What if 2D Gaming was still King?

**Juskin** · 04-10-2008, 12:28 AM

I know many of us here are classic gamers, like myself.

I always wondered what it would be like if the industry never fully embraced 3D, and kept its 2D roots. Some game types work best or only work in 2D, I see the positives in them. I definitely miss series like Super Mario Bros. Sure, Galaxy is a fantastic game, but it will never be exactly the same thing as its 2D brothers.

Would you guys want 2D over 3D in these days, or are you glad that it's the way it is currently?

**MrRoboto19XX** · 04-10-2008, 12:37 AM

Although I think things aren't that bad right now, I do wish we hadn't left 2D gaming totally behind. We could be seeing some truly beautiful sprites on the hardware we have now, but there are problems in this scenario:

1) We would have a glut of truly terrible side scrollers, imagine the library of gba crap titles, but for each current gen system and handheld. Ugh.

2) Truly in-depth games would tend to be either RPGs or Metroidvania type titles. There wouldn't really be any room for Gran Turismos, and sports games would be far more arcadey. "Serious" action games, like Call of Duty and the GTA series would be either Doom like or stuck in their early stages (like GTA 1 and 2).

It would be an interesting world, maybe there'd be more Earthbound love....

**strassy** · 04-10-2008, 12:41 AM

2D all day, every day. the whole reason that NES, SNES, and Genesis are my favorite systems is because they are more accessible. 3D games tend to get too overwheming for my simple mind to handle.

**Atari 5200** · 04-10-2008, 12:54 AM

Playing Goemon's Great Adventure in 2.5D was awesome and wish that there were more games like it. I really do miss 2D. Hmmm.....

**Juskin** · 04-10-2008, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by Atari 5200

Playing Goemon's Great Adventure in 2.5D was awesome and wish that there were more games like it. I really do miss 2D. Hmmm.....

If you haven't yet already, check out the Klonoa series.

**Atari 5200** · 04-10-2008, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by Juskin

If you haven't yet already, check out the Klonoa series.

Will do!

**Smashed Brother** · 04-10-2008, 01:41 AM

Growing up in the era of the NES and the like, and inspite of the revolutionary advances in the realm of laser-scanned hi-res facial features, bump-mapped buttocks and complex algorithms precisely calculating at which angle those tits will bounce upon pushing down-right X, my first love will ALWAYS be 2D gaming!

2d games, while somewhat limited and linear in nature compared to their 3D counterparts (like the GTA comparison mentioned earlier), convey a sense of emotion and depth in their animation that 3D is still unable to match, IMO. How would Castlevania SOTN fare in 3D? Would it keep all of those subtle little nuances in the animation of it's characters? Even Valkyrie Profile 2, with it's pretty little polys and 60fps animation, is still graphically inferior to the nearly 8 year old PSX original, simply because it's missing 'character'.

I suppose that this topic could (and probably will) be argued ad-nauseum from both sides of the camp and rightfully so. But, I'll tell ya, when I first played Odin Sphere, I almost cried tears of joy for that bygone era.

**emceelokey** · 04-10-2008, 02:27 AM

I don't care much about the whole 2d being king but I just feel that 2d could have progressed so much more if it were only utilized more often through out each generation since the SNES days. Odin Sphere is a fantastic work of 2d art but before that there was really only the Guilty Gear games and before that the only games that kept 2d alive were Capcom and SNK fighting games. Look at how 3D progressed since the PS1 days. If 2d were practiced as much in the past 2 generations I seriously think there could be some really awesome 2d games.

I don't think the fact that 2d would necessairly limit any gameplay. If 2d were just as viable as 3d diring the past 2 generations then I think that developers would think in 2d and develop games working around that but Sony always had something against 2d games and if a developer was going to be hindered by that for the most popular system of the past two generations then why would they even go in that direction in the first place.

**tom** · 04-10-2008, 02:39 AM

Didn't we go back? All these titles on DS are 1D, learn English, teach your brain, sudoku, better math, etc...

**Ed Oscuro** · 04-10-2008, 02:43 AM

Contra
4

2D is still pretty close to king, in my view.

**James8BitStar** · 04-10-2008, 03:47 AM

While I prefer 2D to 3D, the problem IMO doesn't have to do with 3D at all--or at least, not entirely.

The main thing I dislike about 3D games is their slowness. It seems like a boss fight that would've taken me thirty seconds in a 2D game takes an hour in a 3D one. However, this isn't 3D's fault--this is just an artifact of game design's changing mentalities. For example: in the time it takes to just beat the first boss in Strider 2, you could've beaten the original Strider. Or how long it takes to cross the overworld in Zelda: LTTP compared to OoT. Or the original Final Fantasy's "X cast FIR2, Y takes 35 damage! Terminated!" versus the mini-cutscenes magic illicits in the more recent Final Fantasy games.

But I don't think this is an inherent flaw of 3D games, mostly because I've seen a few that aren't slow--namely, Mega Man Legends, which is a perfect example of a 3D game with 2D design mentality.

**Kevincal** · 04-10-2008, 11:10 AM

The Sonic series sure took a dump with the move to 3d. It was atleast 10 times better in 2d. After so many 3d Sonic fails, why in the hell has Sega not tried to go back to a 2d Sonic? Makes no sense... They haven't even tried once...

**Nitrosport** · 04-10-2008, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by Kevincal

The Sonic series sure took a dump with the move to 3d. It was atleast 10 times better in 2d. After so many 3d Sonic fails, why in the hell has Sega not tried to go back to a 2d Sonic? Makes no sense... They haven't even tried once...