Pretty Ugly Games

[jehu]

Also known as the 'I like the way this sucks' thread, or, alternatively, the 'confused boner' thread.

Today, I was watching a superplay of Gradius IV. I've always thought Gradius IV makes a great case for why 2D pixel-art's gradual disappearance from mainstream gaming was a great tragedy. Look at that first stage, a 3D reimagining of Gradius II's blazing sun eye-candy. The Gradius IV 'suns' don't look like suns at all. They look like orange-dyed splotches of mercury dripped onto an almost pure black background, only textured with little white pieces of dandruff. The once-imposing dragons that flew out of the suns in II are made of the same mercury-orange texture as the suns. Everything looks like it might be made in about 15 minutes in Blender. And this is to say nothing of the other weird design choices, including the 'improved' Power-Up bar with an italicized font that looks like it was randomly chosen in Microsoft Word.

If you haven't seen for yourself:

Spoiler

Thing is, I found myself really loving it. Either as a relic of its time, or just as a look so far divergent from the series before or after that I found it charming. I recognize the deficiencies in the visual design, am glad all games don't look like this, but - viewed in context - I love the look.

I had the same feeling while everyone was arguing about the grotesque pixel-murder Sol Cresta. Back when it came out, I excitedly typed up a little thesis about how it was an exaggeration of all the visual flaws that defined its era of inspiration. I think I convinced approximately no one, but - regardless - I still really love the look of that game, too.

So, my friends, I wanted to ask:

Are there any games that you know are ugly, but love their visual design in spite of (or, rather, because of) that ugliness? Are you the weirdo who loves Rolling Gunner's design language? Do you keep a Trevor McFurr strategy guide hidden under your mattress with the rest of your stash? Do tell!

[And, to be clear, the question is not: are there any ugly games that you enjoy playing? No, no. The question is: are there any games that are terribly ugly that you love visually anyway?]

[XoPachi]

It's not an STG but AstLibra Revision is one. It's abjectly hideous but oddly looks like so much effort was put into the game.
As for STG's, Blue Wish R for sure. I love the look of that game because it's nostalgic. It takes me back to the time period of it's inception and earlier back when I was really getting into the modern scene as a middle schooler downloading stuff like Patriot Dark and Soil:The True Blue.

I think the term is "endearing" for sure. You know it looks poor, but it was done in such earnest and was a genuine attempt for some small budding dev on their Windows XP computer. Toiling away to make a great game but did what they could with assets.
You say the question isn't "ugly games you enjoy playing" but I think that has to be a part of the topic in most cases. The gameplay and quality in design of most of these shine through amateur visuals which makes you love them. They're good games in spite of their poor looks, low budget, and 1 man team and it reeks of "I'll put a game out if it kills me" which everyone can or should appreciate.

[Bassa-Bassa]

This is abjectly hideous?

[XoPachi]

This is abjectly hideous?

You picked one of the better looking and simpler areas. There's WAY more in that 60 hour game and it's not all pretty. Especially in motion.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I picked the first screenshot on the Steam homepage, but serve yourself. I agree that in motion it leaves a lot to be desired, but which HD 2D game doesn't, these days.

[jehu]

Had to look up AstLibra Revision, but I see what you mean almost immediately. I agree with Bassa that it's not hideous, but your point comes across when you put the game in motion. I like how the trees shake like SNES-era RPG enemies when they get hit - strangely animates or anthropomorphizes them. Not a bad visual language, but very stiff.

You say the question isn't "ugly games you enjoy playing" but I think that has to be a part of the topic in most cases. The gameplay and quality in design of most of these shine through amateur visuals which makes you love them. They're good games in spite of their poor looks, low budget, and 1 man team and it reeks of "I'll put a game out if it kills me" which everyone can or should appreciate.

One post in and the topic's concept is already being problematized. If this makes it to page 2 or 3, god knows what it'll have become.

But I do see what you mean - in certain cases love of the game is going to be inseparable from love of the visual design. Games do win you over in just that way sometimes.


Edit: Deathsmiles II is another one of my favorites. I play the original arcade port just for the jagged models from time to time. And the player models in Deathsmiles I have the bulgy-eyed claymation charm of the Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer film. Though I think Deathsmiles I is like genuinely a great looking game.

[XoPachi]

I picked the first screenshot on the Steam homepage, but serve yourself. I agree that in motion it leaves a lot to be desired, but which HD 2D game doesn't, these days.

I mean, the game's going to put it's best angles forward when trying to advertise itself, sure.
The game's assets consist of mostly very clearly edited/photo bashed...photos. So what you get in a lot of cases is very blatantly out of place objects that look almost like stickers placed in a scene that are frequently out of perspective (be it the shading or the actual object facing). There are seams everywhere and parts that flat out don't belong on a given structure.
It'll be a literally real object directly next to something fantasy.

Here are some of my screenshots.

Spoiler

But again, I love it for the reasons I gave.

