The Future of 2-D?

Looking at my collection, I noticed that more than 75% of them are 2-D based games. The Dreamcast, S-nes, Mega-Drive, Pc-engine and the Neo-Geo are my favorite systems because they had the kind of "GAMES" I wanted to play. The next-gen systems have a couple of good ports but that's just it. Don't get me wrong the PS2 and the X-box came up with better than expected "translations" like KOF 2003(PS2) and MS3(X-Box) and a new blood like Guilty Gear comes along and gives a fresh shot to a segment of gaming I grew up with. What bothers me are these questions - How well are 2-D games doing in the market? I know at Neo-Geo.com we love these things but outside the forum how are they taken? Sales is the life blood of any product, I know you guys are aware of that and in-terms of "marketability" are SNK ports still "marketable" to the mainstream? How well did Capcom do with it's "Fighting Evolution"? If most gamers out there don't dig this kind of stuff, why then would any company for that matter bother with them?

This year alone the only games I'm looking forward to are KOF Neo-Wave(Mixed feelings for this game already) and NBC for the atomiswave system and it's ports if any, if ever. Will we still see games like this when the PS3 or the heir of the X-box is released? I honestly hope so.

Is there a positve future for 2-D games? Or are we wittnessing the final wave of hand drawn wonders soon to be replaced in FULL by polygon based icons?

Athlon64 said:

Is there a positve future for 2-D games?

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I think so..or at least concerning shmups

hell, the whole 32-bit era has just been about (shitty) 3D
now look at current situation: never seen before so much interest about 2D shumps, and the fact that a lot of Psikyo and Cave stuff has been ported on PS2 means something IMO

eh,it's over man

the future is discovering the THOUSANDS of games from the 80s or 90s that you never saw

i like a couple 3d games like bio hazard or virtua racing or the mario / zelda series,
but i'd say that 90 % + of the stuff i own is 2-d

the other 10 % is made of or games like ikaruga,
3d but plays like a normal 2d shooter

shooters and fighters are considered "hardcore",
and well guess what those are the last 2 genres where you can find 2d games

companies like playmore or cave just to name 2

but the situation is pretty hopeless,arcade centers are closing down even in japan

and that's the only market for those companies still supporting 2d

just think about all those glorious software houses like konami or taito

they were among the best in the past

and all they make now are tons of rhytm games...

two dimensions still has future

in NA 2D seems bleak in games, most goes towards the push to all things 3D. japan, korea, china is another market tho. companies like nippon ichi, softmax, sammy, namcot, atlus, still producing hand-drawn jewels like venus and braves, stella deus, phantom brave, war of genesis to name a few. sammy with their guilty gear, snkp with ngbc, there was obviously still the facination and appreciation of two-dim art based games. it still has appeal. there will always be oddball developers creating 2D games. the srpg/trpg single player games still is a good market to exploit and entertain gamers with. i dont think 2D will die out. there will always be a need for them.

I hope 2-D never, ever dies. I mean, EVER.

I have to agree with Fran, 2-D is entering it's last stages of life. Other than the public who remembers when, because they grew up with 2-D or the occassional odd ball kid {every generation has them} who is open minded and sees the reason so many still love 2-D... the fact is 2-D gaming is at the point that it's like THE LAST SAMURAI.

The 2-D medium is Katsumoto and we the Neo Heads and kids of teh "Nintendo Generation" are the clans that follow in the rebellion, but everyone else is pushing for what they precieve to be modernization and the complete and utter abolishment of the 2-D style is what the masses think they want. Sure, we'll have a few bones thrown at us, but we're about ready to have our "Last Battle" soon enough. The question is, is will the companies still making 2-D actually go out with a bang, or will we be ass raped in our twilight moment. It's a sad reality I've given much thought to, and I hope damn well when the time comes the end of our beloved medium comes with a glorious sucker punch to the 3-D gut, followed up with a plethora of katana slashes killing as many mutha' fuckas as we can before dying out as an accepted medium for good.???

there will always be pockets of ppl who remember, and ppl who cling to what was in hopes of a better tomorrow... but 2-D is almost gone.

MERCENARY X99
"El Hombre"

The future of 2D is 3D.

Handhelds, nothing else.

