What happened to 2d gaming?

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demon angel

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I remember a time when people would ask what 2d specs a ps and sega saturn had, and have such fond memories of this era in gaming.
A great 2d game like street fighter alpha 2 would have people foaming at the mouth alongside 3d hits like tekken,virtua fighter.

Are we being spoilt like brats with the current batch of consoles [im including wii]?absolutely!

Will these technically brilliant new games be remembered in 10 years?
I remember as a teen how i looked at a console as a game machine and didnt give a rats ass about specs [Although the super nintendo's slow cpu did give me sleepless nights againsed my megadrive owning mates].

Today owning many of these machines, i can't help but think of the xbox360/ps3 as technical marvels that have pc's built inside.
So nowadays to me a ps1 looks like a dinosaur and a sega saturn a 2d powerhouse with ancient cd-loading technology.
My feeling on these consoles are ruined due to technology being the key factor!
Nintendo wii will age as quick as a 50yr old smoker!
Think about it, the wii remote although revolutionary,will be a silly gimmick
in a few years, available in all garage sales[including the current batch of next gen consoles]

My first console was the nes.
Today powering up a nes fossil would be a waste of valuable South African electricity because cell phones possess more power....

My point is games are not what they were and if they dont knock a
young gamers socks off,they get binned.
Glad the nintendo ds is doing so well as feel it is gamings last hope for 2d.

Something is wrong and i can't put my finger on it.
So now i own a relatively modern core 2 duo pc with plenty ram to play
all those dead consoles.
PC is in a different league compared to consoles with all those emulators
available and a ps2 emulator getting more promising month to month.
The pc revives the dead era and i have all the roms knowing its not legal
to have unless you have the cartridge.

Whats my excuse?Im helping the environment by not keeping all that toxic plastic and saving energy by not powering up all the old consoles.[A waste]
I think i will sell my current gen consoles and focus on emus and for hi-tech
the pc will be perfect as age for a pc is merely hardware, as opposed to dumping a console and the legacy it leaves behind.

OLD SCHOOL FOREVER[AND GTA4 NOW AND THEN]
 
Who cares for 2D technology when there is 3D which is has more of the "Wow" factor?
 
I guess people just don't have enough imagination. They focus more on graphics instead of looking at core gameplay. For example - I've played many MMOs, but recently started playing Anarchy Online. The game was released around 2001, so the graphics are pretty darn bad to be honest, but the gameplay is so detailed and "intelligent" compared to the grind of many other MMOs out there that it still has many players today.

I miss playing games for the fun of it, not because everyone else is playing it or it looks pretty.
 
well, i agree in some area's. I think 2d games are just dead, but then we can focus on what they had that few games nowadays have, the fun factor.

don't get me wrong, i like owning zombies and head crabs with amazing graphics, but honestly, games aren't fun anymore. I find that they make you do things which may seem boring and the fact that they are always annoying in the way that you either gotta kill tons of people or do some sort of puzzle in order to advance...

what happened to the games that were simulating and not blood baths?
 
Maybe the nes,snes and megadrive[and before] core group were "raised" with gameplay before graphics mindsets.

I dont know if the ps2 and xbox360 current gen group would play those games,based primarily on their primative graphics.
My cousins are the new gen and they wont touch an old console because the games look horrible.

Remember scorched earth?
In 2000 that game made a comeback and my pals and i played that simple game without sleeping many weekends!

We had N64 and ps1's yet that game snatched most of our time.
There was no VISIBLE "WOW" factor but underneath that crappy looking simple game was the "holy grail" of why we play games.....[Together,to be better and for the damn fun of it]

Twisted metal 2 is another example of genius.
Back then the games graphics sucked yet it was highly addictive.
IM GONNA BUY ANOTHER PS2 JUST FOR HEAD ON!
 
Actually I disagree, I think you're just not looking in the right place ;)

There's a c@rp ton of 2D games on XBLA, I can't even list all the good ones:
Alien Hominid, GeoWars, CLoning Clyde, Small Arms, Assault Hero's, Omega 5, Ikaruga etc etc, they play old school, but look up to date. Then there's the tons are retro Arcadr titles that ARE those old 2D gem.

PSN, you have Flow, pixeljunk Monsters etc etc.

And PC wise, just surf around, there's some absolutely brilliant 2D flash games out there.

Then there's still the new 2.5D titles coming out this year, Like Street Fighter 4.

2D isn't dead, it just moved from the mainstream mall to the niche boutique down the road ;)
 
I agree with rainy. Games like myst and Riven doesn't have a dated feel since it's art. I'd rather play a 2d game, if I go for looks, than all of these 3d games which' s texels look like that of a kids drawing compared to the 2d counterpart.



although: I read that heroes of might and magic 6 will be released as a browser only game! Which means its back to the 2d again. Hope they make good 4 their past mistakes.
 
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Good stuff Rainy,
as an artist looking good doesnt have to be 3d.parallax scolling and beautiful animation can hold its own in my opinion.
Yes 2d games still get released but where has the passion gone?
When last did you hear a developer say "We really pushed this console to the limit with it's 1700 layers of scrolling and 25000 onscreen characters holding diamonds!"

I would love another chrono trigger game in glorious 2d on mainstream consoles.
And for any genre to survive you have to raise the bar.
 
plenty of new 2d games out there you're just not looking right.....

King of Fighters XII will probably have the best 2d graphics since Street Fighter 3 Third Strike.

there are doujin games which are jap indy PC games....... plenty of good 2d games....
not to mention MAME which makes a lot of classic 2d games playable if It weren't for emulation I would never be able to play the great snes donkey kong country games

Also the new bionic commando is being released in 2d and 3d..... ghouls and ghosts for psp.... etc, etc
Nothing like playing metal slug in the arcade with just a few credits

I also think that new super mario brothers was one of the best games I played the whole year, even though some didn't like it, DS is mostly 2d...... even metacritc rated it quite highly

try reading sites like

www.the-magicbox.com
www.insertcredit.com]

etc, etc

ever heard of odin sphere?
 
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I still prefer playing the top down 2D view GTA. I don't like the 3D one at all. Thought they had a brilliant concept and then ruined it with going to 3D. But apparently I'm wrong *looks at their sales figures*
 
*looks around for his copy of zork* now that was a game that made the imagination run wild.

On the topic of gfx, I can't remember who said it (The guy who said they weren't going to make games for the Wii because he wasn't going backwards in technology), but he had a good point. He said gfx just grab your attention enough to buy the game these days, after that its down to good game play to keep you playing.

I still play some of the old 2d games when I have time to get them working, nothing as addictive as those :P
 
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