[XoPachi]

One post in and the topic's concept is already being problematized. If this makes it to page 2 or 3, god knows what it'll have become.

But I do see what you mean - in certain cases love of the game is going to be inseparable from love of the visual design. Games do win you over in just that way sometimes.

Don't take me as combative. I just think that there's room for discussing stylistic choices next to gameplay is all.

[jehu]

One post in and the topic's concept is already being problematized. If this makes it to page 2 or 3, god knows what it'll have become.

But I do see what you mean - in certain cases love of the game is going to be inseparable from love of the visual design. Games do win you over in just that way sometimes.

Don't take me as combative. I just think that there's room for discussing stylistic choices next to gameplay is all.

Definitely didn't! It was my weird way of voicing my appreciation for your complication of the conversation rather than actually lamenting that you're challenging the premise.

[SuperDeadite]

Not a shmup but, Castlevaina: HoD. This game is fugly and sounds horrid too. But, I love it. Honestly, it's simple run and smash style gameplay makes it my most replayed GBA Vania. No worries about random drops or level ups, jist dash and smash.

I also adore Haunted Castle, the animation is pathetic, but I can play this one all day.

[blazinglazers69]

Dead Moon for PC Engine is a little hokey. All the bosses are skeletons lol. Also I kind of think Eschatos looks a little funky even though it's great.

[pablumatic]

I'll give it to R-TYPE Delta.

R-TYPE Delta's fast-moving object dynamism is what makes it stand out despite the visual flaws of the low poly count. Very different from the slower paced previous titles. It felt pretty fresh visually at the time to me even though most of the game looked like papercraft.

[Bassa-Bassa]

R-Type Delta in a Pretty Ugly Games thread now. Have you ever displayed the game 1:1 on an RGB 15khz set and let the scanline presentation do its work?

Or maybe this topic is just not for me.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Edit: Deathsmiles II is another one of my favorites. I play the original arcade port just for the jagged models from time to time. And the player models in Deathsmiles I have the bulgy-eyed claymation charm of the Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer film. Though I think Deathsmiles I is like genuinely a great looking game.

DS1 was one of their late era games when they were doing sprites out of prerendered 3D that looked quite aesthetically pleasing. Futari and Espgaluda II also looked quite good. I'm not fond of CAVE's early prerendered 3D to spite games in terms of art style. While Daioujou and Espgaluda are quite fun, they're not super exciting visually. X.X also had some rather iffy sprites that I think were made out of prerendered 3D? Blue Wish Resurrection wasn't a particularly good looking game (the player sprites are honestly ugly), but the game itself is quite fun.

Rolling Gunner looks quite inoffensive; the models aren't super high res and certainly nowhere as nice as Battle Traverse's spritework, but it looks much better in general than Dodonpachi Daioujou.

Today, I was watching a superplay of Gradius IV. I've always thought Gradius IV makes a great case for why 2D pixel-art's gradual disappearance from mainstream gaming was a great tragedy.

It is indeed a bit of a tragedy, but I suspect it was more to do with growing pains and learning to make a 3D shmup look good, rather than an inherent limitation of 3D vs 2D. Gradius V has a very tight, polished art style that looks really good.

[Lander]

Hmm, I'd throw out Cruelty Squad since it's shortlisted for any ugly contest, but I don't think I love it visually. I love it holistically, which isn't really the same as enjoying the visuals in their own right in spite of themselves.

And fair point to Bassa on R-Type Delta, I'd say; its visuals may be hampered by the low res and polygon wibble endemic to the PS1, but is still good-looking on an aesthetic level given proper presentation.

This is actually quite tricky everything coming to mind seems to fall in the "cool visual despite limitations" or "just uggo lol" categories.

[pablumatic]

R-Type Delta in a Pretty Ugly Games thread now. Have you ever displayed the game 1:1 on an RGB 15khz set and let the scanline presentation do its work?

Or maybe this topic is just not for me.

The OP's question is pretty convoluted. You have to read the entire thing to understand what they want.

Polygonal PS1 and Saturn shooters from that era all look rough to me. Especially if they had 2D predecessors. The games were mostly awesome though despite their visual downgrades.

The highest visual quality I had for any game back in the day was a consumer Trinitron through s-video. I'm no purist and I enjoy 32-bit era games primarily through emulators. Particularly PS1 games to remove the warbling they had on original hardware.

[Steven]

There is nothing that I can think of that fits in this category.

What I can say that is super vaguely related is that I find that many of the best-looking arcade games don't look anywhere near as good on a fixed-pixel display as they do on a CRT, preferably an arcade monitor. Out Zone, Tatsujin, Dogyuun!!, and others definitely don't look right unless you play them on a nice arcade monitor.

[XoPachi]

I think R-Type Delta looks pretty good! I love the PS1's shit ass texture jitter.

Also, obviously this is all subjective. But, I feel like there arent many games that actually fit the topic. Usually even from smaller devs, the games we gravitate to look as good as they play so its not really a surprise to be drawing blanks here.

