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[basementApe]

It's not just the aspect of "sport" which entices some people to work within limitations. It's an oft-used adage that limtitations breed creativity, and many artists would agree with it. Many iconic character designs were born of memory limitations that restricted the artist's available palette, the most famous being Mario. Composers had few sound channels and only chip sounds, or low quality samples, which forced the crafting of strong, memorable melodies. These have mostly been lost in non-indie modern titles, with their filmy orchestral bombast. And limitations fed into the game design itself; this is mentioned in the Shovel Knight post, where the developers kept the sprite count low - originally a NES restriction - which contributed to the distilled purity of the gameplay, then and now.

One thing does annoy me about retro-fetishism, and it's that designers are liable to eschew innovation in favour of nostalgia: they'd sooner recreate the past, than simply borrow from the past in creating something original.

I agree with all of that. I dig pixel art precisely because the limitations drive you to discover creative solutions. You got a limited canvas of pixels and a limited amount of colors to work with, so you really need to put an effort into squeezing the maximum amount of value out of them. Due to this, (good) pixel art has an economy and level of clarity that I haven't really seen in any other art form. Very pure when done right.

The nostalgia bit is incidental, and the retro label can go fuck itself.

[Torchkas]

wtf your game isn't retro when it's made in 2013 dude... 

[Canned Turkey]

@Torchkas
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=define+retro

What year it's made has nothing to do with how retro it is.

[Torchkas]

my point stands

btw, what's the opposite of retro?

[ProgramGamer]

futuristic

[Torchkas]

wrong

[basementApe]

Um, maybe I should clarify what I meant. I don't oppose the term retro itself or anything. I think it's valid to use for anything that tries to evoke the aesthetics or feel of a bygone era. But it irks me a little when pixel art per se is automatically categorized (and sometimes dismissed) as retro. It's a misnomer, like claiming all oil paintings are inherently 'retro' just because painting with oils has been around for so long.

[Canned Turkey]

Good point bringing up oil painting, that explains it well.
Retro is a style, not a medium.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

pixel art isn't automatically categorized as retro.
Metal slug,sf3rd,mercenary kings,phantom breaker & more ,aren't retro yet.
i wonder if Lisa is considered as retro.


as Canned turkey said, retro is a style and pixel art is a medium.

i tend to think that retro is just a term used by people to justify the mediocrity of their game.

[s0]

wat? mercenary kings, which rips off metal slug, is as retro as fuck. everything about metal slug's visual style screams 90s arcade game.

also i think a LOT of pixel art in modern games does look retro (as in, purposefully imitates old games). an example of non-retro pixel art would be something like sword & sworcery and the style it popularized with thin legs and square torsos etc.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

Metal slug is retro because it's an old game. Its art and gameplay is timeless. but yeah i agree with what you said.
 
the reason i quote those games is because a lot of modern game with pixel graphics are just fucking ugly, and they look retro because of that reason.

Sword & Sworcery is indeed a good example of modern non retro pixel-art and it spawned some other gems with a similar style.

I think that amongst Tigsource members , Raku is a good example of retro game done well. His work reminds me of the 90's anime + game in a nostalgic way.

[Torchkas]

I don't oppose the term retro itself or anything. I think it's valid to use for anything that tries to evoke the aesthetics or feel of a bygone era.

I think you should only call something retro when it succeeds to evoke the feel of a bygone era.

And if you ask me, when I'm playing a game on my 16:9 1080p LED screen with a DS3 controller I don't really feel it. Don't get me wrong, I think that if you're truly interested in old games and the way they did things that you can use that to your advantage really well (FEZ, Super Meatboy). It's a lot more personal there, but to tack on things just because it might feel retro is something nobody should do.
It's why I don't like those CRT filters, it's okay if you disagree with me.

Retro is a style, not a medium.

Yeah, and a style doesn't necessarily bring limits along with it. You can do whatever you want with oil paint, just like you can do whatever you want with pixel art. "Retro" is just completely ill defined because the definition constantly changes (unlike oil paint). I'm pretty sure that Half-Life and Ocarina of Time are considered retro by quite a few adults at this point.

I'm sorry if I was being a bit too cheeky in those posts I made by the way, these kinds of topics just get me worked up like that for some reason.

[s0]

I don't think "retro" is a synonym for "old" (even tho people sometimes use it to mean that). retro to me is imitating old styles and trying to evoke a past era. half life and OOT are the opposite of retro: both were cutting edge and considered groundbreaking when they came out. shovel knight is retro.

[basementApe]

And if you ask me, when I'm playing a game on my 16:9 1080p LED screen with a DS3 controller I don't really feel it. Don't get me wrong, I think that if you're truly interested in old games and the way they did things that you can use that to your advantage really well (FEZ, Super Meatboy). It's a lot more personal there, but to tack on things just because it might feel retro is something nobody should do.

I agree with this...

It's why I don't like those CRT filters, it's okay if you disagree with me.

... and not with this CRT filters can be used to support certain moods (tho I admit nostalgic throwback is probably chief among them) like in a scifi or cyberpunk setting. They can also be a good way to appease people who get freaked out by big chunky pixels, while sidestepping the claytastic look of regular smoothing filters.

[starsrift]

Real retro games are text games or ASCII graphics.

You guys with your color and pixels are too avante garde to be retro.

[Sik]

OXO had graphics and it's from 1952. Don't come tell me you have to lack graphics to be truly retro (・＿・)

[MeshGearFox]

retro
john blow
trudeau
retraux

come and be my Tyrolean stallion toniiiiiiiiiiiight

[ProgramGamer]

Are john blow and trudeau even different people?

[MeshGearFox]

also i meant jonathan "the braid" blow, not the other john blow you get if you google

speaking of google

[Shysteria]

Retro only means imitative of a style. For example, if a game has 4 colors and pixel art, you can say that it is imitative of the Gameboy era.

I don't think "retro" is a synonym for "old" (even tho people sometimes use it to mean that). retro to me is imitating old styles and trying to evoke a past era. half life and OOT are the opposite of retro: both were cutting edge and considered groundbreaking when they came out. shovel knight is retro.

Well said.

as Canned turkey said, retro is a style and pixel art is a medium.

i tend to think that retro is just a term used by people to justify the mediocrity of their game.

It is troubling if that is the case. But a lot of people tend to think that games are mediocre merely because they even use pixel art in the first place.