What if the 5th generation of consoles had been 2D?

N

nightfly

Gold Member
Curious what your thoughts are how things would have gone had everyone stuck with 2D for the 5th generation and simply waited for the 6th generation to go all out with 3D systems.
 
Yeah I think about that sometimes, we missed one hell of a generation dumping 2D that fast. All the experience, tools and pipelines that could have culminated in a wall of masterpieces just went poof in the blink of an eye.
 
It's impossible. 3d was a holy grail for both players and developers. The platform holder with the best 3d solution automatically had the edge in the competition.

Nevertheless, I don't feel there was a lack of 2d games in the 5th generation.
 
Last edited:
I hindsight, I think the gaming industry would have regressed badly. It is easy to look back at that generation with rose tinted glasses and just say that 2D would have been better... but back then, after coming off of multiple console generations... consumers were definitely looking for something new.

The idea of: "here's the same thing you had last generation, but with better looking graphics" would have not cut it at all. The Playstation 1 was a huge break out machine, because it was the first time (Saturn came kind of close) when larger consumer bases saw 3D as a viable option.

Even Nintendo jumped 100% on board the 3D wagon with the N64 for better or worse. They completely abandoned 2D gaming for that console generation, and mostly regulated 2D games to their handhelds.

Outside of some exceptions, 2D games were seen as boring to the mass public. Because we just went through the Atari generation, 8-bit generation, and 16-bit generation. By 1996 2D was a hard sell to a mass consumer base.
 
Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-Purple-FL.png


It would've been something like this. So in other words, extremely good.
 
Parazels said:
What exactly were you missing in the 2d department?
Click to expand...

IDK, just SotN: the Gen? Where every game was made like that? Think getting 3D games "fully matured" from PS1 during PS3, but then never getting PS4/5 because we had the next paradigm shift instead (like brain VR). What'd we miss in the 3D department?
 
MrCunningham said:
I hindsight, I think the gaming industry would have regressed badly. It is easy to look back at that generation with rose tinted glasses and just say that 2D would have been better... but back then, after coming off of multiple console generations... consumers were definitely looking for something new.

The idea of: "here's the same thing you had last generation, but with better looking graphics" would have not cut it at all. The Playstation 1 was a huge break out machine, because it was the first time (Saturn came kind of close) when larger consumer bases saw 3D as a viable option.

Even Nintendo jumped 100% on board the 3D wagon with the N64 for better or worse. They completely abandoned 2D gaming for that console generation, and mostly regulated 2D games to their handhelds.

Outside of some exceptions, 2D games were seen as boring to the mass public. Because we just went through the Atari generation, 8-bit generation, and 16-bit generation. By 1996 2D was a hard sell to a mass consumer base.
Click to expand...

youre right GIF
 
BlackTron said:
IDK, just SotN: the Gen? Where every game was made like that? Think getting 3D games "fully matured" from PS1 during PS3, but then never getting PS4/5 because we had the next paradigm shift instead (like brain VR). What'd we miss in the 3D department?
Click to expand...
But we kept getting matured 2d games like Oddworld or Doom. At the same time the Saturn wasn't able to surpass the Neo Geo, so we could have ended up with tons of nice looking but constrained titles. Forget about Gran Turismo or Pro Evolution Soccer - 2d graphics just don't fit for many genres regardless of hardware.
 
It would have been kind of interesting to see what kinds of games we would get had the result been consoles that could do massive amount of scaling effects and animation. I can imagine some of the 3D classics being made with 2d techniques. But it still would have been a big missed opportunity as 3d was clearly ready for primetime. No Gran Turismo? No thanks.
 
It seems like the underlying assumption of your post is that maybe we would have got more and better 2D games, but 5th gen 3D games walked so 6th gen could run.
 
Last edited:
Look, I got Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Ace Combat, Gran Turismo, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and Rogue Squadron.
Some 3D games from that generation were some of the best I've ever played, so no, I wouldn't settle for just 2D games because I wouldn't have been as happy.
 
I've had this same thought as well.