[Kiken]

The one game I can think of that sorta fits this bill is Intelligent Qube. It isn't ugly in a conventional sense, but rather, it's so hyper-minimalistic that it delves headfirst into being downright primitive. That said, the game's utterly barebones graphics are still endearing in that they deliver all the necessary information in the simplest way possible.

[jehu]

The one game I can think of that sorta fits this bill is Intelligent Qube. It isn't ugly in a conventional sense, but rather, it's so hyper-minimalistic that it delves headfirst into being downright primitive. That said, the game's utterly barebones graphics are still endearing in that they deliver all the necessary information in the simplest way possible.

I watched a gameplay video of this. I have to tell you, utterly esoteric if you don't know what's going on. Weird Klax with a terrified man trying to escape personal annihilation enhanced by Star Wars orchestral swells.

[SuperDeadite]

Growlanser V and VI. PS1 quality polygons with 480i prerendered backgrounds in a late era PS2 game... Going from the sprites of games I to IV was shocking. But, thanks to strong art direction (Urushihara), and wonderful game design, I had a blast with these two. Really fun, and clever gameplay like all Career Soft titles.

[cfx]

.

[MJR]

That gradius IV sun stage is just travesty, but I can get that someone gets particular kicks out of it. It does have certain aura of unintended shittiness. I would also like to point to the title screen, where the planet does some inexplicable morphing into the enemy boss ship. Combined with the cartoony sound effect, it made me believe that the development staff were not serious about the whole game, maybe they were fed up with it, or fed up with konami, or both, and the whole sequence is just some demented prank.

Bad 3D and bad game graphics are abundant, I can say with my 29 years of career that most people working in the game industry would not recognize a good artist or good video game art if it buttfucked them in the open daylight in middle of the street. But it takes special level of skill to make something look as hilariously bad as the gradius iv title screen morphing and sun stage. I suspect some substances were used.

[Bassa-Bassa]

R-Type Delta in a Pretty Ugly Games thread now. Have you ever displayed the game 1:1 on an RGB 15khz set and let the scanline presentation do its work?

Or maybe this topic is just not for me.

The OP's question is pretty convoluted. You have to read the entire thing to understand what they want.

Polygonal PS1 and Saturn shooters from that era all look rough to me. Especially if they had 2D predecessors. The games were mostly awesome though despite their visual downgrades.

The highest visual quality I had for any game back in the day was a consumer Trinitron through s-video. I'm no purist and I enjoy 32-bit era games primarily through emulators. Particularly PS1 games to remove the warbling they had on original hardware.

R-Type Delta in a Pretty Ugly Games thread now. Have you ever displayed the game 1:1 on an RGB 15khz set and let the scanline presentation do its work?

I have, and I think both this game and Einhander look awful, both at the time and now.

But they don't fit the thread for me as I don't think they play well either, both suffering from the everything-is-huge problem that makes the games feel crowded and messes with the difficulty.

I mean, I'm all for lamenting the polygonal revolution (which anyway, as a friend of mine says, it's not been as harmful for digital 2D art as that of the fixed-resolution displays), but there's a huge distance between not being close to some of the most epic graphics from the early 90's like those of R-Type 2 or Leo, and being Pretty Ugly, abjectly hideous or even just awful. Because, what adjectives are there left for stuff like this, then:

[Steven]

When I was a little kid I used to tell my friends at school that the 2D graphics on the Genesis were WAY better than the ugly 3D shit on the PS1 or whatever and they all told me I was wrong and that the 3D graphics were better. I was right, of course, and now I have retroactively won all of those arguments.

[Lander]

Oh no, not Fade to Black.
I hated that game as a kid dark hallways and unclear objectives as far the eye could see.

And well, 2D is generally better art in the sense of being aesthetically pleasing, but there's still plenty to be said for the wow factor that came with early 3D. I suppose it's difficult to recapture now we're spoiled by modern CGI.

Though granted, I had an odd early gaming trajectory - started in 8-bit, then skipped over the lavish 16-bit pixel art era and straight to 3D.

[XoPachi]

I still love old 3D looks.
With how little they had to work with, the best developers had to seriously nail the most important details and most important tools to create a striking atmosphere. Vs today where every texture and piece of an environment is vying for your attention. Thats not a fresh take but one I certainly believe to be true. It's why I'll always prefer horror games that use those limited visuals even now.

I think there's beauty in that primitive simplicity.

[cfx]

.

[Starfighter]

Bishi Bashi Special on PS1. I absolutely adore the visuals!

Spoiler

[To Far Away Times]

Dead Moon for PC Engine is a little hokey. All the bosses are skeletons lol. Also I kind of think Eschatos looks a little funky even though it's great.

Eschatos' visuals were a turn off for me in screenshots and short videos, and kept me from trying the game for years.

But the game has such an infectious charm, and the music is so upbeat and joyful, it's hard not to love the overall presentation. The UFO motif, while initially appearing a bit creatively bankrupt, goes in some neat directions too.