SoleGoose 87 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 I know that this question has been asked and answered a lot over the years, but in your mind what are the most graphically impressive games for the NES? We've seen the rise of faux retro games, played and replayed the classics, and maybe found some oddities along the way, so perhaps your opinion has changed. I was really surprised by some of that stuff in the new "Pushing the Limits of the NES thread," so it's time to re-examine. Maybe it is not even one game, but a whole family of games. Capcom does it for me in that regard (Mega Man, Disney games, Little Nemo), whereas Square and Konami are too messy/detailed. Is it the colors, the presence of detail (or lack thereof), or composition of levels that do it for you? What about perspective? The NES was great for platformers, but what about overhead views? I found some images today that blew me away and that I had not see before (Chaos World). And then there are sub-screens like the map from Little Samson, or the stylized feel of Castlevania III. Enough from me, what say ye all? *Images are MORE than welcome. I have none, although I guess that this would be a good test to see how easy it is to upload images on VGS. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TylerBarnes 183 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 (edited) I guess I'll be the guy to instantly not follow the rules, lol. But the one thing that comes to mind for me personally when someone asks "Impressive things on the NES?" isn't a game but instead the Axelay tech demo by French dev, upsilandrehttp://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=186530 Edited October 24, 2019 by TylerBarnes 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen 4,415 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Everything about Castlevania III. I know it's a common answer, but the color palate, art style, even some effects are the finest on the NES even if it's not the tippiest top of what the NES can do technically. Gloomy reds and purples and blues and greens. It looks soooo good. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is amazing, it consistently makes me go "whoa, this is on NES" despite being one of the most classic titles. Very emotive characters and even in their fighting styles they have real personality. The same year, this static end screen is how these tiny characters showed emotion 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoleGoose 87 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Author Share Posted October 24, 2019 That Axelay demo is great. I had one fellow ask me "can you just do this?" and that was a hard NO. Too smart for me. CV3 is one that I need to play and fully appreciate. Impressive doesn't have to mean not said before, but also is it still impressive even after the hype? You bet for CV3, and many others. Thanks for posting images! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoleGoose 87 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Author Share Posted October 24, 2019 Side question, but what are some 2D platformers with hanging chandeliers (swinging or not)? I have something in mind, but can't figure out what it is. Chains are a requirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 141 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Batman Return of the Joker always comes to mind for me when this topic comes up. The sprite of Batman is almost 16 bit quality. Sticking with late-release Sunsoft titles, I think Mr Gimmick & Super Spy Hunter have some very impressive graphics. A few others I’ll add off the top of my head are Little Samson, Crisis Force, Isolated Warrior, Shatterhand, Kirby’s Adventure, & Mega Man 6. +1 for MTPO and CV3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRobot 4,978 Events Team · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 1 hour ago, TylerBarnes said: I guess I'll be the guy to instantly not follow the rules, lol. But the one thing that comes to mind for me personally when someone asks "Impressive things on the NES?" isn't a game but instead the Axelay tech demo by French dev, upsilandrehttp://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=186530 So dope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Br81zad 627 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 I've always loved the look of TMNT 3 Darkwing Duck is a stylish game that has great environments And as I mentioned in the other thread, Kirby blew me away when I first played it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doner24 1,073 Moderator · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Kirby and Sword Master for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleck586 263 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 That Axelay demo is insane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoleGoose 87 Member · Posted October 24, 2019 Author Share Posted October 24, 2019 I hate that Kirby was the first NES game that I owned after the pack-in Super Spike/World Cup. The childhood of a renter, it ruined me for everything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone 845 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Kirby's adventure. But there's still a lot of NES games for me to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlegamer 108 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 I'll nominate one is that isn't perhaps technically impressive, but is what I still think is among the best looking NES games: Super Mario Bros. