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[Hellraizah]

I'm always amazed each and everytime I see this :

The "house on fire" stage from Last Blade 2 kicks all kinds of ass. Not only is everything animated from the flames to the heat effect, but the stage zooms in and out while these effects are in place. This stage gets my vote.

I would give an honorable mention to Adventures Of Batman And Robin (all stages)

All stages are impressive looking, perhaps the most parallax filled backgrounds ever. While the picture I posted doesn't look impressive, when it's animated, it's hard to believe the Genesis was pushing that kind of graphics and effects.

 

[Barnimal]

hydro zone, sonic 3.

 

[Mikazuki]

I love this background. A much better 'America' background than the usual NYC, and the cloud effect is great.

 

[Hellraizah]

Oh shit, I don't remember Hydro Zone but you made me think.....

Ice Cap Zone looked REALLY good too. I've never played Kolibri on 32X but in pictures it looks good

 

[Gunstar77]

I always remember Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion for Genesis having amazing 4 layer scrolling backgrounds on the Candy Land stage.

 

[blackadde]

[insert any stage here] from Metal Slug 3.

 

[Barry Lightning]

 

[Barnimal]

sonic 3 had some kick ass parallax effects.

 

[Warm Machine]

The Last Blade BG is actually a tweaked 3d render. The Kolibri backgrounds are certainly gorgeous and if I remember correctly they have quite a bit of parallax.

KOF backgrounds are generally pretty amazing.

 

[sc0la]

I always remember Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion for Genesis

great 2d BGs in that game for sure

 

[AndoCalrissian]

My vote goes to Chrono Trigger, court scene.

I'm going to give an honorable mention to Batman on the NES, awesome background graphics in that one.

 

[Lyte Edge]

I couldn't get the best screenshots, so just text:

-The "boss team" stage from KOF '96. Amazing for the time.
-The Ryu/Ken stage from Street Fighter III NG. Love the colors on the bridge stage.
-The Spanish village from Art of Fighting 3.
-Hon-Fu's stage from Fatal Fury 3. It's HUGE since you're on a crate being lifted up into the sky.
-Terry's stage from Garou Mark of The Wolves...all three versions.

 

[Speevy]

Most anything in this game:

Anything in this game.

 

[Barnimal]

final fight

the subway train roaring in is just classic.

 

[AndoCalrissian]

Most anything in this game:

[Paper Mario pic]

Anything in this game.

[Yoshi's Island pic]

Yoshi's Island, yes. Paper Mario, no because it technically has 3D backgrounds.

 

[Speevy]

Bah. It still has some gorgeous flat artwork.

Here's another one of my favorites.

 

[Tarazet]

hydro zone, sonic 3.

Can't think of anything better than this. Sonic 3 was so amazing when it came out.. everything was so beautiful and vibrant.

 

[isamu]

 

[Barnimal]

BUT BUT BUT....YOU CAN RACE TO THE BACKGROUND!!! :lol

 

[ourumov]

All the Street Fighter III 2nd Impact backgrounds are pretty nice in an artistic way... The Ryu one is so charming that whenever I play the game on that stage I get relaxed in a while.

In this last one, notice Sagat and Adon fighting in the background...It's pretty nice to see how they act while your fight goes on.

 

[Gek54]

Its all 3D.

 

[WindyMan]

Some of the 2D art in the pre-rendered backgrounds in Baten Kaitos are quite possibly the most beautiful things I've ever seen on my TV screen.

And while we're at it, the rest of the 3D pre-rendered stuff in the game is beyond good looking too. It's a shame the rest of the game looked like crap up against it.

 

[Gek54]

They had low rez and low color but my fav were the EWJ backgrounds.

 

[Spazbiohaz]

Forground waterfall as well.

 

[anotheriori]

 

[jett]

All the Street Fighter III 2nd Impact backgrounds are pretty nice in an artistic way... The Ryu one is so charming that whenever I play the game on that stage I get relaxed in a while.

In this last one, notice Sagat and Adon fighting in the background...It's pretty nice to see how they act while your fight goes on.

Sagat and Adon?? What SF2/SFA did you play?

And damn I had forgotten how good 2I's backgrounds looked...

 

[ourumov]

I always thought they were Sagat and Adon

 

[Lee N]

The Dutch graphician Henk Nieborg have done some beautifully handpixelled graphics, it's a shame his talent got wasted on mediocre (at best) games, like:

Lomax (Playstation, PC):

Harry Potter 2 (GBA):

Another favorite of mine is James D. Sachs known for the graphics in games like Defender of the Crown, also skillfully handpixelled but with a more 'realistic' approach than the norm at the time:

And a pixel re-creation of his own house, for good measure:

.. I could go on for quite a while about graphics like this, but I don't wanna clutter the thread too much. A noteworthy detail about handpixelled Images like the above is that they're always done with a restricted pallette like max 32 or 64 colours (check for yourself in an image program). So the artists had to use various tricks like dithering (by hand, pixel by pixel) the colours.

 

[Johnny]

The first thing that popped into my head was the burning building in Last Blade 2, simply amazing.

Urien's stage in SF3:TS is pretty awesome, it's so lush.

 

[demi]

I thought Kingdom Hearts GBA had some nice 2D action going on.

 

[MomoPufflet]

Second Impact's backgrounds are weaksauce compared to the original SF3. They removed so much animation and movement in 2I.

 

[KingJ2002]

I would agree... the burning home in Last Blade 2 was the best i've seen... but as an honorable mention I will throw in this one as well.

Grant Stage From MOTW

 

[Papi]

I like the Canvas Curse ones.

 

[Sho Nuff]

The Dutch graphician Henk Nieborg have done some beautifully handpixelled graphics, it's a shame his talent got wasted on mediocre (at best) games, like.

JESUS CHRIST.

(Bows)

 

[EAJAPAN]

 

[ziran]

yoshi's island, runners up would be the capcom backgrounds in their 2d fighters, especially the darkstalkers series.

 

[Ruzbeh]

The Dutch graphician Henk Nieborg have done some beautifully handpixelled graphics, it's a shame his talent got wasted on mediocre (at best) games, like:

Holy crap. Absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Scott]

SaGa Frontier II (PSOne)

Damn, it's hard to find good screens for this game...

 

[ourumov]

Second Impact's backgrounds are weaksauce compared to the original SF3. They removed so much animation and movement in 2I.

Well, in the pics I posted there are several New Generation backgrounds "Sagat and Adon" were removes in 2nd Impact and the ken stage was the yatch one, this one is Kyoto from New Generation...

 

[The Faceless Master]

 

[jiggle]

Maybe not the best, but my favorite

 

[wonderfuldays]

Nothing can compare with this~

 

[Rei_Toei]

Bahamut Lagoon:

Chrono Trigger:

Chrono Cross:

Symphony of the Night:

 

[GitarooMan]

Legend of Mana

 

[dark10x]

Astal had some pretty beautiful backgrounds as did Zwei!

Hard to find any decent pics, so I had to settle with these...

 

[Zer0]

apydia on amiga and the shooter from pygnosys with the owl

 

[BojTrek]

PS1 Oddworld games... loved those 2D games... Screw the most recent X-Box Stranger game...

 

[bob_arctor]

 

[Leatherface]

Nothing can compare with this~

I agree. This game still looks fucking great.

 

[djtiesto]

I wish I could find pics but I'm behind the work firewall - but the mushroom and underwater stages in Dragon Blaze are beautiful. I've always found Legend of Mana to be stunning as well, shame the game was horrible