Ned Flanders
Banned
Throughout history, since the very first progression from a Commodore 64 to an Atari 7800, a NES to a Neo Geo, a Playstation to a Dreamcast, they've been here. The titles that show up early in the life of a new piece hardware in order to show off it's prowess and distinguish it as a technically superior piece of technology. "The next level", if you will. Many of these showpiece titles were lackluster, empty tech demos, but a few went on to gaming greatness.
A few notable "showpiece" games off the top of my head:
PSX:
Wipe0ut- OMG teh texture mapping!! The game had blazing fast speed, long draw distances, and a lot of cool effects for the time including transparency and rudimentary colored lighting. Really distinguished itself from contemporary offerings on the Saturn/Jaguar/3D0 technologically. A great game as well.
Battle Arena Toshinden- Hard to believe it now, but Toshinden provided an answer to Virtua Fighter and for many, the texture mapping and 3D movement illustrated the superiority of the Playstation. Later Saturn offerings like Last Bronx and VF2 would prove the answer to Toshinden's setting of the bar, but by then, the damage was done. The showpiece had done it's duty and sold consoles for Sony.
SNES:
Pilotwings/F-Zero- I pair these two because they share the same justifications as SNES showpiece titles. They both came out and launch, and they both featured MODE 7!! The simulated 3D sensation of Mode 7 simply had no peer when the SNES was launched and it made for a great counterblow to Genesis-owning Nintendo bashers.
Sega CD:
Night Trap- Put the video in videogames!! Unfortunately!! But in all seriousness, if you weren't sprung off of Night Trap when it dropped -the scantily clad babes, edgy subject matter, technically amazing video sequences- you weren't a gamer. You also weren't a gamer if, after several hours with Night Trap, you didn't realize that it really wasn't much of a "game". Still, a showpiece for the ages, ushering in the era of FMV to home consoles.
X-Box:
Halo- Well no shit. High fidelity textures and sharp image quality/AA made this game stand out from the heap of blurrily textured, shimmery PS2 titles available. The sound was also highly immersive. Halo proved that the X-Box was capable of special things. Oh and it didn't hurt that the gameplay was godlike.
Wreckless- The lighting and highly destructive enviroments built the hype for this game far beyond what its gameplay deserved. It did much to illustrate the way in which advanced lighting can substantially improve the look of a game, but in the end it's reign as a tech demo was short lived, as a number of titles caught up to it's tricks in a hurry. Still being early out of the gate made Wreckless a showpiece to remember.
Dreamcast:
Blue Stinger/Sonic Adventure- I mention these two launch titles together because they were both immediately distinguishable from previous generation games because of their high color contrast and incredible polygon counts. The vibrancy of the visuals could not be rivaled by anything previously, including PC's of that era.
Soul Calibur- It still looks good! What more can be said! Color, detail, lighting, effects. All completely blew the doors off it's competitors, but it was perhaps the animations that sealed the deal. The fluidity of the movement and transitions was breathtaking, particularly during the demo mode. Sold probably half the DC's that ever left the shelf..
NFL2K- The game obviously featured poly counts that were unachievable on the N64/PSX, but the difference maker for me was the quality of the textures. From the grass, to the dimples on the football, to the pock-marks on the jerseys, NFL2K represented the details of football better than anything previously. Oh and the stadiums looked ace.
PS2:
GT3- Come on. Lighting..lighting lighting! Sunlight through the trees in the forest, insanely detailed car models, reflection mapping (good for its time), 60 fps..GT3 was the lone defender of the PS2's visual crown in the face of an onslaught of media from Rogue Squadron II and Halo. It did the trick.
GameCube:
Rogue Squadron II- The GC didn't have a marquee flagship launch title to give the hardware a workout, so that responsibility fell on the shoulders of the slightly more niche RSII. The scale of the action along with the amazing texture work demonstrated that the GameCube was more than capable of hanging with the other boys on the block.
I'm sure there's plenty more where that came from..
A few notable "showpiece" games off the top of my head:
PSX:
Wipe0ut- OMG teh texture mapping!! The game had blazing fast speed, long draw distances, and a lot of cool effects for the time including transparency and rudimentary colored lighting. Really distinguished itself from contemporary offerings on the Saturn/Jaguar/3D0 technologically. A great game as well.
Battle Arena Toshinden- Hard to believe it now, but Toshinden provided an answer to Virtua Fighter and for many, the texture mapping and 3D movement illustrated the superiority of the Playstation. Later Saturn offerings like Last Bronx and VF2 would prove the answer to Toshinden's setting of the bar, but by then, the damage was done. The showpiece had done it's duty and sold consoles for Sony.
SNES:
Pilotwings/F-Zero- I pair these two because they share the same justifications as SNES showpiece titles. They both came out and launch, and they both featured MODE 7!! The simulated 3D sensation of Mode 7 simply had no peer when the SNES was launched and it made for a great counterblow to Genesis-owning Nintendo bashers.
Sega CD:
Night Trap- Put the video in videogames!! Unfortunately!! But in all seriousness, if you weren't sprung off of Night Trap when it dropped -the scantily clad babes, edgy subject matter, technically amazing video sequences- you weren't a gamer. You also weren't a gamer if, after several hours with Night Trap, you didn't realize that it really wasn't much of a "game". Still, a showpiece for the ages, ushering in the era of FMV to home consoles.
X-Box:
Halo- Well no shit. High fidelity textures and sharp image quality/AA made this game stand out from the heap of blurrily textured, shimmery PS2 titles available. The sound was also highly immersive. Halo proved that the X-Box was capable of special things. Oh and it didn't hurt that the gameplay was godlike.
Wreckless- The lighting and highly destructive enviroments built the hype for this game far beyond what its gameplay deserved. It did much to illustrate the way in which advanced lighting can substantially improve the look of a game, but in the end it's reign as a tech demo was short lived, as a number of titles caught up to it's tricks in a hurry. Still being early out of the gate made Wreckless a showpiece to remember.
Dreamcast:
Blue Stinger/Sonic Adventure- I mention these two launch titles together because they were both immediately distinguishable from previous generation games because of their high color contrast and incredible polygon counts. The vibrancy of the visuals could not be rivaled by anything previously, including PC's of that era.
Soul Calibur- It still looks good! What more can be said! Color, detail, lighting, effects. All completely blew the doors off it's competitors, but it was perhaps the animations that sealed the deal. The fluidity of the movement and transitions was breathtaking, particularly during the demo mode. Sold probably half the DC's that ever left the shelf..
NFL2K- The game obviously featured poly counts that were unachievable on the N64/PSX, but the difference maker for me was the quality of the textures. From the grass, to the dimples on the football, to the pock-marks on the jerseys, NFL2K represented the details of football better than anything previously. Oh and the stadiums looked ace.
PS2:
GT3- Come on. Lighting..lighting lighting! Sunlight through the trees in the forest, insanely detailed car models, reflection mapping (good for its time), 60 fps..GT3 was the lone defender of the PS2's visual crown in the face of an onslaught of media from Rogue Squadron II and Halo. It did the trick.
GameCube:
Rogue Squadron II- The GC didn't have a marquee flagship launch title to give the hardware a workout, so that responsibility fell on the shoulders of the slightly more niche RSII. The scale of the action along with the amazing texture work demonstrated that the GameCube was more than capable of hanging with the other boys on the block.
I'm sure there's plenty more where that came from..
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