Greg Kasavin Executive Editor

Now Playing: Ragnarok Online (PC), Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (GBA)

Down to Two Dimensions

Back in the mid-'90s, I imported a Sony PlayStation within days of the system's release in Japan. To afford this investment, which cost me nearly $1,000 what with all the games and accessories I wanted along with the machine, I sold my NeoGeo and all its games. (Later, however, I bought most of this back.) In turn, I originally bought the NeoGeo mostly from money I earned from selling my Super Nintendo Entertainment System and all my games for that system. And, of course, I bought my SNES with money I earned from trading in my Nintendo Entertainment System and all those games. I acquired a number of other game systems on the side, but, in retrospect, I'd say I put this particular chunk of money to good use over time. And while I still have that old first-generation PlayStation--and it still works great--it reminds me of how mixed my feelings were in giving up the ultimate 2D game system for the ultimate 3D game system. I think most any longtime game player has a soft spot for hand-drawn 2D graphics, and recently, I was reminded that 3D polygonal graphics still haven't entirely surpassed 2D game art.

My favorite video game artwork all comes from 2D games, like Samurai Shodown II.

I'm honestly surprised at this. Though I was first in line for a PlayStation, I was at least somewhat reluctant about the shift from 2D to 3D that it represented. Latter-day SNES games, like Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger, just looked so good with their expressive, smoothly animated, highly detailed 2D sprites. Yet the PlayStation and, to a lesser extent, the Sega Saturn boasted characters and objects that seemed like you could reach out and touch them. That was the difference. 2D gaming had subtlety, while 3D gaming had texture. I always held out some hope that, well, it would just be a few more years before all the best aspects of 2D gaming were appropriated by the new 3D gaming systems out there. I needed to think this, after all, because 2D gaming essentially died along with arcades. Many of my favorite game series transitioned from 2D to 3D--we're talking everything from Mario to Mortal Kombat--and there was clearly no turning back.

Ironically, the popularity of the Game Boy Advance, along with the rising popularity of mobile gaming, is causing a 2D renaissance of sorts. Despite the radical advancements to polygonal graphics that we've seen during the past few years, there's something about sprite-based graphics that can still be immensely appealing.

Ragnarok Online looks nothing like all the EverQuest knockoffs out there, and this plays a big part in its appeal.

The graphics found in 2D fighting games always impressed me most of all. I memorized what seemed like every pixel on every character in games like Street Fighter II and Samurai Shodown and was astounded at how the artists working on those games could capture such a sense of each respective character's power and personality with just a pixel here and a pixel there. I was blown away by how these immensely popular characters, like King of Fighters' Iori or Street Fighter II's Ryu, displayed facial expressions that were really nothing more than a few well-placed dots. Likewise, their attacks would consist of exactly the right number of frames of animation to make them appear powerful and distinct.

My problem with 3D graphics in games--and it's always been my problem with 3D graphics in games--is that they're unedited. You can often view the action from any angle, and frames of animation are typically never skipped. In a way, then, I think the cinematic power of gaming almost took a step back with the transition from 2D to 3D. 2D game characters are displayed precisely how the artist chooses to display them to you. There is no extraneous frame of animation to be found. 3D game characters, meanwhile, are yours to control, so you may rotate them and view them from whichever unflattering angle you like.

I mostly gave up on playing platformers when they went from 2D to 3D. I felt like they all lost their souls.

When you watch a movie, you don't question the fact that the movie is a series of carefully contrived camera shots. You typically don't find yourself wishing you could see the action from another perspective. You don't dream of rotating the scene to your desired angle or anything like that. Or if you do find yourself wishing these things, it's hopefully because that's exactly what the movie director wants you to be feeling, such as during a claustrophobic scene in a horror movie. I equate 2D game graphics to this sort of model. They are purely intentional. Every little detail that's put into 2D art is meant to be seen, whereas with 3D graphics, some of the angles, perspectives, animations, and effects may be incidental or accidental.

For a variety of reasons, I've been playing a lot of 2D games again lately. I'm playing the classic Super Mario World on my Game Boy Advance, which I maintain is far superior to any of the 3D Mario games. I'm playing Ragnarok Online, a charming online role-playing game whose visual style is ripped straight from Final Fantasy Tactics. And after hours at the office, I'm playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 with Jeff, gradually regaining my long-lost skills. I'm also itching to spend more time with Metal Slug 3 on my Xbox. These games have collectively proven to be a refreshing change of pace, even from some of the truly great polygonal games I've played lately.

I still think 2D games handle collision detection (or the interaction between two characters or objects) better than 3D games do, on average. And having good collision detection is one of the most fundamentally important aspects of just about any game. Likewise, I think 2D game characters still have the capacity to display more-lifelike emotions than 3D game characters do.

Maybe "lifelike" isn't the best choice of a word. 3D graphics can certainly look more lifelike than 2D graphics can. Motion-capture technology allows for animation that looks flat-out human. But when I play games, I don't necessarily want to see anything mundane. I prefer exaggerated or otherwise imaginative looks to my games, so I don't think it's coincidental that some of the most memorable-looking, best-looking games I've ever played feature 2D artwork. I'm also glad to have realized lately that, much as I suspected a decade ago, 2D graphics will never completely go out of style.