Small sprites (the smaller, the better)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Where did you find wee sprites doing the job nicely?
Off the top of my head: Walker, Alien 3 (Game Boy), the original Super Mario Land, Sqoon, Boogie Wings. Then of course Sensible Software games, Jets'n'Guns, Gunstar Heroes, Cave Story, Assault Suits Valken and Metal Warriors (where you get to control one of the very smallest dudes on screen), Motocross Maniacs. Advance Wars I guess.

[GSK]

I wouldn't say Valken has small sprites, exactly... your mech does feel a lot larger than it actually is, but the sprites are still reasonably big, I think.

I can't dig it up right now, but I remember reading an interview with a Sega of America producer who said that Gunstar was knocked back by eleven producers before it got to him, all because small sprites were out of fashion.

I've actually been thinking about this topic a lot lately, mostly in the context of the Game Boy. Bionic Commando and Ninja Spirit have been my reference points for sensible sprite sizes; I just wish Ninja played as good as it looks.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Assault Suits Valken, Metal Warriors, Gunstar Heroes and Cave Story all have those minuscule dudes (and in Metal Warriors you get to leave your mech and play as one).

[BIL]

Sqoon's regular explosions of tiny, frantically swimming captives from their underwater prisons make me so happy. Those pesky sharks and crabs too! Stop buggin' me you lousy fish fucks! Such a charming little oddball of a shooter (especially since as you've noted previously Obi, the premise is actually pretty biohorrifying!).



Jackal (FC/NES) has some cracking microdudes too, leaving behind tragic flattened corpses when you pile over them in your roaring deathmobile (you'd better too, hesitate and they'll obliterate you with a swift, tiny RPG). Great Tank (same)'s grunts aren't as tiny but their Charles Schulz-esque ' "waaa!" death animations are heart-melting. I wonder why I find the scamperings and deaths of tiny little hostile sprites so affecting. Then again I never like letting little allied dudes die if I can help it. "Struggle is the spark of life" as a Shinobi boss once opined.

Batman (GB) makes me feel like I'm TRAPPED IN A COMPUTER WORLD and all the little virtual janitor dudes wanna kill me.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Yay, finally played some Great Tank. Boy, do I like A.I. in some of those oldies, where they couldn't make screen as busy as in the fiercest arcade games, so they had to make the particular enemies' behaviour nastier. No Contra-like sucker punch antics either.
And yeah, not so tiny chaps, but charming they are! You can tell they are disciplined.

[Pretas]

Bangai-O is the quintessential example of a game that takes full advantage of its small sprites.

[BrianC]

Lemmings, Joust, Choplifter, Death Race, Lunar Rescue, Lode Runner (original computer version and The Legend Returns/Online), Robotron 2084, and Rampage have some tiny sprite guys. The ones in Lemmings are especially enjoyable with their cute animations.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Euroshmup I meant is Jets'n'Guns (apparently Czech, not Finnish).

[evil_ash_xero]

Bangai-O is the quintessential example of a game that takes full advantage of its small sprites.

Agreed.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Never saw it on TV (I play the GBA port), but there's ChuChu Rocket!

[BIL]

How in the bumboclaat did I not mention METAFIGHT (FC) here? ಠ_ಠ Anyway I've been replaying it, so time to right this historic wrong. Hit the dirt, little dude! Unlike your tank, enemy flak will totally mess you up! :O

Spoiler

So cute, yet so bellicose.

[BryanM]

[Koa Zo]

Bangai-O is the quintessential example of a game that takes full advantage of its small sprites.

Hey! That was my answer.

Subterainia on Genesis is another game that comes to mind. Those little people running around and the pieces of your ship when it explodes are rather cool and effective.

[FinalBaton]

Bangai-O is the quintessential example of a game that takes full advantage of its small sprites.

Ohhhhh, good call!

[BIL]

NMK's P-47.



RIP AA gun dudes, THEY FOUGHT WELL ;-;7



Ala TANK and its FC followup Great Tank, WWII seems a reliable theatre for tineh doods.

[copy-paster]

Boogie Wings/The Great Ragtime Show might join the party here. Insane detail of small sprites.

[Mortificator]

Infantry was tiny in the original Command & Conquer. Red Alert made them bigger so they'd be easier to click on, at the expense of people now being disproportionately huge compared to vehicles.

