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[iffi]

In addition to what mankoon said, the art style should also be consistent with the gameplay so they complement each other. The art styles used in both Blazblue and Vanillaware's games both go well with the gameplay in my opinion. I don't think they would have been better games had they gone with a more "unique" style.
Seeing as there are many more screenshots from many more games here now, it doesn't even matter much to the topic of this thread anymore.

Anyway, here's another game, which many of you will probably recognize:

Machinarium. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet.

[Core Xii]

Revenge of the Titans

[pixhead]

how the flying fahooky did I forget about Limbo

[iffi]

So I was scrolling through the IGF finalists from past years...

Shank:


Pixeljunk Eden (or any other Pixeljunk game):


Castle Crashers (as well as The Behemoth's other games):


Blueberry Garden:


Cletus Clay:


Eufloria:


World of Goo:


Crayon Physics Deluxe:


Edit: Thanks to Melly's post on the "Desktop screenies!" thread, figured out that you can scale images down by putting [img width=700] instead of just [img].

[JaJitsu]

A Boy and his Blob remake had some incredible graphics

[Chris Z]

how the flying fahooky did I forget about Limbo

Limbo is 3D, the silhouette style and post processing hide it very well.  It's readily apparent in the change of perspective as objects scroll by or are manipulated.

[Ishi]

Arkedo Swap, colours to the face!



Critter Crunch, outstanding backdrops and animation.



Edit - and Braid, of course.

[Rosse]

Vector-ish, Another World ( http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/page_realisation.htm )


then, don't forget prerendered 3D. In the end, it's still 2D. And Donkey Kong Country looks unimaginable sexy on a CRT.


And hand-drawn graphics, resized, Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari. I remember Derek Yu posted a thread some time ago where he uploaded the original artwork. Yummy for the eyes!
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=319.0 | http://www.derekyu.com/images/extras/nanatsukaze/

(sorry for crappy screenshots, please look at the tigs-thread and enjoy the artwork)

[jwk5]

You just had to post a picture of Wario choking his chicken, didn't you?

[dudrenov]

Hmm. Muramasa animation seems really smooth. Does anyone have any idea how is Muramasa animated? Is it just high res sprites,  some skeleton system with some base polygons attached to it, or something else?

Seems like it would use quite a lot of mem if it's all high res sprites at a high frame rate.

[jwk5]

Hmm. Muramasa animation seems really smooth. Does anyone have any idea how is Muramasa animated? Is it just high res sprites,  some skeleton system with some base polygons attached to it, or something else?

Seems like it would use quite a lot of mem if it's all high res sprites at a high frame rate.

Pretty much the same way as Odin Sphere. You can see from this sprite sheet that the characters are made up of pieces that are moved (or scaled) indivudually.

[pixhead]

Limbo is 3D, the silhouette style and post processing hide it very well.  It's readily apparent in the change of perspective as objects scroll by or are manipulated.

Seriously! I had no idea, that makes me respect the game even more.

[namre]

Saw this a few days ago. Loved the artstyle.

Dust: An Elysian Tale

[Xion]

then, don't forget prerendered 3D. In the end, it's still 2D. And Donkey Kong Country looks unimaginable sexy on a CRT.

forgive me but I've always found prerendered 3d - and especially the donkey kong country series - to be completely disgusting looking. Ugh, look at all that plastic. Probably one of the few games I could never get into primarily because of the graphics.

[iffi]

Dustforce:

[Ishi]

Limbo is 3D, the silhouette style and post processing hide it very well.  It's readily apparent in the change of perspective as objects scroll by or are manipulated.

Seriously! I had no idea, that makes me respect the game even more.

A couple of elements are 3D but largely it's all flat 2D polys which is no different to any 2D game these days. Cogs, trees, spider, grass, boxes, you never see them rotating as if they're actually 3D.

[Melly]

Some people didn't notice the thread is for 2D non-pixel graphics (excepting the ones that didn't know the games were just cleverly hidden 3D, like Limbo). Though I'd say mixes of 2D/3D fit as well.

Odin Sphere and Muramasa both look amazing, and the skeletal system animations actually look really good as well. Both games feel like a pop-up storybook come to life, and the level of detail on sprites wouldn't be practical if not for that animation style.

Dust: An Elysian Tale also looks amazing. You guys have to see it in motion. Ridiculously smooth.

Damnit I can't remember any new games right now. I'll keep this thread in mind for when I see them.

[J. R. Hill]

Windosill is the most spectacular vector-rendering game I can think of.

[Türbo Bröther]

With a good art direction and hardware that can support the colour count pre-rendered sprites actually can look good:




(clockwise from top left): Dragon Blaze, Gunbird 2, Space Bomber, Strikers 1945 III.

[namre]

Dust: An Elysian Tale also looks amazing. You guys have to see it in motion. Ridiculously smooth.

Yeah, was so amazed when I saw the video. This is something I wish to create someday. :D Gotta brush up on my drawing!