Same with silent movies. They just started to perfect everything and then through it all away for the next big thing

Not saying it wasn't the right thing to do but I think it would have been interesting to see what kind of creative ideas they continued to come up with to keep working around the limitations while having a bit more power and experience.
We did get a few games (SOTN) that are still classic today so there was still juice in the tank

I personally hated the early days of 3d gaming so I would have loved that we didn't throw the baby out with the bath water on that one but I understand most people wanted something new and flashy
 
I'm also curious about what graphics would have looked like today had we stuck with CRT TVs instead of going the HD/4K route.
 
You'd have way better hockey games!

That era of 3D hockey games during the PS1 and PS2 years were total junk. EA games on Genesis were great. And so were hockey games during the 360/PS3 era (aside from NHL 07 which was kinda shit). But there was a solid decade span of crappy hockey games. I wasnt a fan of smoother playing 2K hockey either.
 
People act as if 3D was shit that gen, but its not like Tekken 3, Ace Combat 2, R Type 4, Ape Escape, Wipeout, Crash, MGS, Silent Hill, Spyro, Vagrant etc were dumpster fire. Games like Tekken, Wipeout and Ridge Racer were there from day one and were absolute game changers out of the gate. Mario 64 was a game changer as well, maybe the biggest in history.

If you walked into a store in 1995, and you saw RR or Tekken being demo;d and you weren't impressed, I think you lie. I had a Megadrive at home, playing Monaco GP, Virtua Racing etc. RR blew my socks off.

And on 16-bit consoles cinematic experiences like FFVII and RE, which used polys with pre rendered backgrounds weren't possible either.

These systems added many different ways to present and play games. First person, third person or a mix of both (MGS), playing with camera angles (RE) racing on actual tracks, sandbox environments.

I love 2D (Shinobi and Ragebound are my last 2 games), but after Atari 2600, NES, SNES I think it was time for a jump.
 
Last edited:
I can't tell what started the "craze" but as a teenage player at the time, after seeing Doom it was hard to not want that. Back then I was like wait if they can do that...why is shit still flat?! I mean I was a teenage boy so that was the logic lol.
 
I don't see any world where that happens.

It was extremely obvious by 1992-1993 that CD and 3D were where gaming was headed and consoles were always about the best technology they could put in an affordable box. They weren't going to skimp out on that.
 
I'm happy with the way things progressed, honestly. 2D games looked crazy good on the 32-bit consoles, and I wish we'd gotten more of them. But: there were a lot of lessons that had to be learned about 3D gameplay, which the industry got out of its system during Gen 5. If that hadn't been the case, then yes, you'd still have impressive 3D games during Gen 6, but a lot of them would be terrible until devs figured out how to make those games fun. I actually think the limitations of Gen 5 were something of a boon in that regard, because it forced them to figure out the basics of 3D gaming instead of going balls to the wall and really bungling the introduction of 3D gaming in the home.

If I wanted killer 2D games during that era, there was still the arcade.
 
Last edited:
That ugly 3D we got on PS1, Saturn and N64 allowed these developpers to gain skills in that domain. Sure if 3D started with dreamcast level, it would have looked decent day one, but the whole 6th gen wouldn't have been as pretty as it was.
 
What do you mean? Like only 2D, with no 3D capabilities? Like the Neo-Geo?

Because otherwise they were pretty capable of decent 2D graphics. Certainly more capable than the previous gen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Who would have won the 5th generation, if Sony hadn't joined the race?
Opinion Poll Platform  2 3
142
2K
Avid Reading Horse replied
What has been your favorite features of the current generation of consoles so far?
2 3
144
5K
RoadHazard replied
We already know about the launch titles for next generation consoles, don’t we?
2 3
144
1K
powder replied
What would the gaming industry look like if SEGA still made consoles? (alternate history)
Opinion 
48
751
RetroAV replied
What would gaming have been like if Sega didn’t fail and Microsoft never entered the console space?
2
80
2K
DeVeAn replied
Top Bottom