Most Technically Impressive Games

[NayusDante]

I'm curious as to what everyone considers the most technically impressive games to be on each console. I'm not asking what games were the most fun, but rather, which games really pushed the hardware to or past the limit.

[SpaceHarrier]

Summer Carnival '92 Recca - Famicom (for screen speed and objects onscreen as well as background effects)
Dynamite Headdy - Genesis (colors on screen)
Donkey Kong Country - SNES (animation and music)
Starfox - SNES (3-D graphics, speech and music)
Yoshi's Island - SNES (graphical effects)
Gran Turismo 2 - PSX (overall graphics and physics capabilities)
Outrun 2006 - PS2 (graphics)
Doom 3 - Xbox (graphics)


edit: not sure if these are ACTUALLY 'technically impressive' but they sure as heck look that way to me

[jedimind7]

I would say Gunstar Heroes for the Genesis off the top of my head.

[Poofta!]

i think Gears of War for the 360 is freaking unbelievable. i cant remember which games blew me away back in the day on their respective consoles. i remember thinking Super Mario World (snes) was the bee's knees. Also Golden Sun for gba was freaking fantastic. i couldnt believe those 3d fight sequences when it first came out (i was shocked i was seeing this on a portable in its day, they looked every bit as awesome as ps1 graphics. remember the gba was advertised initially as a 32bit console =P )

[CosmicMonkey]

Garou: MotW and the Last Blades are absolutely stunning looking games, especially considering the age of the NeoGeo hardware.

[Lady Jaye]

On the more recent gens, God of War 2 really uses all from the PS2.

[Deadpixels]

Garou: MotW and the Last Blades are absolutely stunning looking games, especially considering the age of the NeoGeo hardware.

Pretty much stated exactly what I came to say. The animation, artistic style, and overall action no screen in both of those games is simply awesome.

Also, Blazing Star really makes the Neo hardware shine with its use of 3D rendered enemies and some backgrounds that do some great 3D tricks as well.

[shawnbo42]

Interesting thread, I like it. Now I'll have to think of a few games that impressed me. Might be a little off topic, but I really enjoyed Geometry Wars for the DS. Very basic graphics, very simple gameplay, but for a 2-D game in a totally 3-D world, I found it to be a title that holds it's own to basically anything out there.

Journey to Silius - NES. Makes very good use of the sound capabilities of the NES.

Tomb Raider - Has already been commented on, but it really pushed the limits with the sheer size of the game, as far as the area you are able to explore.

Twisted - 3DO. Again, maybe a little off topic, but a really intersting concept that has never really been duplicated, at least to my knowledge.

Burgertime - Intellivision. MUCH better port than the NES, which is interesting, because it's not as advanced of a system. As a matter of fact, I think INTV Burgertime is probably the most authentic arcade translation out there. Except the play control, of course.

Sunset Riders - SNES. Again, a very true-to-original arcade port. Hand over fist better than the Genny version. If you ever can compare side-by-side SNES to arcade, it is virtually identical. Makes good use of the technical capabilities of the SNES.

Dragon's Lair/Mad Dog McCree - Arcade. Using Laserdiscs when people had barely heard of CD's? If that is not technically amazing, I don't know what is. Playing either one of those games even today is still impressive. Admittedly, the acting on Mad Dog is weak, but you are literally playing a game in a movie setting. And Dragon's Lair...well, not much needs to be said there.

That's all I got for now, anyways.

[Malon_Forever]

Where is the love for Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube? When I first saw that game, I was "wowed".

[Rob2600]

which games really pushed the hardware to or past the limit.

Atari 2600:

Battlezone
Beamrider
California Games
Decathalon
Enduro
Jungle Hunt
Pete Rose Pennant Fever
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Pole Position
RealSports Boxing
Smurfs: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle
Solaris
Super Football
Winter Games


Atari 5200:

Rescue on Fractalus


NES:

Batman: Return of the Joker
Castlevania III
Crisis Force (Japan only)
Kirby's Adventure
Mega Man series
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Summer Carnival '92 Recca (Japan only)
Sword Master
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Track & Field II


SNES:

Chrono Trigger
Donkey Kong Country series
Mortal Kombat 2
Pilotwings
Rendering Ranger: R2 (Japan only)
Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3) (Japan only)
Star Fox
Street Fighter II Turbo
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Tales of Phantasia (Japan only)


Nintendo 64:

Conker's Bad Fur Day
The Legend of Zelda series
Mortal Kombat 4
NFL Quarterback Club '99
Perfect Dark
Rayman 2
Resident Evil 2
Sin and Punishment
Wave Race 64
Wonder Project J2 (Japan only)
World Driver Championship


GameCube:

Burnout 2: Point of Impact
F-Zero GX
Fight Night Round 2
The Legend of Zelda series
Metroid Prime series
Pikmin series
Resident Evil 4
Star Fox Adventures
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series
Wave Race: Blue Storm

Where is the love for Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube? When I first saw that game, I was "wowed".