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa 2,841 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 15 hours ago, Fleck586 said: That Axelay demo is insane Yeah, I wish he made it into an actual game. Even a short Blade Buster style game would have been awesome. I understand that he was just experimenting, it's all good, but that would have been legendary if it was realized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galdius 1,323 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 18 hours ago, TylerBarnes said: I guess I'll be the guy to instantly not follow the rules, lol. But the one thing that comes to mind for me personally when someone asks "Impressive things on the NES?" isn't a game but instead the Axelay tech demo by French dev, upsilandrehttp://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=186530 That's really cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s 3,220 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Little Samson looks like Super Mario World for SNES which is damn impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 1,671 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Ninja Gaiden 3 looks amazing. So much detail in the backgrounds as well as both vertical and horizontal scrolling and some parallax. And it throws a lot of stuff at you with no slowdown. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foochie776 908 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 19 hours ago, SoleGoose said: I hate that Kirby was the first NES game that I owned after the pack-in Super Spike/World Cup. The childhood of a renter, it ruined me for everything else. That would certainly do it. Kirby is gorgeous on NES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki 742 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 I've heard somewhere that Super Mario Bros. was originally intended to be the perfect cartridge game you could make on stock Famicom/NES hardware. Because after that Nintendo released the Famicom Disk System which introduced additional hardware performance. And not to mention the many MMCs that would alter be used. So from a modern perspective you could probably just list most MMC games, but back then SMB was state-of-the-art. Btw. @SoleGoose How did you come across Chaos World? It's such a rare and elusive game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 1,671 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 9 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said: I've heard somewhere that Super Mario Bros. was originally intended to be the perfect cartridge game you could make on stock Famicom/NES hardware. Because after that Nintendo released the Famicom Disk System which introduced additional hardware performance. And not to mention the many MMCs that would alter be used. So from a modern perspective you could probably just list most MMC games, but back then SMB was state-of-the-art. Btw. @SoleGoose How did you come across Chaos World? It's such a rare and elusive game. Super Mario Bros. is outstanding for a 1985 console release. It was one of the first games to feel like a more modern platformer as opposed to Donkey Kong and the like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoleGoose 87 Member · Posted October 25, 2019 Author Share Posted October 25, 2019 17 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said: I've heard somewhere that Super Mario Bros. was originally intended to be the perfect cartridge game you could make on stock Famicom/NES hardware. Because after that Nintendo released the Famicom Disk System which introduced additional hardware performance. And not to mention the many MMCs that would alter be used. So from a modern perspective you could probably just list most MMC games, but back then SMB was state-of-the-art. Btw. @SoleGoose How did you come across Chaos World? It's such a rare and elusive game. Yeah, by graphically impressive I meant graphically impressive in a subjective sense, not a technical one. There are a lot of MMC games that aren't impressive in any way from the player's perspective. SMB1 has very good use of color and well defined objects. I don't recall how I found out about Chaos World, either perusing files or ROMHacking.net. I'm always looking for new titles that I have not heard about (especially RPGs), often as the result of random image searches, and I keep files of interesting things that I find. Always looking for influences or ways to make a better game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRobot 4,978 Events Team · Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 (edited) Ima throw another homebrew out there. Lucky Penguin uses flickering to layer additional colors on the backgrounds. Pretty rad. http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=175732&StartRow=1 Edited October 26, 2019 by JamesRobot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ice1605 1 Member · Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 On 10/24/2019 at 12:38 PM, Strikezone1 said: A few others I’ll add off the top of my head are Little Samson, Crisis Force, Isolated Warrior, Shatterhand, Kirby’s Adventure, & Mega Man 6. +1 for Crisis Force. If you like shooters, it is well worth a look. There are some cool effects, even by the end of the first level (~2:45) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer 3,933 Member · Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 Gonna throw the OneBus and Vt03/09 technology stuff in this thread. For those that aren't aware of it, these are modified Famiclone technology allowing for better graphics and what not. https://cah4e3.shedevr.org.ru/dumping_2010.php Check out Shark, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja Warriors 86 Member · Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 On 10/24/2019 at 4:31 PM, doner24 said: Kirby and Sword Master for me. This. Sword Master really surprised me with how much of an improvement it is from Castle of Dragon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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