Ever been blown away by a game graphically? I’m not just talking about the technical aspects of a game but the overall impression it left the first time you saw it running, that moment when you thought to yourself “woah, this is amazing“.
I’d like to think that I’ve been gaming long enough to see a fair amount of these “wow” moments to produce a respectable top ten list. I’m not here to tell you these are the definitive moments in gaming, it’s simply my opinion of what happened to impress me over the years.
If your favourite title didn’t make the list then try to understand that these “ wow” moments are something that just happen, you don’t have any control over them. The most technically impressive game at the time isn’t always going to be the one that leaves you stunned, sometimes it’s the right combination of art design and technical prowess.
With that in mind let’s start with the obvious one since you’re already seen the picture at the start of this post.
Donkey Kong Country (1994)
The list starts off with a no brainer in Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo. At the time the jump from NES to SNES was a gradual one, yes Super Mario World looked better than Super Mario Bros 3 but given the additional power of the SNES, that’s pretty much the logical evolution I expected in terms of graphics.
In 1994 Rare released Donkey Kong Country and it single handedly made almost every other game look terrible by comparison. The trick to making Donkey Kong Country so good is simple when we look back, in it’s most basic level you simple render a something in 3D and then digitize that into a 2D sprite. Add in some killer animation and you have a game that felt like a generational leap over anything else at the time.
Donkey Kong Country, the game that killed the Genesis does what Nintendon’t advert.
Virtua Fighter 2 (1994)
I had considered adding the original Virtua Fighter here but if I did then it only would of been because it was the first fighting game to to use 3D polygons. Virtua Fighter was impressive because it was doing something new, Virtua Fighter 2 was impressive because those crude 3D models sure started looking a hell of alot more realistic a year later.
You’ve seen Donkey Kong Country above, now look at Virtua Fighter 2 which came out in the same year. When it came to 3D graphics, Virtua Fighter 2 was ridiculous and in motion it was even better. This is the game you saw running in the arcades and took notice, to me it was the first time 3D polygons actually started to resemble something lifelike.
Sonic Adventure (1998)
Do I really need to say much more about this one? One look at Sonic running away from the whale and you know exactly what I’m talking about. What makes it so great is that Sonic Adventure arrived during the PlayStation/N64 era, in Japan this game came out one week after Ocarina of Time. It’s hard to put into words just how ahead of everyone Sega was in the 90s, both in the arcades and at home with the Dreamcast.
Sonic Adventure had a mind blowing opening CG intro that still ranks amongst the best openings in gaming and the first stage was a vibrant colourful beach that let you know something special was happening. From a blinding lens flare to detailed textures to dolphins jumping over you as you reach the finish, Sonic Adventure blew everyone away when it arrived. That whale belongs in a hall of fame for video games.
SoulCalibur (1999)
Once you see Sonic Adventure running, it’s natural to assume the next step would come from a new generation of systems but SoulCalibur proved us all wrong. In fact SoulCalibur, arrived less than a year later and blew us all away again. For the first time I can remember, SoulCalibur didn’t just bring home the arcade experience, it bettered it.
Amazingly detailed models, superb texture work, impressive lighting, stunning particle effects generated from the weapons, slick animation and all whilst running at 60FPS. This game was stupidly ahead of everything else at the time and is even capable of impressing today if you’re running it via a Dreamcast VGA box on your new fancy HDTV. If you ever wanted to know the reason why Street Fighter went dead for the better part of ten years, SoulCalibur was it.
Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001)
Metal Gear Solid 2 was SO impressive when we first saw it that gamers were willing to pay £40 to buy a game they didn’t give a damn about just so they could play a DEMO of it. If you’re a gamer in your 20′s then you already know that this video is pretty much all you need to know about Metal Gear Solid 2.
Oddly enough, unlike the other titles on this list, Metal Gear Solid 2 suffers from a major issue. The opening tanker mission looks stunning but the second you start playing as Raiden, the game goes downhill in every aspect including visuals. The big shell is extremely boring and bland to look at in comparison to the tanker mission, seeing Raiden’s naked ass do cartwheels ranks as one of the worst visual moments in gaming.
Metroid Prime (2002)
So Metal Gear Solid 2 starts up promising enough but ends up dropping the ball, how about a game that is simply incredible from start to finish? Well enter Retro Studios’ take on the Metroid series with 2002′s Metroid Prime for the GameCube. Samus’ debut in 3D was everything a Metroid fan could ever hope for and then some.
