@Developers: Can we please have the unpixelated original graphics, too?

[Lilly-Cat]

Whenever a game is being developed in high quality and then turned into some pixelated mess to have a retro-look, I ask myself why not make the pixelation an OPTION, maybe a default option if a developer wants to make it a selling point. People who want pixel, will buy it.

But why forcing everyone else to strain their eyes? Pixelated stuff isn't healthy to look at, back then technology wasn't advanced like today, so there was no option.

But nowadays simply advertize a game with pixel look and make it a default option, so those who really want PIXELS will buy it. That's it.

Since you are not creating the graphics in that way however, it would be great to give other gamers the option to have the beautiful original graphics - instead of leaving them unused and just internal work that never gets outside the studio.

[Jacowboy]

Originally posted by Lilly-Cat:

But why forcing everyone else to strain their eyes? Pixelated stuff isn't healthy to look at, back then technology wasn't advanced like today, so there was no option.

What??? Why would it be unhealthy lol?

Anyways, there's no magic button to un-pixelate things... if they're doing a pixel-art style, that's it... they would've needed to do a cleaner line-style first and then pixelate it with a filter for what you're asking for to be viable. They could use a filter to smooth the pixels, but it'd look blurry and extremely ugly.

My point is there's no "beautiful original graphics"... it was created in pixel-art.

[MachTackle]

Jacowboy is correct. The sprites were drawn using pixel-art so you can't just change it into line-art.

[H-Foundry PIXIV]

The streets of rage 4 devs made a good decision for the art tech, allows things to scale easier at higher res without quality loss / blur (they have upscaled retro sprites for old chars though).

This game looks between indie and whatever the budget was for SoR4 though. It's on Nintendo Switch (and Steam) so they know some people will be playing on 4k screens and I doubt this game will upscale as bad as some emulated 1990's mame game, some of them are native 240p, this game is at least 1080p native.

[chancepaladin]

I agree 100% the game looks like pure eyestrain. I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that way. There's something really off about it. Very fuzzy like it's 240p or something, Or like I'm watching it through a heavily compressed virtual console. like watching zoomed in jpg's, oof. If it's pixelated it needs to be very crisp.

[FOXDUDE69]

I too, would have preferred smooth hand drawn art. Nothing can beat it and thankfully the number of high definition hand drawn games has been steadily on the rise in recent years.

That said, this is probably the best pixel art I've seen since Metal Slug. Pixel art is usually used as a cost saving option, so it's rare to see pixel art at this level.

[Khronikos]

Lottes CRT filter via Reshade will make this game absolutely stunning. No doubt about it.

[Keytee Tamira]

People who criticize Pixel Art simply haven't seen how gorgeous it can look like.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c0/86/01/c086016cf4472ad4ab69de88d231f68b.gif
https://vistapointe.net/images/the-legend-of-zelda-the-minish-cap-wallpaper-19.jpg

Sadly, however, most Pixel Games today use very blocky designs, as in, they focus too much on making it look pixel.
This TMNT game, however, is visually done right. Pixelated, yet artists push the boundaries of pixel art, making it look lively.

[FOXDUDE69]

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

People who criticize Pixel Art simply haven't seen how gorgeous it can look like.

I've seen the best that pixel art has to offer.
Games like Metal Slug, Owlboy, Blasphemous, Iconoclasts, Bushiden and this game.
And I'll argue that while looking good, none of them can match the visual splendor of games like Dragon's Crown, Odin Sphere, Rayman Legends, Monster Boy and Streets of Rage 4.

Truth is that pixel was born out of necessity, out of the technical limitations of yesterday, If the developers could have used hand drawn art back them, they would have. And some even did! Some of the best looking games of the 16-bit era, featuring the most fluid animation, had hand drawn sprites that had to be digitized down to the resolution that the machines could handle. Games like Aladdin, Earthworm Jim and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure as well, if I'm not mistaken.

And today, Pixel Art is widely used as a way to save development costs or even to cut the workload down to the point that just one person can manage to make a game. Developers that have a bigger budget will go for hand drawn art instead.

