Beautiful not just in terms of pixels & resolution *cough Crysis cough COD cough Battlefield, but in an artistic way that makes the game age well together with time.


YuYu Hakusho (SFC)

2D animation based make it looks like watching the show. Still one of the prettiest 2D games out there.




Dragonball Z: Super Saiyan Densetsu (SFC)

Another 2D RPG with emphasis on cartoon like sequences.


Patlabor (SFC)

Most people probably never heard about it. Another game focusing on cartoon like sequences.




King of Fighters 98 (Arcade)

Maybe not as high res as recent releases, it's one of the last true KOF games that retains it's unique art. 99-01 may still retain the drawing style but loses out with their mediocre level designs.




Last Blade 1 & 2 (Arcade)

One of the more underrated titles out there. Yet one of the most beautiful game Neo Geo ever created. The game somehow creates the atmosphere of 2 samurais dueling each other, compared to the Gungho Samurai Spirits, you can say one is fine wine the other german beer.




Metal Slug 1-7

Even up until today, the latest release still looks the same as the 1st title shows how great it looks in 2D sprites.


Lucky And Wild (Arcade)

While not considered artistic. It's quite colorful & fun to watch compared to other aged shooter & driving simulators.


Super Street Fighter 2 X/Turbo (Arcade)

The last true Street Fighter that followed it's original design with much improvements. This game still looks more beautiful compared to Street Fighter IV. Back when 3D & High resolution are overrated. It has the most beautiful Chun Li in the franchise.




Silent Hill 3 (PC)

Over a decade old, this game still has amazing graphics, esp on 1080p. Seems the creators designed it for future hardware. It has one of the most realistic facial expression, done by hand when facial motion tracker weren't common. Still the best looking Silent Hill up to date.




Resident Evil 1 Remake (Gamecube)

Pretty old 3D game but still one of the spookiest & artistic game out there, similar artwork along with RE Zero & Chronicles. Jill still looks great even in low resolution.




Hitman Absolution (PC)

Modern graphic engine & effects with an extra fine touch of art. Every snapshots looks like a concept art more than a 3D game. Something that won't look dated with time.

warning: 1080p




These are what i can think of on top of my head at the moment. As you can see there's only 1 modern games in the list which is Hitman Absolution. Most modern games just emphasize on high res, fancy bloom, realistic view & ignore making their own artistic views, and as a result won't age as well compared to those that do.

Forgot to mention there's a few Ipad games that looks really unique. one of those is the black & white game.

inb4 ifags.

Only the 2D version.

if you say contra it should be the arcade version that looks better. Contra 1 or 2?

Looks like crab even though it may have looked good back in it's prime days...

it may be fun be never saw it as beautiful or artistic.

just fancy polygons & colors.

nice game but no where beautiful.

what game is this? looks like Chinese dynasty.

i would say fear 3 is more beautiful in terms of arts & design. fear 1 was scary but nothing special.

Far Cry was the most advance graphic game in it's time. Like the colors of the sun & sea, but Crysis inherited those pretty good.

it's pretty nice when it was launched. But nowadays it looks just like another fancy high polygon game.

the people don't look realistic nor artistic except the fat guy, most looks like plastic. if you compare the disco area with other games like Hitman already lose. Hitman selling point is not high polygons but the artistic grain effects they added.

Yea forgot about it. The blue & white tone is very special.

Another game with similar tone is Portal 1 & 2, but more closed areas so not as eye opening as Mirror's Edge.

Don't forget Slam Dunk 1 & 2 for SFC. Makes the anime looks lame.

Dragonball RPG for SFC has alot of animation, it's coolness is similar to Hakusho.

But I beg to differ by saying games get more & more beautiful. Notice the only modern game i listed is Hitman Absolution? Because it's truly an unique looking game. If you look at Modern Warfare 3, sure it has some good Contrast but overall all the designs just mediocre at best. Their main selling point is the title itself, the texture are low res & boring, characters look like any C rated CG, same goes for Battlefield 3 (but with more fancy Bloom & High Res), if you leave High res out, there are many older games that are more beautiful than many of the current games. Silent Hill 3 is a good example.

reminds me of paper mario, another evergreen game.

Howbout Blade Runner 1997? Many people say it looks beautiful.

this discussion is more about beautifulness not gameplay & evolution.

but the shower scene doesn't look any smexy at all, even with bare chest... the club scene was pretty close but alas they had to make the girl succeed in subduing the guy...

Guess you only judge beauty by it's advance visual effects & polygons then.

No need to be here then.

There's a reason why old paintings still look better than newer ones even though paints & paper has improved alot since back then.

Street Fighter 2 still looks better than Super Street Fighter IV even though SSFIV is much superior in terms of fighting.