Video games have been around for a long time now. What you might consider to be a childhood game is now thought of as a retro title. Sheesh. The passage of time comes for all of us, and all that. While some games show their age and end up needing remakes to appeal to a modern audience, other games hide how old they are remarkably well.
In most cases, this is because the game developers opted for stylized graphics, rather than aiming for ‘realistic’ ones. (I say ‘realistic’, because let’s be real, what counted for realism back in the ‘90s and 2000s isnotrealistic by today’s standards.) These stylised games have managed to stave off any signs of ageing and can easily be played today.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a classic case of a heavily stylized game that favors art style over realism. Much to many fans’ dismay at the time, it introduced us to Toon Link and his very cartoony world. The graphics are cel-shaded and bright, which perfectly fits the tone of this ocean-exploring adventure.
While The Wind Waker did receive an HD port for the Wii U, the Switch 2 straight ported the original GameCube title, without any enhanced textures or models, showingjust how well The Wind Waker has aged.
Okami’s graphical style is unlike anything else you’ll ever play. It draws inspiration from Japanese ink-washing paintings - known as sumi-e - and uses cel-shaded graphics, which inspired the concept of the Celestial Brush.
Interestingly, the developers originally wanted to strive for more realistic graphics, but were held back by the PS2’s power, which is why they took a different approach. Hurray for the PS2’s lack of power!
Okami received an HD upgrade in 2018, but the original still looks great, especially for the time it was made.
While you can play a HD version of The World Ends With You on Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo DS version looks and plays just as well as it did when it launched in 2007 - that’s to say, it looksgreat.
The street-fashion-inspired character designs were made by Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi, and the angular style of the Shibuya backdrops was thought up by art director Takayuki Ohdachi. The DS version holds up spectacularly well and still looks exactly as it was intended to, almost 20 years later.
The only benefit to playing the Final Remix version is the addition of the A New Day episode, though you can also just watch that elsewhere after.
Acting as a prequel to the comic book series Fables by Bill Willingham, The Wolf Among Us was developed by Telltale Game, renowned for its stylized graphics and episodic releases. The Wolf Among Us uses a visual style inspired by comic books, with character models and backgrounds having thick, black outlines.
Unlike other games in the 2010s, The Wolf Among Us (and Telltales’ other success story, The Walking Dead) wasn’t aiming for realism, which is what made it stand out all the more. Aside from some expected gameplay jank, you may play The Wolf Among Us today and it’ll look just as incredible as it did in 2013.
As Jet Set Radio launched in 2000 and was very ambitious with its open 3D world concept, you’d think that experimental approach would leave it with some blemishes 25 years on. However, Jet Set Radio still looks incredible, and that’s all thanks to the cel-shared graphics the team opted for.
Similar to The World Ends With You, Jet Set Radio’s developers took inspiration from Tokyo’s city streets, Shibuya and Shinjuku specifically. Thick lines were also used on models to highlight them specifically where needed. The overall stylization and decision to use cel-shaded graphics has allowed Jet Set Radio to stand as a pinnacle of artistic design, even two and half decades later.
In LittleBigPlanet, the playable character, Sackboy, is a knitted rag doll you may dress up and personalise, but the world you play in is where things got really creative. Each level has a specific theme, and the stylized approach to the graphics makes it feel like you could be exploring a children’s book come to life.
While LittleBigPlanet had subsequent sequels, there’s no denying the first game has aged very gracefully. Its inherent dedication to being whimsical and child-like has given it everything it needs to stay looking incredible as the years go on.
Okay, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a lot closer to a visual novel than most other games, but you can’t deny how well the original has aged, despite there being enhanced HD versions available.
I played the DS version last year, and it holds up exceptionally well in terms of graphics, gameplay, and narrative. There’s pretty much nothing to scrutinize about its environmental design and character models. You can’t age much better than this.
Paper Mario took a completely different approach to all the Mario games that came before it. While Super Mario 64 made great strides in terms of 3D worlds and movements, its graphical design doesn’t exactly hold up the same. Paper Mario, on the other hand, still looks fantastic to this day.
Rather than generic 3D models, all the characters look like they’re made from paper - they’re flat, with black outlines. Its unique style makes it stand out even today. Even though fans are clamoring for a remake after its sequel, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, was remade, it stands perfectly well on its own, exactly as it did back when it launched.
EarthBound is one of those games thatsimply does not need a remake, or even an HD upgrade. Its pixel-style graphics are bright, colorful, and wildly charismatic. Trying to ‘change’ that in an attempt to make them higher definition would only be to the game’s detriment.
Playing EarthBound now still feels like the exact experience it was intended to be in the ‘90s, with its stylized pixel graphics being a large part of what makes it so charming.
While Pokemon has never been at the forefront of graphical innovation, it hit the jackpot with Pokemon Black & White.Its pixel graphicsare the pinnacle of what Pokemon can be, and playing these games now is still just as beautiful an experience as it was in 2011.
I’ll never forget crossing the Skyarrow Bridge for the first time, which showcased the game’s use of 3D angles in a pixel world.
Pokemon Black & White pretty much perfected Pokemon’s formula, while trying something new with its roster of ‘mons. It doesn’t get much better for Pokemon than this.