I'll also argue that any game that looks fantastic in pixel art would would even better if it had hand drawn art.
You take Disgaea PC and Disgaea 1 complete. for example. They are the same game with the same art direction, but one has pixel sprites and one has hand drawn sprites. And you can see for yourself which one looks better.

[H-Foundry PIXIV]

Originally posted by FOXDUDE69:

And today, Pixel Art is widely used as a way to save development costs or even to cut the workload down to the point that just one person can manage to make a game. Developers that have a bigger budget will go for hand drawn art instead.

Makes sense. They should have used not-sprites for this, but we don't know how tight their budget is. I feel like this game has a budget between Indie and whatever Streets of Rage 4 had.

Blazblue made a good choice going for their in-house method. I remember King of Fighters 13 going on about how much the sprites cost them and why they didn't repeat that approach.

[Keytee Tamira]

Originally posted by H-Foundry PIXIV:

Blazblue made a good choice going for their in-house method. I remember King of Fighters 13 going on about how much the sprites cost them and why they didn't repeat that approach.

King of Fighters 13 has the best sprites i ever seen. So big and so fluid. Somehow, fluid big sprite animation impresses me more than fluid hand drawn animation.
Though, speaking of animation... does anyone agree that animation in animated trailer for this TMNT game was kinda wonky?

Originally posted by FOXDUDE69:

Truth is that pixel was born out of necessity, out of the technical limitations of yesterday, If the developers could have used hand drawn art back them, they would have.

...This is the kind of excuse i always fail to comprehend...
I mean, do you know that 2D Visuals were born from necessity, and if authors could've used 3D models for videogame, they would've.
Oh, did you know that HAND-DRAWN ART in general was born out of necessity? If ancient people would've have the Photo Technology, they would've chose that instead of painting portraits.
OH, did you know that 3D Graphics were born out of necessity? If movie producers would've been able to film actual space monsters and fantasy words, they would've chosen that over making 3D scenery!
Oh, did you know that weapons were made out of necessity? If people could've just mutate their bodies so they can grow claws out of every fiber of their body, they would've prefer that over weapons!

...*sigh*
What i'm trying to say is...
Pixel Art was a necessity back then. Now it's a Visual Style.

[FOXDUDE69]

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

...This is the kind of excuse i always fail to comprehend...

Not an excuse, it's gaming history. If they could have made Aladdin in 1080p back then, they would have. They drew the art by hand but the mega drive could only handle 320x224 so they had to scale that art down.

As time progressed and consoles became capable of higher resolutions, developers that were still developing 2D games took full advantage of those resolutions to deliver as highly detailed sprites as those resolutions would allow, sprites like the ones seen in Rayman, Street Fighter III and Guilty Gear X and later culminating in HD hand drawn games like Muramasa, Odin Sphere and Rayman Legends. The only developers of 2D games still developing in what's now called "pixel art" were the ones developing for portable consoles with lower resolutions, like the PSP which only managed 480 × 272.

Pixel Art, as a concept, wasn't even a thing until indie devs brought back low res sprites to PC gaming and home consoles because they realized they could use it to significantly cut down in production time/costs. And nobody even used the term "pixel art" before that, but it sounds better than "low resolution assets" so they went with that, lol.

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

What i'm trying to say is...
Pixel Art was a necessity back then. Now it's a Visual Style.

You could achieve the same visual style of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The game with high resolution sprites, the difference would be that everything would look sharper and more detailed. Scott Pilgrim's actual visual style is the one it got from the comics. The pixel art is just a low resolution representation of that style.

Same thing with this game, the visual style is borrowed from the 90's cartoons and these graphics are a low resolution adaptation of that visual style. This game could have the same visual style while featuring HD art. But it's just cheaper to make it in pixel art.

You can even see this in original games that don't borrow from an established style.
Take a look at Moonlighter's concept art and you'll see what that game could've looked like if they didn't decide to pixelate the hell out of it. The visual style is the same, but again, it was just cheaper to produce it at a lower resolution. Because that's what pixel art is. Low resolution art.

