Bugbear of mine: Games made to look "retro"

[EvilBoris]

I loved Super Meat Boy for it's retro styling/parodying

[toythatkills]

I thought the complete opposite about the Scott Pilgrim game. I would have preferred if they had made it look more modern as the faux NES look does nothing for me .

I wish I had your NES

[SuperBeatBoy]

This thread made the wrong impact for me. It reminded me of that Breath of Death & Cthulu game and i bought them instead.

EDIT: One thing i hate is that Steam asks me to install things to run a game i just installed even though i have the software/driver already.

[abigsmurf]

Retro does not equal bad. Scott Pilgrim's makers were not trying to get things to look bad - they made it look fantastic, and clearly put in a lot of work to get that.

I would have thought very few designers approaching something in a retro style actually aim for their work to look bad.

I'd hold up Scott Pilgrim as a shining example of the good way to do retro styling. They've clearly tried to make it look good whilst still making something that looks like it could sit in an arcade in between The Simpsons arcade and TMNT. It couldn't actually be done one the machines of that era but it's very successful at pretending it could.

Megaman 9 is an even better example.

My main annoyance are the 'retro' games with simple flat colour platforms, 2-3 colour sprites rendered at 720P with smooth 60fps animation, with animations and movement done at a sub pixel level (ie in one frame, a sprite moves what should be half a pixel) . Retro games have never looked like that, the closest they've come was the Atari 2600 era and those were ugly large blocky games. Even by the time of the C64 and Spectrum, most games were using 'detailed' tiles.

They've deliberately restricted themselves to basic graphics yet don't fully apply retro restrictions so you're left with what's pretty much a modern game, just with no effort on the graphics.

[SUMIRE]

I'm not fussed as long as the game is good.

[Decider-VT]

My main annoyance are the 'retro' games with simple flat colour platforms, 2-3 colour sprites rendered at 720P with smooth 60fps animation, with animations and movement done at a sub pixel level (ie in one frame, a sprite moves what should be half a pixel) . Retro games have never looked like that, the closest they've come was the Atari 2600 era and those were ugly large blocky games. Even by the time of the C64 and Spectrum, most games were using 'detailed' tiles.

They've deliberately restricted themselves to basic graphics yet don't fully apply retro restrictions so you're left with what's pretty much a modern game, just with no effort on the graphics.

Or a stylistic choice, like Pixeljunk's games or the excellent Leave Home. Perhaps the artists like that style as much as you dislike it?

[Tig]

Or a stylistic choice, like Pixeljunk's games or the excellent Leave Home. Perhaps the artists like that style as much as you dislike it?

And equally, there will be games in which it IS a lazy artistic choice.


You have to view this sort of thing on a case-by-case basis, really. For every example you can ask whether the style seems appropriate, whether it's been done well, and whether the game does it in an original, imaginative way.



Rez is the example in my mind at the moment. Rez is a game designed to resemble older games.... but I think most people would agree that its style fits perfectly.

[Decider-VT]

And equally, there will be games in which it IS a lazy artistic choice.


You have to view this sort of thing on a case-by-case basis, really. For every example you can ask whether the style seems appropriate, whether it's been done well, and whether the game does it in an original, imaginative way.

Maybe the poor games aren't very high profile (or I haven't gone looking for them) but I'm struggling to name a recent faux-retro game that has unsuccessfully appropriated the look.

[Leon Retro]

Baseley, I get where you're coming from. I'm not fond of many of the popular modern 2D games that you find on LiveArcade, PSN, AppStore etc... I'd much rather play a classic from the Mario or Sonic series, or something like Top Hunter on the Neo Geo, or Snow Bros etc...

The thing is, most people like new games, and don't enjoy delving into the world of retro. Some people can't move their focus away from the new. They would rather play a new 2D game, even if it's not as good as some similar old-school title.

New Super Mario Bros on the DS sold millions, despite being rubbish compared to SMB 3 & 4 & Yoshi's Island. People like to get excited about new stuff, rather than being sensible and seeing some dodgy new games for what they really are.

I also hate the basic flash game look that a lot of modern retro-esque games have. If a dev can't be bothered to put detail and craft into a game, then don't bother. I certainly won't buy anything like that.

I'm off to play Psycho Dream on the snes.

[Flabio]

A bugbear of mine is people crying 'it looks like a flash game' at anything that isn't using loads of polys and isn't pixelated sprite art either.

I've heard people say it of Odin Sphere for example...