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[J2 Cool]

What games do you guys think hold up the best from this era? Given a lot of 2D games still look great imo this is the rarest to find what you'd call a truly great looking game in. But some of mine

Metal Gear Solid - Something about this game squeezing so much out of a little Playstation just warms my heart. I find it more enjoyable to play this than Twin Snakes actually which was quite a bit too over the top for me and generic looking. The cool little effects though like the water in the intro, and the explosions, and details like rats running around. It's just so damn impressive for the time. For most other developers it wasn't that the psx couldn't do these it's just they never had the mind for detail like Kojima and team had. Even with no visible eyes he still made the game so visually interesting and gritty. Definetly some of the best art done on PS1.

FFIX - Oddly enough, I find this to be the best looking FF. I just really enjoyed the fantasy like world. FFVIII of course wowed everybody the most at release but I played it a little after that time and wasn't exactly blown away. FFIX's visuals though really complemented the games atmosphere so much though and did a great job giving us the most "fantasy" since the pre VII era.

Vagrant Story - This game was just stunningly cinematic and artistic. I can't believe I didn't play this at game's release. It's maybe the best looking thing to come out of Square in that whole era.

Conker's Bad Fur Day - This game's graphics won me over on animation and art. It still looks great. Now Xbox is getting it redone but still at the core of what some call this generation's best looking game yet, is this game. The graphics just gave life to the whole world in Conker. There's just so much fun to be had in this game you could see Rare put a lot of love into every detail.

AKI's wrestling games - Still the best to date probably with wrestling animations. Other games just never nailed wrestling in a videogame like this did and it's a shame they were never allowed to continue. I don't think many reviewer's realized how accurate these games looked to the real stuff. Finishing moves were never so satisfying to pull off as in this.

(not finished due to time constraints Update later maybe)

 

[SpoonyBard]

Chrono Cross - the 2D backgrounds are still as pretty as ever.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Other than your choices:

Ridge Racer Type 4 - In some ways I guess it could be called the ICO of racers as far as its art goes. Its really above everything else in that area and will always stand up because of that.

Mario 64 - I think the simplicity of the graphics really helps this stand up. I think it stills stand up nicely.

Wave Race and 1080 - See above

Einhander - This always impressed me for some reason.

Bust a Move (the dancing games) - It's really the animation that sets this apart. It still has some of the best animation in any game.

 

[ourumov]

[Not considering 2D stuff that obviouslly always looks great]
PSX
Klonoa
Fear Effect
Dino Crisis 2
Metal Gear Solid
R-Type Delta

N64
Banjo Kazooie
Goemon 1/2


SATURN
Burning Rangers

 

[WhippinSean]

Rage Racer

Look at how fucking amazing that still looks! Even today, no other racing game has matched the art style and graphics in Rage Racer. The changing of the times of day, the amazing course geometry, the amazing detail and everything... it's a fucking masterpeice!

 

[olimario]

Dinosaur Planet would have had nice graphics had it been released.

 

[radios shipping overview]

Vagrant Story - This game was just stunningly cinematic and artistic. I can't believe I didn't play this at game's release. It's maybe the best looking thing to come out of Square in that whole era.

YES YES YES YES YES

 

[king zell]

Chrono Cross - the 2D backgrounds are still as pretty as ever.

IAWTP

*prays for a DS remake with lots of touching*

 

[Tsubaki]

What? No one mentioned Radiant Silvergun? I think it looks better than Ikaruga aside from the lo-res.

 

[Doogdogg]

Dinosaur Planet would have had nice graphics had it been released.
[/IMG]

Yeah!! At like 15 fps. :lol

 

[missAran]

Majora's Mask.

 

[COCKLES]

Rage Racer

Look at how fucking amazing that still looks! Even today, no other racing game has matched the art style and graphics in Rage Racer. The changing of the times of day, the amazing course geometry, the amazing detail and everything... it's a fucking masterpeice!

I nominate this Junior Member for full GAF Tag upgrade.

Rage Racer indeed still looks fantastic - there's just a swaggering confidence to the graphics that I've rarely seen matched in a videogame. I can't stand RR-4 look...the guroud shading technique they use on all the surroundings and the cars just makes everything look soft and detail-less.

 

[cvxfreak]

I think Resident Evil 3 holds up extremely well.

 

[WhippinSean]

Well it's so true, Rage Racer is the best looking racing game of all time. Just check out all the classes, and all 3-4 courses in each of the classes always has a unique different look thanks to the change of time periods and cloud patterns and some lighting. Class 7 on Extra Gp is definatly where it's at. That shit looks amazing. Racing the courses backwards, they can even look better!!!

 

[Truelize]

Fear Effect holds up nicely.
FFVII, FFVIII & FFIX all look great still
GT2
Resident Evil 2 and 3 are still nice
Conker looks sweet.
And I always liked the looks of the Crash games.

 

[Kiriku]

Tobal 2.

 

[Warm Machine]

Tobal 2.

Absolutely. Because they used textures sparingly, or on large areas they didn't warp or pixellate. It was also one of the first games with solid model characters instead of transform animated ones.

I'd say Decathalete on Saturn still looks great.

 

[speedpop]

Although this is a given, I thought what Ocarina of Time achieved back in 1998 was huge and it still looks good today. Like when Link is just climbing over that hill right out after Kokiri Forest and being heckled by those giant flying plants, then you see Hyrule Castle bring up without any pop-up or fog enhancement.

Or right after dragging the Master Sword out and being thrust 7 years into the future, the first time you hop out of the Temple of Time, you can see the mountain being circled by a rage of fire. Although pre-rendered, it still looked awesome and gave you that "god damn what has happened" appeal that happened when you first went from Light to Dark in Link to the Past.