[Keytee Tamira]

Originally posted by FOXDUDE69:

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

...This is the kind of excuse i always fail to comprehend...

Not an excuse, it's gaming history. If they could have made Aladdin in 1080p back then, they would have. They drew the art by hand but the mega drive could only handle 320x224 so they had to scale that art down.

As time progressed and consoles became capable of higher resolutions, developers that were still developing 2D games took full advantage of those resolutions to deliver as highly detailed sprites as those resolutions would allow, sprites like the ones seen in Rayman, Street Fighter III and Guilty Gear X and later culminating in HD hand drawn games like Muramasa, Odin Sphere and Rayman Legends. The only developers of 2D games still developing in what's now called "pixel art" were the ones developing for portable consoles with lower resolutions, like the PSP which only managed 480 × 272.

Pixel Art, as a concept, wasn't even a thing until indie devs brought back low res sprites to PC gaming and home consoles because they realized they could use it to significantly cut down in production time/costs. And nobody even used the term "pixel art" before that, but it sounds better than "low resolution assets" so they went with that, lol.

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

What i'm trying to say is...
Pixel Art was a necessity back then. Now it's a Visual Style.

You could achieve the same visual style of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The game with high resolution sprites, the difference would be that everything would look sharper and more detailed. Scott Pilgrim's actual visual style is the one it got from the comics. The pixel art is just a low resolution representation of that style.

Same thing with this game, the visual style is borrowed from the 90's cartoons and these graphics are a low resolution adaptation of that visual style. This game could have the same visual style while featuring HD art. But it's just cheaper to make it in pixel art.

You can even see this in original games that don't borrow from an established style.
Take a look at Moonlighter's concept art and you'll see what that game could've looked like if they didn't decide to pixelate the hell out of it. The visual style is the same, but again, it was just cheaper to produce it at a lower resolution. Because that's what pixel art is. Low resolution art.

I am an artist. And i don't draw in pixel art.
Thing is... Pixel Art is damn difficult to draw. GOOD Pixel Art, that is.
With high-res art i can simply draw lines of good shapes, fill it with colors and then add some shading layers so it can look like a good-quality cartoon art.
Making pixel art of same drawing would be far more difficult. I would have to draw every pixel of different color so drawing would look good. And simply using "Convert to low resolution" won't work, the result would be choppy.

Pixel Art doesn't cut the cost, it increases the cost.
Making good pixel art is even more difficult than making good high res art.

[FOXDUDE69]

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

Pixel Art doesn't cut the cost, it increases the cost.

This is literally the opposite of what actual creators of pixel art games say.
For example, Hyper Light Drifter was originally going to be an HD game, but the creator said he had to switch to pixel art to reduce workload.

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

Making good pixel art is even more difficult than making good high res art.

A good pixel artist will pump out sprites at a much faster rate than an good HD artist can since the pixel artist is working with a resolution that is just a small fraction of what the HD artist has work with.

Don't take my word for it, research the subject and come back when you have a better understanding of what's being discussed here. We can continue the discussion then.

[SHREDDER]

Now that i finaly upgraded after 7 years with gtx 970 to a monster RX 6700XT 12 GB i want to see movie qualtiy graphics and this sometinh it can be done on 2d games while not been very demanding! I THE SHREDDER must play the my new game with the best graphics. But even pixel graphics will be 1000 times better than the old outdated graphics of the games that were released in 1990s and 1980's when the 1987 series was airing.

[Keytee Tamira]

Originally posted by SHREDDER:

Now that i finaly upgraded after 7 years with gtx 970 to a monster RX 6700XT 12 GB i want to see movie qualtiy graphics and this sometinh it can be done on 2d games while not been very demanding! I THE SHREDDER must play the my new game with the best graphics. But even pixel graphics will be 1000 times better than the old outdated graphics of the games that were released in 1990s and 1980's when the 1987 series was airing.

Here's how the old Arcade game looks like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jLO1upcd8w

As for Movie Quality... after playing some of movie quality games like Jedi Fallen Order, i got bored of them, and i came to prefer old pixel games much more...