Mercenary X99 said:

I have to agree with Fran, 2-D is entering it's last stages of life. Other than the public who remembers when, because they grew up with 2-D or the occassional odd ball kid {every generation has them} who is open minded and sees the reason so many still love 2-D... the fact is 2-D gaming is at the point that it's like THE LAST SAMURAI.

The 2-D medium is Katsumoto and we the Neo Heads and kids of teh "Nintendo Generation" are the clans that follow in the rebellion, but everyone else is pushing for what they precieve to be modernization and the complete and utter abolishment of the 2-D style is what the masses think they want. Sure, we'll have a few bones thrown at us, but we're about ready to have our "Last Battle" soon enough. The question is, is will the companies still making 2-D actually go out with a bang, or will we be ass raped in our twilight moment. It's a sad reality I've given much thought to, and I hope damn well when the time comes the end of our beloved medium comes with a glorious sucker punch to the 3-D gut, followed up with a plethora of katana slashes killing as many mutha' fuckas as we can before dying out as an accepted medium for good.???

there will always be pockets of ppl who remember, and ppl who cling to what was in hopes of a better tomorrow... but 2-D is almost gone.

MERCENARY X99
"El Hombre"

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Truth does sting..

You're right if it has to go then companies like Capcom and Snk should give it their best shot.

We all know they can do better than re-cycled character sprites to be used and abused from one game to another.

With the new systems coming out their aim is to get graphics as close to reality as they can get. 2-D will only be for a small number of fans and those who still appreciate it while the rest of the gaming industry will move on. Unfortunately thats the way it is now. Only cel-shading w/ 2D gameplay might be the closest thing now.

I'd expect at least another Alien Hominid title.

Several more fighters from SNK.

Maybe another shooter or misc title down the line.

As far as Capcom USA buying the SF license from Capcom Japan, the entire future of Street Fighter seems up in the air at the moment.

We'll at least get more overhead 2-D shooters on import as that's still an extremely popular genre in Japan.

We also saw one of the greatest 2D platformers ever released this year (though not suprisingly 99% of the forum missed it as it's from an Indy PC Developer Chronlogic) Gish.

The PC Indy Scene has taken several classic gameplay types like Arkanoid to a whole new level with games like BreakQuest, new platformers like Wik and Gish.

Indy Software is really a scene that's dedicated to exploring new directions in gameplay in the face of the graphics and glits of mainstream PC & Console Games.

Independent Doesn't mean low quality.

It means originality you're not going to see from a mainstream publisher and the bravery/passion of these small development teams that dedicate their time to releasing these FUN & interesting titles.

I'd seriously check out www.gametunnel.com for more info there.

Scanline said:

I'd expect at least another Alien Hominid title.

Several more fighters from SNK.

Maybe another shooter or misc title down the line.

As far as Capcom USA buying the SF license from Capcom Japan, the entire future of Street Fighter seems up in the air at the moment.

We'll at least get more overhead 2-D shooters on import as that's still an extremely popular genre in Japan.

We also saw one of the greatest 2D platformers ever released this year (though not suprisingly 99% of the forum missed it as it's from an Indy PC Developer Chronlogic) Gish.

The PC Indy Scene has taken several classic gameplay types like Arkanoid to a whole new level with games like BreakQuest, new platformers like Wik and Gish.

Indy Software is really a scene that's dedicated to exploring new directions in gameplay in the face of the graphics and glits of mainstream PC & Console Games.

Independent Doesn't mean low quality.

It means originality you're not going to see from a mainstream publisher and the bravery/passion of these small development teams that dedicate their time to releasing these FUN & interesting titles.

I'd seriously check out www.gametunnel.com for more info there.

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Cool site I'm off to check it closely

Scanline, I don't agree with many of the things you say, but Gish is definitely a solid title

Merc's post is a great analogy, 2D gaming is pretty much standing on its last legs, but I hope it goes out with a bang. I plan on carrying the 2D style into my game devlopement, but if I can't make the $$$ to pay the bills I will have to conform.

Wik: Well of Souls is fucking great too.

Amazing graphics.

It's kind of like a version of 2600 Spiderman with Realistic Physics.

it's sick.