 

[OmniGamer]

Tobal 2.

Seeing this always hurts me...I HAD this game....and later....sold it *sniff*

 

[drohne]

panzer dragoon zwei still looks surprisingly good. probably the only3d saturn game that does.

 

[guess]

Jet Force Gemini

 

[Evenball]

Don't forget about the saturn version of DOA

 

[Tyrael]

Radiant Silvergun (Saturn) - still impressive.

Sin And Punishment (N64) - Sometimes it´s hard to believe this is a N64 game!

 

[Lazy8s]

Others for 3D: very solid 3D worlds of Virtua Cop 2 and Saturn Shenmue, detail and texture variety of Grandia's (Saturn) towns, particle effects and Soft Museum's morphing floor in NiGHTS, smoothness of the 3D Sonic teaser in Sonic Jam, sharpness of Virtua Fighter 2/Last Bronx/Dead or Alive(Saturn)

 

[djtiesto]

Valkyrie Profile, FF9, Majora's Mask and Radiant Silvergun would be my choices...

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

FFVIII, GT2, metal gear solid, ridge racer 4.

 

[cvxfreak]

Everyone forgot Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story.

 

[wazoo]

Everyone forgot Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story.

FIXED : everything made by Nintendo

 

[Jeffahn]

Tobal 2.

Tobal 2 was actually a bit of a 'cheat'. The game swapped relatively low-poly character models (when their were 2 characters on the screen) for high-poly ones during the winning poses, giving some people a much-inflated impression of what the game/system was achieving in terms of graphics.

 

[dorikyasu]

Rockman Dash (Megaman Legends) 1 & 2
Everything (characters, environments, etc.) in those 2 games had that "solid" feel to them. Not to mention bright & colorful.

 

[neptunes]

Vagrant Story end of discussion

 

[Moegames]

Other than your choices:

Ridge Racer Type 4 - In some ways I guess it could be called the ICO of racers as far as its art goes. Its really above everything else in that area and will always stand up because of that.

Mario 64 - I think the simplicity of the graphics really helps this stand up. I think it stills stand up nicely.

Wave Race and 1080 - See above

Einhander - This always impressed me for some reason.

Bust a Move (the dancing games) - It's really the animation that sets this apart. It still has some of the best animation in any game.

You picked some good ones..i agree about the art in RR T4 and Einhander had a nice look to it as well..still one of my fav spaceshooters to date. WipeoutXL was another cool looking game for its time. Panzer Dragoon Zwei another one...

 

[Shinobi]

The high res Saturn games still look decent I guess, save for VF2 (DOA looks miles cleaner, with bigger, more solid characters). Decathlete was mindblowing for it's time, though I haven't loaded that up in a while. Panzer Zwei still looks decent, particularly the water stages (that last boss encounter is still one of the most beautiful and surreal scenes in any video game). Wipeout 3 still looks decent...a lot cleaner then Wipeout XL. Mario 64 still looks decent. After that you've got me. It's all relative though...I think that entire era of graphics is shit, and was glad to see it done away with.

Still love looking at the Model 2 stuff though...there's no substitute for true 60fps visuals.

 

[neptunes]

 

[Bog]

Vagrant Story end of discussion

How can it be the end of discussion when the topic doesn't say Best? Yes, you're right. Vagrant Story was the only impressive looking game from that era.

 

[ourumov]

Everyone forgot Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story.

I was about to mention it (YS) but it's 2D...and it won't be fair. I agree that Paper Mario looked very good. The output was not as blurry as in other N64 games and the framerate was decent.

 

[RiZ III]

Zelda OoT

Shenmue on Saturn. Well it was just a demo video, but it was damn impressive.

 

[neptunes]

How can it be the end of discussion when the topic doesn't say Best?

sorry

 

[Insertia]

Gran Turismo 2.

 

[Jacobi]

Perfect Dark.

 

[Elios83]

Incredible textures for the PSX,Matsuno is following the same direction with FF12's graphics on PS2.

 

[_Angelus_]

SuperMario 64
Pilot Wings 64
NIGHTS
Jet Force Gemini
Sega Rally
Symphony of the Night
PowerSlave(Saturn)
WarHawk
Colony Wars 1&2
Turok2
StarWars Battle For Nabu
ClockWork Knight 1&2
Ghost in the Shell(PSX)
World Driver(N64)
Wave Race
Perfect Dark
Virtua cop 1&2
BUG! & Bug2!!

....."Buuuug Juuuuuuice."

 

[Mr Nash]

Omega Boost - An on the rails shooter with very pretty robots and environments.

Ridge Racer Type 4 - Everything was so soft and smooth to look at!

Saga Frontier II - Love the game or hate it, the water color painting motif was still some damn fine eye candy for the time.

Metal Gear Solid - Sorta goes without saying.

Medieval - First one was quaint, the second one was overkill.

Valkyrie Profile - I liked the anime influenced look of the game. It pulled the style off better than most of its contemporaries.

 

[Docpan]

FFVIII

Turok 2

Conker's BFD

 

[Ill Saint]

More votes for...

Vagrant Story
Radiant Silvergun
R-Type Delta

 

[Do The Mario]

FF IX
Banjo Kazooie
Jet force gamni

 

[Unison]

I <3 U.

 

[Docpan]

I <3 U.

That looks like shit.

 

[Unison]

That looks like shit.

Shows what you know...

This looks good still too:

 

[Speevy]

I wouldn't call any of these games "impressive".

I think you're naming games that hold up well, so you're not bothered by the old technology. I enjoy OoT. I'm not impressed by its graphics. But the graphics will do for a nice playthrough.