Early 3d games that aged gracefully.

[Bam Neeley]

Most of the early(let's say pre-ps2) and earlier polygonal 3d games look horrible compared to the sprite based 2d games of the time.

The machines didn't have enough memory for detailed textures. The gpus could only handle low poly models with very simplistic lighting models and even then frame rates would be below 20s. And most importantly I think many developers fell into the "holy cow we can do realistic graphics now" and there was less diversity in art styles.

I'm going to name the most obvious example of Super Mario 64. Although blocky and blurry it still looks decent.

[DiBiase is Good]

Knight Lore and Head Over Heels. Both came out in the mid 80s and have aged very well.

[Doctor Of Style]

Mario Kart and Pilotwings come to mind. The SNES and N64 games are still playable today. I'd put Twisted Metal in there too. They didn't try to do too much too soon.

[Mozenrath]

In general, N64 games tend to hold up better than Saturn or Playstation for me.

[nickcave]

Tekken 3 still looks pretty good compared to what else was out.

[Mozenrath]

Dec 17, 2017 14:32:15 GMT -5 nickcave said:

Tekken 3 still looks pretty good compared to what else was out.

Good choice.

For another, I'd say FF8 holds up FAR better than FF7 visually. Like, I get why, it's more recent and with Square more familiar with the hardware, but given they're using the same console, it is still remarkable how big of a difference there is visually.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Super Mario 64.

[Deleted]

The overworld ones are... What you'd expect but honestly Final Fantasy 7's battle models have aged pretty well.

[BorneAgain]

I wouldn't say FFIX was early 3D, but its more caricatured art style means time has been a bit less rough on it than other JRPGs of the era.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Resident Evil 2 and 3 still look pretty decent.

[Jiren]

Honestly I think Soul Blade still looks (And Plays) pretty damn good

[Sephiroth]

You don’t like pyramid boobs?

[Cyno]

I think N64 games tended to age better because they had anti-aliasing. I personally find the jaggies a lot more distracting on PS1 games than N64 blurriness.

[Malcolm]

Crash Bandicoot 2 still looks pretty good. IMO it actually looks better than most N64 titles.

[Alice Syndrome]

The original Spyro Trilogy. In fact, thanks to their really well coded graphics engine I'd say they look better than any of the N64 platformers they were made to copy.

[Zone Was Wrong]

Final Fantasy 8 and Tactics

Metal Gear Solid

I can't tell if Goldeneye still holds up or is just too fun to play to judges.

[FinalGwen]

All 3 Crash games still look really good. They used some incredible techniques to get things to look right with the limited technology.

[Deleted]

This was a few years into the PS1 / N64 but I think Harvest Moon 64 and Back to Nature still look very good. Very basic certainly but it's a very charming, clean style, moreso Back to Nature where they got more involved in more complex areas and higher quality art for the portraits.

[Mozenrath]

The Mega Man Legends games still look decent, but I think that's due to art style. It isn't wowing, by any stretch, but they get away with it because of the kinda toy box feel the games have.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Dec 18, 2017 0:14:38 GMT -5 Cyno said:

I think N64 games tended to age better because they had anti-aliasing. I personally find the jaggies a lot more distracting on PS1 games than N64 blurriness.

Also, a lot of the more famous stuff on the PS1 went for more realistic styles that didn't hold up, whereas the N64's iconic games went for a more cartoonish and colorful style that has less taken away as the visuals aged.