Big Shady said:

Scanline, I don't agree with many of the things you say, but Gish is definitely a solid title

Merc's post is a great analogy, 2D gaming is pretty much standing on its last legs, but I hope it goes out with a bang. I plan on carrying the 2D style into my game devlopement, but if I can't make the $$$ to pay the bills I will have to conform.

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Magician said:

Handhelds, nothing else.

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And not anymore, looking at the "new generation" of handhelds....

[OCEAN]

The closest parell to 2d is B&W video.... It's a artform in itself. It's colorfull, simple and cheap to produce....

B&W was nearly dead in the mid sixties... But it hasn't died....

Clerks and Shindler's list would have never achived the desired effects if in color.

2d has seen it's best days, but it will always be around.

Scanline said:

Wik: Well of Souls is fucking great too.

Amazing graphics.

It's kind of like a version of 2600 Spiderman with Realistic Physics.

it's sick.

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Holy shit, like 2600 Spiderman, gotta show that to my mummsy, the programmer and creator of Spiderman for the 2600. Obviously one of my favorite games cause if it wasn't, I might have gotten fed and gone to college

Love you mom!

Haha, seriously?

That Rocks...

I'm related to nobody historically cool and/or famous.

Big Shady said:

Holy shit, like 2600 Spiderman, gotta show that to my mummsy, the programmer and creator of Spiderman for the 2600. Obviously one of my favorite games cause if it wasn't, I might have gotten fed and gone to college

Love you mom!

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Handhelds rock.

I say that as long as there are animated pictures (not rendered stuff like pixar's) and comics there will be 2D games to adapt them.

2D games fare really great on GBA btw.

As others already said, 2D will be limited to a few companies/genres and eventually die, only to be awakened if there's cash to be made with another one of those retro collections, like a zombie of a vg past long gone.

Some peoples' obsession with all those real-life/simulation titles is another big prob here - real life is 3D, so games must be 3D as well... ugh. The good old action-reaction game principles are a thing of the past it seems, some of those current "games" have very little in common with the video game experience that I'm looking for... I mean, a game doesn't have to be close-to-reality or extremly complex to be good/worth playing.

This only leads to an unhealthy market concentration. All that real-life stuff like motion capturing or character modelling is damn expensive, that's why I predict that only a handful of the biggest companies will survive the next decade - it's simply not possible anymore to design a blockbuster title without having to invest millions for fancy gimmicks, that's why we prolly will get more-of-the-same, only with improved/refined graphics - video game monoculture.

That's not to say all 3D/current games would be bad, but there definitely are way too few original/well thought out games out there. There's too much copy-and-paste, and that's a consequence of the high cost of development - instead of risking a couple of million bucks on a fine-tuned gameplay gem, they come up with yet another Final Fantasy sequel or simply pull an EA Sports and release "updates" to various sports games in order to finance all the insanely expensive team/league licenses.

It's all so blown out of proportion.

Fran said:

eh,it's over man

the future is discovering the THOUSANDS of games from the 80s or 90s that you never saw
.

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Quoted for truth. While I've got all the new systems, the number of games that I really enjoy on these is minimal. But I still love discovering older Famicom, MD, PCE, Saturn, MSX, PC-98 etc games that I never played - there are literally thousands and thousands of great games from the mid-80s to early 90s that I never played at the time, not to mention the massive amount of arcade PCBs from this era that still need to discovered by a lot of people. I personally don't care that there isn't more new 2D - I'm happy rediscovering classics and finding stuff I didn't play back in the day.

MAME.

I'm still playing and discovering tons of shit I never even saw in arcades.
I just downloaded the Gish demo and I'm gonna see what that's all about.

Finding a great new 2D game is a total buzz, but given my limited time for play as a working student/adult, it's alright I suppose.

Loopz said:

MAME.

I'm still playing and discovering tons of shit I never even saw in arcades.
I just downloaded the Gish demo and I'm gonna see what that's all about.

Finding a great new 2D game is a total buzz, but given my limited time for play as a working student/adult, it's alright I suppose.

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I've just been downloading shooters for MAME.

Some I've never played before, definitely a must try:

Cyvern
Gekirindan
Vasara 2
Storm Blade
Battle Bakraid