2D And Aesthetics vs Graphics

3D graphics arguably first became mainstream with the fifth generation of gaming consoles, featuring among its lineup the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Graphics became a talking point for many games, and polygon counts a significant measurement of prowess. Pioneers of 3D gaming included Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, which brought platforming, arguably the bread and butter of any major video game console at the time, into the next generation.

With a good thirteen years since the release of the first Sony Playstation, one could have been forgiven for thinking that with 3D graphics being achievable in most modern games for so long we would have seen the death of 2D graphics. Those old days of pixels would be looked back upon with a sad nostalgia where we would wonder how we ever could make anything out on such old technology.

Of course, many gamers know that this is definitely not the case. 2D gaming stands now as a stylistic choice rather than a limitation. Indie games are always coming out with pixel-styled graphics to pull us in on the charm of nostalgia. On top of this we have all kinds of video games where the gameplay is on a 2D plane including, yes, 2D platformers.

The reason for this is because, while graphical capabilities have multiplied, so too has the artistic merit of videogame creators. We’re no longer content with ever-more photo-realistic textures but we also want our games to have an identity, to have colour and to be aesthetically pleasing. Some may even argue that we want our games to be artful. One look at how beautiful Breath of the Wild looks, despite being on under-powered hardware, tells us all we need to know about the importance of aesthetics over graphical fidelity.

With that, the use of 2D graphics has become a valid creative choice with thematic and gameplay implications that have their own useful circumstances. Most platformers haven’t really benefited from the extra dimension, and have instead resorted to the collect-a-thon style gameplay touted by Banjo Kazooie many years ago. Instead, 2.5-D games, videogames with 2D gameplay but an extra layer of 3D graphics, seem to be stylish in the platform genre. Looking at Yoshi’s Woolly World, or New Super Mario Bros., it is clear to see why such a look would be charming. The use of the graphics in these games have helped towards creating a distinct visual style.

In 2017 we have Cuphead to look forward to; an interesting 2D platformer that uses modern-console capabilities to craft an eye-popping tribute to golden age animations. The levels look like they’re pulled right out of an old Disney cartoon and look stunning in motion. It seems that choosing to craft a 2D rather than a 3D experience was vital here to achieve the exact look and feel that the developers were going for artistically, and hopefully the end result will be enjoyable to play when it comes out later this year.

Don’t Starve is another example of a game that uses 2D graphics to its vast advantage to craft a cohesive visual narrative that is striking and interesting. Here the art is meant to evoke a kind of Tim Burton storybook style, with the bold black outlines and the creature designs themselves looking like something out of an Alice-in-Wonderland book. Oxygen Not Included, Klei’s next outing, looks to be utilizing a similiar art style but with more of a utilitarian Fallout Shelter overtone.

Instead of slowly going by the wayside as 3D capabilities have continued to evolve, the use of 2D gameplay has instead become an interesting and valid creative choice in gaming that a developer can use to great positive effect for their games.

It is interesting that the 2D style still hasn’t disappeared, and I think this shows that for all the graphical bombast that the latest and greatest modern titles throw at us, what is most important is the artistic choices in developing the game, and how the end result looks. We don’t need the next big graphical powerhouse with more skin pores per inch of character skin, what we do need as gamers is aesthetic; beautifully designed games made not with lofty eye-popping graphics in mind but instead made to look beautiful on their own merit. As console power hits the point of diminishing returns with graphical fidelity, we will begin to see more focus on the aesthetic and visual design rather than the power behind the game itself.