I like to make lists. Let me know if I forgot any games.
https://nesdoug.com/2018/06/16/nes-graphics/The games mentioned were...
Super Dodge Ball
Crash N The Boys: Street Challenge
Kick Master
Joe & Mac
Ninja Gaiden III
Shadow of the Ninja
Batman – Return of the Joker
Chuka Taisen
Felix the Cat
Kirby’s Adventure
Fire ‘N Ice
Gimmick!
Ufouria (Hebereke)
Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers 2
Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston
Little Samson (2 images)
Bucky O’Hare
Vice: Project Doom
Moon Crystal
Conquest of the Crystal Palace
Shatterhand
Gun Nac
Little Nemo: The Dream Master
Gargoyle’s Quest II
Megaman 2
Megaman 6
Castlevania III
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Scrolls
Gradius II
Radia Senki: Reimmeihen.
Cool list! I'm having trouble coming up with more games that should be there, but, for now, I have the following:
Sword Master
Mitsume ga Tooru
Battletoads
Let me know if you agree with me.
Hmm, I thought I had Sword Master in there.
I haven't played / seen Mitsume ga Tooru.
What level of Battletoads did you have in mind?
The first Batman has amazing backgrounds too.
ps.: never heard of that stanley game!
I think that textures in general look great in Battletoads, and the sprites are pretty damn good too.
Mitsume ga Tooru has large sprites and an awesome cartoony look.
I already made
a topic about this subject, you can continue it rather then open a new one. Even if the topic is old we're talking about still even older games so the conversation is still valid.
Pyokotan no Dai Meiro
That's great!!
I found Doki! Doki! Yuuenchi: Crazy Land Daisakusen, wich I knew only by Crazyland, to have nice graphics.
Also, I liked Adventures in the Magic Kingdown and Turtles 2 and 3, not the best graphics but still fine.
No mention of Magician? Sad panda.
koitsu wrote:
Magician
Very impressive! I had never seen this before.
Honorable mentions:
Ironsword (Wizards & Warriors II) - The backgrounds etc won't win any awards, but i think some of the characters are well designed. Kuros (main character, very dynamic with both clipdoll and jumping jack-esque features), the bird king (because of the animation which felt very smooth for its time, though today you might've tweaked the timing) and the frog king (because of sheer size - kinda precursor to the troupple king in shovel knight?) were all pushing my expectations back when.
Solstice - despite fighting an uphill battle against the PPU with its isometric view, it looks pretty great. I love the robed eyeball enemies, they're so eerie even though they have a cartoony clarity.
The Immortal - same justification as solstice. Despite having some assets cut from other versions, particularily in the fights, i think the NES version is the one with the best looking dungeons. Love the doors and the ligh comming out of a crack in the wall on a certain stage. The barrel ride is quite nice looking, and so is the final fight.
Metal gear 2 - mainly because of the impressive searchlight effect right at the beginning.
Super Mario Bros 3 - hidden in plain sight because of its popularity/neutrality. Still looks pretty great. It's another kind of great than the natsume / sunsoft formula.
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Comments on games that have been mentioned:
Kickmaster - this is a really mixed bag of highs and lows for me. It is both raunchy and beautiful; often at the same time. The palette choices are sometimes ingenious, yet at other times really messy. I sometimes feel a disconnect between the often beautiful assets and the medium they were targeting. I'd be interesting to be a fly on the wall in the studio who made it. The level "The bottomless crevasse" is among one of the most interesting approaches and beautiful far backgrounds to be seen on the NES, even without the parallax effects. Interesting and memorable choice of colours, great looking sky.
Magician - i don't know how this could've gone under my radar for so long. O_o
The Pokemon Yellow bootleg improvement made by Lugia2009