From the moment Samus steps out of her ship, you know you’re in for a treat. At the time Metroid Prime could hang with the best of them visually but none could hang with Metroid Prime when it came to the small details. Gone were the rectangular environments and in came lush organic level design just begging to be explored.
We’ve seen plenty of great looking games over the years but how many of them do you stop to just to simply take it all in? There’s a lot of pretty games out there but only one Metroid Prime and no I’m not going to mention all the wonderful visor effects because we’d be here all day.
Resident Evil Remake (2002)
One of the things we remember most about the classic Resident Evil titles were the pre-rendered backgrounds, essentially just a jpeg image with a 3D model running around. The end result is a very static game but it does allow you to do whatever you want visually without worrying too much about a system’s power, not that the GameCube was lacking any.
For Resident Evil Remake on GameCube, Shinji Mikami and the team decided to stick with pre-rendered backgrounds but this time they’d go for photo realism and the end result speaks for itself. Playing Resident Evil in 2002 was like looking into the future, a standard to which games are still trying to reach today. It’s 2013 and Resident Evil remake still has the “best graphics” in gaming even if the pre-rendered backgrounds are a “cheap” way of doing it.
F-Zero GX/Burnout 3 Takedown (2003/2004)
I’m not going to lie to you, I couldn’t really pick between F-Zero GX or Burnout 3 Takedown so I decided to simply include them both. They both about going as humanly fast as possible so it’s not like they’re all that different from each other anyway.
F-Zero GX is what happens when the two companies responsible for the greatest gaming rivalry ever decide to make a game together. Unlike F-Zero X, the GameCube sequel pumps out 30 racers on-screen at 60FPS but doesn’t scale back the graphics in order to do so. It looks fantastic in screenshots and looks even better in motion, #BestRollercoasterEver
Burnout 3 Takedown might as well be what F-Zero would be like if it didn’t take place in the future. Whilst F-Zero GX focuses on the racing, Burnout 3 focuses on the carnage with so much destruction on-screen that I honestly still don’t understand how the PlayStation 2 was able to run it. From smart use of motion blur to 60FPS, Burnout 3 Takedown looked the business in 2004.
There’s better looking racers out there but in terms of speed, these two have yet to be matched. It’s simply mind blowing seeing these two games in motion.
Gears of War (2006)
If there’s one thing gaming took a while to get right it was detail, the focus was always on bumping up the polygon count but what happens when character models stop looking like LEGO? The answer lies within detail and 2006′s Gears of War was the first time I started seeing character models look less like Barbie & Ken and more like real life.
Gears of War was the first time I started seeing detail in the skin of characters, it no longer looked “fake” but actually like something you could reach out and touch. Just look at General RAAM above, if this were a PlayStation 2 then his face would be grey with some orange eyes. When Gears of War is at it’s best, the game looks like Resident Evil remake but in full 3D which is no small feat.
Uncharted 2 Among Thieves (2009)
Gears of War is on the market and its 2008 sequel looks great but similar, we’ve must of hit some kind of limit in terms of what we can expect from graphics this generation right?
Naughty Dog says no.
The original Uncharted was a nice looking title but stupid screen tearing and plastic looking jungles wasn’t exactly going to blow minds. For Uncharted 2 the team got everything right, there simply isn’t anything that isn’t perfectly done. Beautifully detailed environments, actual use of colour (I’m looking at you Gears), smooth animation, realistic water effects, depth of field effects not abused, flawless lighting and lifelike character models. Uncharted 2 in 2009 was quite frankly the s**t visually.
There were moments in Uncharted 2 where I didn’t move Nathan Drake for a few seconds because I didn’t even notice the transition from cut-scene gameplay. That right there was a “wow” moment for me and thus far, my most recent one.
The Future…
So where does the industry go from here, what’s going to be the next visually stunning moment in gaming? I don’t know, perhaps ultra realistic games like Battlefield 4 running on 4K monitors will be it. Maybe art driven games like Rayman Legends will offer those moments once technology can no longer take us further.
I know you’re wondering where Crysis is but to honest I could never find a computer that could run the damn game. I take it the “Can it run Crysis?” saying is still relevant in 2013?
Remember this list isn’t about what the best looking games are, it’s about the games that blew me away graphically when I first saw them which is actually a different list all together when you think about it.
Feel free as always to drop comments on what games blew you away growing up. I’m sure some of you are dying to mention Gran Turismo, Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy, Jet Set Radio, Shenmue and so many others. The comments section is all yours, go nuts.
