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Modern Vintage Gamer: The Timeless Beauty of SNES Graphics

It was really stunning at launch, throughout it's entire lifecycle too.

Anyone else remember the yellow-screen kiosks that timed out after 5 minutes or so, Super Mario World. Seeing the graphics and hearing the music, it was stunning in yellow. Imagine my eyes when I saw it in color.

Super Castlevania IV is a GOAT-tier SNES title. It utilizes all the new things the SNES could do.

F-Zero was pretty wild too. So incredibly fast and the music was something else.
 

NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt

Biggest Trails Stan
When it comes to SNES Graphics, I still think Chrono Trigger is peak. But I prefer prerendered graphics to SNES Graphics. Wish more Indie Developers would go the prerendered PS1 backgrounds for their graphic style
 

ReyBrujo

Member
The intro for Secret of Mana is technically awesome, they had to load the mana tree picture and display it with a scroll because the hardware couldn't just load it all.

Obligatory watch (timestamped but the whole video is good)



But I prefer prerendered graphics to SNES Graphics.

Rare to the rescue! I never liked the "plastic" look of DK and Killer Instinct but I was getting ready to leave gaming for almost a decade so I didn't care to buy it when it was released.
 

NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt

Biggest Trails Stan
By the way, pretty sure the court room was prerendered but it was one of the few if not the only one in CT.

Yeah to this day I still think that game when it comes to graphics on the SNES puts every other game even Donkey Kong Country to shame. There's just sometime Timeless about the artstyle. Yes I know Akira Toyama was the character designer but even though it's low res 2D Sprites, they still look fantastic
 
They got a pretty appealing art style reminds me of the Minish Cap which aged very well compared to the first Nintendo and the Oracle of Ages/Awakening games.
 

kevboard

Member
I have to hand it to MVG here...nearly all videos like this (i.e., ones that gush about SNES visuals) use titles that are, for all intents and purposes, cheating because the SNES used more custom "helper" chips than any console known to man, hence this thread I made years ago:


MVG, however, avoids that trap and provides some great reasons as to why the SNES has aged well. Good stuff!

most helper chips barely even have an actual effect on graphics.
the most used chips were ones that supported the CPU to prevent slowdown, and others like Capcom's added like a couple of wireframe effects to 2 or 3 games 🤷

the ones that did noticeably improve the graphics were very rarely used and are by far the minority of SNES games.
 
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Ozzie666

Member
Not to rekindle the war but Gensis has a lot of games that still look stunning to this day. Speaks more about great 2D games and art direction. As someone said even TG16 and master system still can look amazing. Pushing the systems ona technical level with increased rom sizes was more important than extra chips.
 

Hudo

Gold Member
I have to hand it to MVG here...nearly all videos like this (i.e., ones that gush about SNES visuals) use titles that are, for all intents and purposes, cheating because the SNES used more custom "helper" chips than any console known to man, hence this thread I made years ago:


MVG, however, avoids that trap and provides some great reasons as to why the SNES has aged well. Good stuff!
How is this cheating, exactly? What counts is what you see on your screen. Doing graphics in general, especially if you have real-time capability as a constraint, is just clever cheating.
 

T-0800

Member
MegaDrive needed to have 8 palettes instead of 4. Would have made a world's difference.

These consoles aged beautifully though.....
Carl Weathers Friendship GIF
 

MacReady13

Member
Great video.

I remember being a young lad (early teens) when the SNES was big in Australia. I had the NES but wasn’t working so I couldn’t argue with my parents (who weren’t really gamers apart from owning a colecovision when I was very young) to get me a SNES. Seeing Castlevania was a game changer. It looked like a big leap from the NES.

Going to my friends house a few years later and seeing Street Fighter 2 was the final straw- the SNES had to be mine! Eventually got one with Mario All Stars and Street Fighter 2 Turbo and I was in heaven. A true leap in graphics and gameplay with the SNES after the NES. It remains to this day a fucking marvel of a console and shows what can be achieved when you keep games as exclusives on a console and put all your efforts into making the best games you can for the hardware you have…
 

poodaddy

Member
I’m a big dork who cries at Chrono Trigger and dreams lustily of Seiken Densetsu 3. And I wouldn’t do anything different. SNES was my first home console and coming from the Commodore 64 it felt like at least 2 generations apart. Best console ever.
Season 2 Reaction GIF by Law & Order


I understand you bro. SNES forever.
 

nkarafo

Member
The avail colors on screen is really what made the snes stand out. I think genesis was limited to 64 colors as opposed to like 256 on the snes. Everything just looked more dull on genesis.
While SNES ports had more natural colors some Mega Drive ports had better contrast because devs were forced to make better use of the available colors. This worked great for some games where the SNES looked more washed out in comparison.
 
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