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[Farbs]

I don't like any specific styles, I just like games that are visually distinct. Usually this means they're non-photorealistic, however even a pr game can hit this mark with strong art direction.

[KennEH!]

I like vibrant colors and high contrast (as found in cel-shading, but also in pixel art), exaggerated proportions, smooth lines and curves, sharp angles and straight lines (either/or, that is), unified palettes, and spontaneity in design.

Loved the looks of Jet Grind Radio, Wind Waker, Metroid: Zero Mission, Viewtiful Joe, Pikmin, Viva Pinata, and No More Heroes.

<3 Ditto

[FishyBoy]

I like vibrant colors and high contrast (as found in cel-shading, but also in pixel art), exaggerated proportions, smooth lines and curves, sharp angles and straight lines (either/or, that is), unified palettes, and spontaneity in design.

Loved the looks of Jet Grind Radio, Wind Waker, Metroid: Zero Mission, Viewtiful Joe, Pikmin, Viva Pinata, and No More Heroes.

<3 Ditto

[chris]

generally, I'm not fond of realistic graphics/style. However I also believe that a game doesnt have to be ideally artistic/styalized to be a good game.. it just helps (and then some).

I like things which are highly stylized, which have their own unique style, something different from the norm.
I like the games art to have consistency. a colour palate to match the games mood.
I like it when you can think of a game, and recall the style as one of your favorite things.(REZ, warning forever,etc)
Although having said this, if the games style isnt all that appealing to you, it could put you off a decent game (TWEWY).

Just pondering, realistic games usually involve sports, war, driving. It would be interesting to see some (or more) highly stylized abstract artistic sports, war, driving games and on that note, it might also be nice to see some realistic yet abstract concepts in games. Not entirely sure what I mean here, but I'm thinking ultra realistic versions of harvest moon / pokemon / super monkey ball....

[Corpus]

I like vibrant colors and high contrast (as found in cel-shading, but also in pixel art), exaggerated proportions, smooth lines and curves, sharp angles and straight lines (either/or, that is), unified palettes, and spontaneity in design.

Loved the looks of Jet Grind Radio, Wind Waker, Metroid: Zero Mission, Viewtiful Joe, Pikmin, Viva Pinata, and No More Heroes.

<3 Ditto

[GregWS]

Wildly underused in games, but I gotta say it: stop motion photography! (like that MM video I posted.)

In terms of more common things, well, hmmm...  I think photorealism shouldn't be used as much as it is, though there are acceptable times for it; games with a strong connection to reality like MGS for example.  I love "digital" graphics like Rez and the Zone mode in recent Wipeout games; in some ways the Zone mode is better than the regular one graphically because it's not trying to be real, and is thus a lot more effective.  Cell shading can fall into this "digital" style too I think.

I also like hand drawn games (and am working on one myself), and I think ultra-low-res graphics (think Gamma 256) are great too; they don't have the problems of "trying to be NES" that rinku described, and their colour palettes are usually quite enjoyable.

[Grundislav]

I get the feeling I might be in the minority here, but I have a soft spot for the art style of the old Sierra adventure games from around the early 90s, when the norm was to have digitized paintings as backgrounds with rotoscoped sprites.  Something about all that dithering and pixellated detail just feels so right, and it's a feeling I've always wanted to recreate in my own games.  Too bad the process is too much work to do alone!

As far as modern games go, it depends on the game.  Photorealistic works for games based on reality, as architekt said, while more cartoony or cel shaded graphics work better for less serious games. 

[isaac]

I also like rotoscoping, particularly in the LoTR animated film by Ralph Bakshi. However, I've never yet seen rotoscoping in a game, so perhaps this doesn't count.

Uh. Rotoscoping is just animation that happens to look horrible.

And yeh, all big budget games use motion capture which is just rotoscoping in 3d.

[Xion]

No, rotoscoping can look cool.
Mo-cap always looks terrible.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

hmm, i'd say rotoscoping isn't just motion capture, it's when you *draw* sprites based on motion capture. using 3d models animated by motion capture isn't the same thing as drawing them based on the motion capture.

[Lucaz]

Vector, vector-like is nice. Simple, with flat colors, works nice. Anything similar to Yoshi's Island is great, slightly crayon looking, soft colors. I like low polygon graphics, and I mean LOW. Alone in the Dark low.

Rotoscoping looks awesome, like in Prince of Persia and Flashback. Although it'd be nice to see more varied uses of it.

I get the feeling I might be in the minority here, but I have a soft spot for the art style of the old Sierra adventure games from around the early 90s, when the norm was to have digitized paintings as backgrounds with rotoscoped sprites.  Something about all that dithering and pixellated detail just feels so right, and it's a feeling I've always wanted to recreate in my own games.  Too bad the process is too much work to do alone!

[Türbo Bröther]

Cell shading, bitches.

Cell shading, bitches.

[Türbo Bröther]

Also voxels at low resolutions, at 320x200 or something. I find the chunkiness of voxels really appealing.

[William Broom]

I like cel shading when everything is cel shaded, like in Okami or Wind Waker (I think... it's been a while since I played it). I get disappointed by most cel-shaded games because they leave the background in normal 3D style. I suppose the reason they do it is to distinguish the important objects better, and also to emulate the classic Disney style with cels on top of painted backgrounds. But I still like it better when it's all cel-shaded.

[Biggerfish]

I honestly don't know why some styles appeal to me more than others. I mean, I know I like simplicity in designs, when things have a
"clean" look, which could be anything from glowing vectors to non-textured 3d models. I like what I like, I guess (which is the cheap way out) and feel that everyone's opinions will just be based on their past experiences and what not, and may not always be easily definable.

[Hajo]

Yuck, that'll be some work to extract all the ideas! After skimming over all the responses, the biggest common idea seems to be a wish for novelty, and distinctness.

Thanks for all the responses!

[increpare]

I think photorealism shouldn't be used as much as it is, though there are acceptable times for it; games with a strong connection to reality like MGS for example. 

I don't think games have quite achieved photorealistic levels yet...

[Kekskiller]

I think I do like everything that bases on complex light and shadow calculations - independent from textures, colors or other effects. Even if its only a static lightmap... Sometimes strong contrasts are also important for me - increases visibility. Call me a light bitch.

I think cel-shading is mostly used wrong - we could make sooo awesome-looking games if everything would look like Windwaker.

[increpare]

I think I do like everything that bases on complex light and shadow calculations - independent from textures, colors or other effects. Even if its only a static lightmap... Sometimes strong contrasts are also important for me - increases visibility. Call me a chiaroscuro bitch.

[Adamski]

If it's Game art I like what ever style suits a game the most. For concept art I love the work of artists like Mary Blair and Shag.

=  for me.