Best flat shaded 3D games

[madman77]

Those of us who grew up in the advent of 3D games usually have a soft spot for flat shaded polygons in the days before texture mapping was feasible. What are some of your favorite flat shaded 3D games? In college in the mid-90's we played the hell out of Stunts on the PC, which was already an outdated game at the time, but still played well and the ability to race tracks your friends created and save replays was a blast at the time. I bought a 32X when they were on close out for $20 and even when much better texture mapped games were available, I spent a ton of time playing Virtua Racing on it. There's a charm to the graphics and the frame rate and control was amazing even past its prime. None of the Hard Drivin' ports were ever decent IMO, not even at the time of their release. The only 2 others that stick out for me are Star Fox and 4D Boxing on the PC. What are some other great flat shaded games?

[StealthLurker]

Loved 4D boxing. I also liked playing Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. I would say the first Alone In the Dark counts because the actual rendered 3D entities didn't have textures. Loved that game and thought Resident Evil was a total rip-off. There was also a "Hard Drivin" type game where you could make your own tracks with crazy loops and banks. That was great too.

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[madman77]

There was also a "Hard Drivin" type game where you could make your own tracks with crazy looks and banks. That was great too.

Yea, that was Stunts on the PC. There was also Stunt Driver, but I don't recall playing that one.

[Emperor Megas]

The original Star Fox is still pretty fun, IMO, but the frame rate is anything but smooth. Star Fighter is a personal favorite of mine. I played the 3DO version (to death), but it's available for Saturn and PlayStation as well. As mentioned, the original Alone in the Dark used flat shaded polygons. It was my first true survival horror game, and while it may seem silly today, it stared the hell out of my back in the day. That's another I played the 3DO version of, but it's also available for MS DOS.

[Kevincal]

Cybermorph and Iron Soldier on the Jaguar

Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing on the Saturn

All great games.

[Ro-J]

I played the crap out of S.T.U.N. Runner in the arcade. Great game in its time.

[klausien]

I miss the flat-shaded look quite a bit myself, though not the rendering of humans and other creatures. Vehicle games work best. Elementary Gouraud shading was cool too. Good call on CyberMorph Emperor Megas. The CD sequel is nothing short of amazing. Alas, if only Checkered Flag and World Tour Racing were actually playable games.

I wish the era wasn't so short lived myself, even as an aesthetic choice. StarBlade was my first throught here, though the home versions were all FMV games. The PSX version has a textured mode, but its too busy. The flat-shaded polygons are far superior in that case, though in HD, who knows. Too bad this barely happened: http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=543&page=4#1390

The last game I played for more than five minutes was Child of Eden. Most of the multiplied tiny objects that make up the games mosaics of color and light have simple texture or none at all. Interesting. It is a very nice effect. I recommend the game to anyone who doesn't mind on rails reticle shooting games. It is one of the best of its kind and apparently the Kinect option is very cool. It looks intriguing but I'm not spending that kind of money on anything anytime soon, much less something I'll use once. I do wish the reticle could be sped up however.