics or they didn't burn their retinas playing Donkey Kong and Moon Cresta in fag melted and smoke filled arcades, but 2d doesn't seem to light the fire of younger gamers.

I also think there's a lot of journos who only like gaming now because it's seen as more respectable and 2d games remind them of their youth when gamers were laughed at and girls wouldn't go near them for playing childish cartoon looking games.

Anyone who remembers wasting their hard-earned on Rat Attack!, please send you complaints to dev/null.

[Leon Retro]

I don't know many people from the far-east- but those I have known say they dislike FPS's and games that are overly 3D. Look at the popular Virtua Fighter it may be made of polygons but it's still a 2D experience. Even games like Devil May Cry are played at a perspective that is easier on the eye than games that try to immerse the player in a 3D world.

I can understand the mid to late 90's obsession with 3D. As I said in my last post- it's all to do with the revolution in 3D. After years of 2D thrills- people were looking for something fresh and exciting- and 3D games like Ridge Racer- Tekken and the new genre FPS's appeared to satisfy the hunger for new experiences.

I'm not saying it was a good thing or a bad thing- but it's obvious that people were fed-up to a degree with 2D and 3D became their new thrill.

It's was all part of the evolution of the industry. 2D gaming ruled for a long time- and then 3D had it's birth and development. We are at a stage now where people are used to both styles- and at the end of the day it's up to each individual gamer to choose which style of game they want to purchase.

Of course I get frustrated at certain peoples attitude towards 2D- but I do see signs that the style is once again being appreciated. So let's keep showing people that 2D can be just as fun as 3D and wake them up from their 3D obsession.

[Golgo]

OPSM and OPSM2 are indeed the spawn of satan. I made a vow some time back not to buy any of the 'official' mags anymore.

[Ady]

The 3D obsession was more of a western thing, exacerbated by the demand for more "realistic" graphics. Intrinsically, there's nothing at all wrong with 3D (anything that evolves gaming's potential can't be a bad thing), the problem is the either/or mentality of a lot of these so-called gamers.