LogFAQs > #967203179

S Tier

A Tier
X-Men (Jim Lee)
Dragon Quest
Persona 5
Ace Attorney
Bioshock
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman Beyond
Paper Mario
Cuphead
Team Fortress 2: A master class in character and environmental design. Everything is perfect, everything nails that early-to-mid 60s aesthetic, all of the characters are super distinct and memorable. I look at something like Overwatch where most of the characters are completely forgettable (does anyone remember Orisa at all?), and Team Fortress 2 just effortlessly mogs it.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

B Tier
Ghost Trick: Possibly the most impressive sprite-based artwork of any game? It's at least the most complicated. I couldn't believe how complex some of Cabanela's movements are. The sprite work is so good that it sort of overshadows the completely okay portraits the game uses. I'm glad it has a more stylized approach than Phoenix Wright, it would have been easy to just use the exact same art style. Great music, too.
Hotline Miami
Warhammer 40K
Skies of Arcadia
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Return of the Obra Dinn
Superman (Max Fleischer)
Night is Short, Walk on Girl
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Pokemon RBY
Columbia (Bioshock): I can imagine that someone was like "We can't do Rapture again, but Bioshock's shtick is old-timey sci-fi aesthetics. We can't reuse the 60s, but anything later than that will be too modern, and anything earlier than 1910 will be too primitive to have the level of sci-fi we want, even steampunk isn't enough. Also, we used an underwater city already, and we need some kind of other wacky sci-fi city." So, the solution? A flying city with 1910s aesthetics, but making only a weak attempt to integrate the sci-fi elements into it, unlike Rapture. I really like Columbia as both an aesthetic and an idea (the idea of a religion based around the Founding Fathers and taking an idealized version of America at its height to the point where it grosses out the actual Americans is brilliant), but you can really see that they made less of an attempt to make the flying city's technology genuinely look something out of 1910, as opposed to Rapture, where the 1960s underwater city is way more plausible. Like, Rapture is all confined and has lots of narrow hallways because the water pressure forces this design, and everything has those heavy metal bolts everywhere because it's the 60s, while Columbia has the general aesthetics of turn-of-the-century San Francisco with guys in red vests and circular light brown hats, but it lacks, like, giant elongated lightbulbs sticking out of the city's engines that show what's working and what's not, or something like that. I remember there's a section in a laboratory that just looks like a modern lab, except there are no computers, and there's literally no attempt made to make it look like something era-appropriate. Besides the clockwork George Washington robots and the snake oil salesmen-esque vigors (again, a really cool idea), it's a much weaker attempt than Rapture, but the aesthetic itself is still so strong that I think it still carries the game as a visual medium. I also appreciate that they didn't try to replicate the big daddies; the closest thing is the robots, but only in a combat sense of 'here's the big enemy that's harder to kill.' I think they really needed to either set the game in maybe like the 40s, where the technology they clearly wanted was more plausible, or to just dial down some of the more fantastical elements in exchange for keeping the setting. Like, it doesn't HAVE to be a flying city, this could have been a city on a mountain or in Antarctica or something, it just needs to be cut off from the rest of the world. I obviously understand that they want classic-America-at-its-height aesthetics, which limits them to 1900-1950, but I think the flying city was ultimately a bad call, but not a ruinously bad one. This is getting a little off-topic, but the game's theme is also about racism... until it's just not anymore, halfway through. What I'm saying is that the visual design is good, and there are a lot of good ideas at play here, and that puts it above most of the list... But compared to Rapture's super polished and cohesive vision, it's obviously not as good.
Pokemon Adventures
Wario Land: Shake It
Stein's Gate (VN)
It Takes Two
Viewtiful Joe
Bleach
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Observer
Dragon Ball FighterZ: Pretty much the most accurate translation of Dragon Ball into 3D models possible. I'm almost a little sad that this series continues to be popular? I watched a little of the new series, and it's got nothing on Frieza and Cell from back in the day. I like Android 21, she has a style that looks like she could actually be from the real series.
Dead Space
Bayonetta
Kingdom Hearts
Superman Smashes the Klan
Kubo and the Two Strings
Tales from the Crypt
Comix Zone
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Punisher (Greg Rucka)
Samurai Jack
Hollow Knight
Mario Strikers
Journey (Game)
Bloodborne: Call me crazy, but I'm not a fan of Victorian aesthetics or Cthulhu stuff. I'm okay with them, mind you, but neither really gets me excited that much. This is the best possible combination of them, though.
Punch-Out!! (Wii)
Futurama
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
The Last of Us Part II
Okami
Library of Ruina: I can't quite explain why I like this more than normal anime art. It's not the fact that most of the characters have dusters or long coats. I still remember a day from college in the blazing sun when I saw a guy in a black trench coat, black fedora, and red sunglasses. I'll always remember that guy, for the rest of my life.
Yazuka: Is there a word for 'realistic, but stylized?' Because Yakuza is a perfect example. I like Kiryu's brutal and stylish fighting styles, but I don't really have much to say about this game because I don't know anything about organized crime or Japan.