Which gen’s graphics have held up the best over time?

I would have to go with the SNES/genesis era. Those old sprite based games still look decent by today’s standards imo. Especially when contrasted with the shaky low res 3d visuals of the PSX. N64 holds up slightly better, but just barely.

Agree. As a (wannabe) pixel artist myself, I cannot help but gush at Final Fantasy VI every time I play it.

Yeah you have a point. Though imo cel shaded ( or cartoony like games in general ) games aged even better as a whole 16-bit era aged the best because of the reasons you mentioned.

16bit.The reason indies gravitate towards it.

Yeah I would say the 16-bit era as well. I can pretty easily go back and play many SNES games and enjoy them well enough.

Can't argue with SNES era. I'm playing through Secret of Mana right now(on the SNES Mini), and am super impressed with the graphics despite it being so old. The mannerisms when fights are won, the weapon animations, the environments, even the way your hair flips around when you walk--it's all great looking. And then there's games like Super Metroid, which is one of the best looking games ever imo. Great era.

16 bit era.

32-bit era... specifically the 2D games, not the 3D games. At the time, Sega got flak for focusing on 2D with the Saturn. And yet the Saturn's 2D library (though mostly exclusive to Japan) has aged the best graphically. Whereas the early 3D graphics of that era have aged horribly.

The console libraries that have aged the best graphically:

1. Sega Saturn (2D) (32-bit era)
2. PS1 (2D) (32-bit era)
3. Neo Geo (16-bit era)
4. Sega Mega Drive / SNES / PC Engine (16-bit era)

Yes - they've aged better than their successor: The PS1.

But at that time, people on this forum would have asserted that the PS1 was superior - and they would have been wrong.

agreed, FFVI is probably my favorite in the series, and the spell effects were amazing considering the hardware it was running on. Especially Merton/Ultima

SNES since it's the peak of pixel graphics

@toonlonk:

I totally agree

I still absolutely love the look of 16-bit games, so that would get my vote. Personally, I appreciate the unique graphical look of every generation from the Atari 2600 until now. They all have a certain charm to them. The only one that is a little rough for me are 3D games on the PS1. I have no issues with and am actually quite fond of the N64's graphics though.

Octopath looks so dope.

It's a classic sprite RPG made in Unreal Engine 4. SNES flavour with a modern twist. I jizzed myself when I saw the trailer.

16-bit jizz particles...

2D games aged the best, with 16 bit arguably being the peak, but 2D games from other gens mostly still hold up. A great 2D game is still a great 2D game.

Early 3D games aged the worst, so many of them are basically unplayable due to bad camera or wonky controls.

For me? Strategy games usually look good regardless of era or whether they're 3D or 2D.

@jun_aka_pekto: I miss you C&C.

I would say 8th gen.

16 bit gen IMO. Especially the SNES. That stuff still looks great.

No generation. All well designed graphics stand the test of time.

16bit era for me too. 2D pixelart never gets old to me.

On the other hand, i can't enjoy early 3D games anymore (5th and especially 6th gen). Not only visuals, but also mechanics, animations, pop up, framerates at low 20s, etc.

As a Retro gamer, 16 bit gen will always triumph!!!

16-bit, 2D graphics were the evolution of 20-30 years of industry experience.

It makes sense that they hold up much better than subsequent console generations where we had only begun to experiment with 3D.

I agree with all the comments about the 16-bit games, though I'd throw the GBA in there too. That system had some really nice sprite work. Even the GBC had some nice looking sprites (the classic Pokemon games come to mind).

Yeah, 16-bit still looks great.

Other than that, I think both GameCube and Xbox had great looking 3D games that still look good today. Wind Waker and Ninja Gaiden, for example. PS2, not so much. Too many jaggies.

Snes easy!

PS1 games for me..... I know they have warping and stuff but there's just something about the way they look that I still adore to this day.

N64.

This is a dope thread! Yeah, certainly would have to agree with the 16-bit era, the SNES being the most impressive. Although we had Turbo Grafix 16 and Neo Geo consoles which were far superior to the SNES on paper. However, nothing could match the 6 button layout on the SNES (I still argue that the SNES was built with Street Fighter 2 in mind), and at the price point games such as MK3 looked marginally inferior to the copy on the PS1 at the time. Furthermore, the replay value on the SNES far exceeds any other console generation.

OG Xbox.... especially when Enhanced for 4K MonsterBox..... Superb I tellz ya. :P

The PC

For the most part, the PS1 graphics look like garbage nowadays. However, one of the games that still looks good & always will is Abe's Exodus. I love the graphics in that.