I agree. It's one of the most impressive-looking GameCube games. In fact, it's one of the most impressive-looking games from that generation.

[NayusDante]

I'm not sure I'd agree with Mega Man 2 being much of a technical achievement, and I had a feeling that somebody would bring it up. I always considered it to be more of a gameplay perfection, but the latter games were more technically impressive. In 2, there are large enemies in some levels (the fish, the fire-dog), but only parts of those are animated. In 3, there are several much larger enemies that move entirely. In 4, the mini-boss enemies are much more complex. In 5, specifically Gravity Man's level, there are huge enemies that leap across the screen, in a scrolling area. Use of color improved after 2 too.

In short, I always respected 2 because it wasn't a technical marvel, and because it didn't have to be. I would personally say that 5 would be the most technical of the series, some reasons being the final stage in the first fortress, overall color depth, and musical complexity.

I'm surprised to see nobody mention the GB Pokemon games or the Star Fox 2 prototype. Pokemon was a very dynamic game on a very low-power platform, and Star Fox 2 may have been the most impressive Super-FX chip game.

An honorable mention should go to Steel Batallion (Xbox). Considering that the controller ports are USB with a modified port shape, it's odd that aside from dance pads, few other custom controllers were ever made.

[Rob2600]

I'm not sure I'd agree with Mega Man 2 being much of a technical achievement ... there are large enemies in some levels (the fish, the fire-dog), but only parts of those are animated. In 3, there are several much larger enemies that move entirely. In 4, the mini-boss enemies are much more complex. In 5, specifically Gravity Man's level, there are huge enemies that leap across the screen, in a scrolling area. Use of color improved after 2 too.

Good point. I've changed "Mega Man II" to "Mega Man series" in my previous post.

I also added Wonder Project J2 to the N64 section in my post. The game featured a ton of high-res 2D artwork and animation, which was incredible, especially considering it was released only several months after the console's launch. If I remember correctly, the cartridge was only 8 MB, too.

[MachineGex]

....
Burgertime - Intellivision. MUCH better port than the NES, which is interesting, because it's not as advanced of a system. As a matter of fact, I think INTV Burgertime is probably the most authentic arcade translation out there. Except the play control, of course.

I still want an Intellivision for this one game(well baseball was fun also). I keep trying the NES version, but it's not as fun as the Intellivision.

[alexkidd2000]

For there time, the System 16 lineup of Space Harrier, Outrun, Afterburner were technically AMAZING.

[Haoie]

SNES: Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean.

Those games were impressive, very much so.

[Steven]

Rendering Ranger: R2 is the most impressive thing I've seen on SNES. On one shooting level 100s of ships fly at you and the game never slows down. It was jaw-dropping

[j_factor]

Red Zone for Genesis. Great 3D effects, full screen rotation done in software, full motion video clips, and one pumping soundtrack. The gameplay is actually pretty sophisticated too. Shame it's way too hard.

Gran Turismo 4 deserves mention for getting 1080i out of a system that totally doesn't support it. I still don't know how that works.

Dragon's Lair for the Game Boy Color is pretty amazing.

Anyone remember Hydra for the Lynx? I thought that game compared favorably to games on Genesis and SNES. Actually it's pretty on-par with GBA.

[Julio III]

Some people have had some good suggestions here:

PS2 - Outrun 2006
Dreamcast - Shenmue II
Dreamcast - Soul Calibur
Gamecube - Resident Evil 4

[eugenek]

Not a single vote for Vectorman? Some of the bosses in that game are mindblowing...hard to believe that's the same system that produced Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.

[SegaAges]

I am getting crazy on this one:

Wing Commander: Privateer for Dos.

The game was visually impressive, and was able to sustain a decent framerate as well, and also needed extended memory in order to even function. I don't quite remember what extended memory is, but I assumed it is like todays Virtual memory (correct me if I am wrong though, please).

Wing Commander: Privateer was beyond its time. Customization of your ship. You could pick which way you played the game.

I remember I did it with one save just to see what would happen, but I would kill the guys by the space stations (while in space), and after I killed enough of them, anytime I was in that area of space, they would come after me for being a murderer.

This game was also very open ended.

By far one of the most impressive games that came out for Dos