In this writer's mind, there is nothing more beautiful in this world than a cel-shaded video game (I am guilty of purchasing games based entirely off of the inclusion of cel-shaded visuals). The vibrant colors and charming aesthetics bring a certain warmth to any video game world that is sadly not seen enough in a generation concerned first and foremost with gritty realism. It's sounds cliche and cranky, I know. But stereotypes don't appear out of thin air y'know. Here is a list of games that not only buck this trend, but do so using cel-shading in such a way as the visuals transform from just visuals into characters themselves.
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My friends and I just had this headed discussion over the proper use of cell shading. One of my gamer pals HATES the cell shading in Borderlands 2, but he loves games like Jet Grind Radio and Zelda Wind Waker.
I personally prefer cell shading that looks cartoonish or like "living art," such as games like Okami.
What makes me mad is that some games seens like they can't get the same feeling to everything. For example, Prince of Persia had some great cell shading in characters but they simply didn't set well with the environment, I don't know what it is technically but I got the same feeling from SF4/MvC3 engine and Borderlands.
I think Okami is a great example not just because it set a great art style with cell shading, but because it's able to give the same feeling to every corner of its beautyful world. This makes the whole setting more believable.
One game I would love to see with cell chading (if done right) is Infamous. The comic book "cutscenes" are great, would love to see the whole game looking like that... But as they say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", it already looks good and changing the franchise look in the third game would probably be awkward, but would love to see some superhero game with a real comic book art style.
Love it for Borderlands, Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, Okami, Prince of Persia, Sly Cooper Trilogy, snd Rayman Origin's.
the cell shading was great, but the art style was hideous and still is.
i also hated borderlands cell shading. and im not sure if rayman is cell shading lol, i think they are just 2d sprites, i could be wrong though :P
and okami is gorgeous
Also, Budokai 3 isnt on here. Weird
what If I said I liked every zelda games except Link's Adventure and dislike every zelda for n64, gamecube, and wii?
I'll replay all the one's from nes, snes, gbc, gba, but don't give a damn about all the new one's.
I'm expecting 30 disagrees and 5 agrees, get to it.
I love toon-shading and Wind Waker mastered it like no other.
I must have been around 11 or 12 when my brother bought the first fear effect game, I remember everytime I was playing it, i was half terrified by the games atmosphere, and the other half from fear my parents would walk in and catch me playing what was essentially gore porn :P
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
It does, however, emulate the style through texture maps though. And it does a good job at it. But it's not the same as the games mention in the list.
And if we want to get technical then I'll bring Aladdin, Out of This World, and Flashback from the sega genesis days as among the first games to truly emulate cel-shading style.
Cheers
@Skateboard (below)
Gravity Rush for sure.
But give a game a great and creative art style, and the game will never look dated and ugly. Look at Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine (looks amazing on dolphin), and those games which go for a very artistic direction instead of a realistic one.
Even today these games with great art styles look far better than a lot of the crap out there, even though they're inferior on every technology based level, they still manage to look amazing.
Games with beautiful art styles have even driven me to buy games just because of how beautiful the art style looked. A couple of examples of that are folklore and valkyria chronicles. I own both of them and I don't even really like the gameplay all that much, but Folklore was worth the 20 bucks because it's just SOOO damned beautiful and vibrant. It still remains one of the best looking games I've ever seen, all because of the art style and not some fancy shallow textures.
Not THE best, but REALLY close. The best looking game I've ever seen is Journey (when you're sand surfing and the sun is just beautifully reflecting off the gorgeous sand).
Cel-shading makes games future proof and far mroe attractive. Hell, I bought El Shaddai just because of the art style.
That game is amazingly beautiful.
Would love to see a couple of original cel shaded games next gen, they could look truly amazing in 1080p.
damn i feel like im 7 again watching this gameplay video
The game looked exactly like the show O_O
Also, Borderlands looks great, but to be honest, the game's graphics grew on me. I hated Borderland's graphics at first glance, but as I gave the game a chance and started playing it a bit more, I realized how amazing the graphical style was. It was like a hybrid betweeen realism and cellshading!
I could have traded out Dark Cloud 2 for that in a second.
Im playing Gravity Rush right now and its pretty beautiful.
At least they're being constructive and not complaining about the art of others on a video game site...