[WelshMegalodon]

I'm surprised the original Bare Knuckle hasn't been mentioned yet. Those sprites are tiny. Though even they look huge compared to the ones in Datasoft's Bruce Lee.

[SuperDeadite]

Crack Down

[Sumez]

NES homebrew Micro Mages makes really nice use of tiny sprites for the purpose of the game's concept. It gives you more room to move around while still seeing the entire width of the stage as it forcibly scrolls up - and of course it allows 4 player co-op without pushing the NES sprite limit.

The animation of the little mages is incredible though. It's really cool how much personality they got out of 8x8 3 color sprites, with only an NROM cartridge. I wish I had that skill.

Large animated GIF ahead:

Spoiler

This pixel art tweet also deserves a massive shoutout:
https://twitter.com/johanvinet/status/1 ... 5916405764

[BIL]

Much like its NMK forerunner Task Force Harrier, and P47 Thunderbolt, Gunnail has Tiny Army Doods™!



Luckily for them, they're in non-combat roles! UNLIKE MUH LATE FRIEND PVT HARBL McDAVID

NES homebrew Micro Mages makes really nice use of tiny sprites for the purpose of the game's concept. It gives you more room to move around while still seeing the entire width of the stage as it forcibly scrolls up - and of course it allows 4 player co-op without pushing the NES sprite limit.

The animation of the little mages is incredible though. It's really cool how much personality they got out of 8x8 3 color sprites, with only an NROM cartridge. I wish I had that skill.

Beautiful. Reminds me a bit of Utata Kiyoshi's Ko the mouse, from Lickle.

[Rastan78]

Love the mini sprites in Gain Ground. The graphics in this game don't bowl you over at first but they might grow on you after a while. Part of their charm comes from the extra detail possible due to the medium res 24KHz output of the Sega System 24 board (which also had stereo sound I think?) The jump up in resolution isn't massive from standard 240p. Pretty sure 496×384 is the display res. It's just enough to give a unique look and allow the artists to make smaller more detailed sprites.

It would have been cool to see more games in the day adopt this approach. Of course it could be kind of a pain in the ass for arcade ops as you have to have a monitor that is 24KHz capable and often switch a connector on the monitor's circuit board. Not hard to do, but who wants to stick their hand around the back of a CRT and start yanking on a stubborn connector if you dont have to.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I always thought the spritework in the original Risk of Rain was really good and got the job done well. It's kind of a love it or hate it game; your character sprite is very small in contrast to the screen size which is meant to emphasize the scale of the enemies and the kind of vastness of the landscape. The animations are also pretty detailed, allowing you to fully appreciate the thrill of dodging through thick hordes of enemies, or booty slamming lizards in the face.

Spoiler

[Gamer707b]

There's been a lot over the years, but a recent example I can think of is Fight N Rage.

[Sumez]

The Fight n Rage sprites are huge and detailed
Though for the genre they are a tad smaller than usual.

[CricketyJimit]

Since you mentioned Gunstar I'm automatically thinking Dynamite Headdy as well - I'm always kinda surprised people don't seem to talk about this one so much, maybe the gameplay isn't quite as good, but I think it's one of the best looking Mega Drive games, lot of crazy imaginative art and level design, also found out recently there's a Master System port as well which is really impressive for the hardware.

Other games I can think of right now are Black Bird with its townspeople and definitely Mahou Daisakusen/Sorcer Striker with its goblin army.

[Gamer707b]

The Fight n Rage sprites are huge and detailed
Though for the genre they are a tad smaller than usual.

Dunno. Came off as small to me. Especially compared to Capcom's beat em ups.

[Gamer707b]

Since you mentioned Gunstar I'm automatically thinking Dynamite Headdy as well - I'm always kinda surprised people don't seem to talk about this one so much, maybe the gameplay isn't quite as good, but I think it's one of the best looking Mega Drive games, lot of crazy imaginative art and level design, also found out recently there's a Master System port as well which is really impressive for the hardware.

Other games I can think of right now are Black Bird with its townspeople and definitely Mahou Daisakusen/Sorcer Striker with its goblin army.

I'm maybe the only one, but I actually like Dynamite Heady even more than Gunstar Heroes. GH is a classic, but "another" run n gun. How many games that let you play the whole game in a play as a puppet? Very under appreciated game in my book.

[Mr_Horizon]

What about the small soldiers in the city levels of "Banshee" for the Amiga?




"Walker" might also be a good candidate for tiny shooter people: