It used to be that video games had two art styles, and that was either 2D or 3D. Technology has now evolved to the extent that even new titles use vintage designs to convey a theme or recall a different time, and computer-generated images, animation cells, and hand-drawn art are included in the mix.
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Video games with a unique twistin their characters and settings often have an equallycreative art style. Some games are RPGs, others are side-scrollers or dungeon crawlers, while others are more about the experience and don’t include combat options at all.
10Journey
A game in a class by itself,Journeyis built around a unique andawesome sensual experience. This is not a game where the player has to fight their way along a road, at least not against enemies, and there isn’t even a way to die. The whole game is done in a thick matte style and each frame is based on a matching color palette.
It seems like a strange and even pointless idea for a video game, but it’s the visual spectacle that makes this worth playing. The colors, character designs, and occasional puzzles, and other mysteries are a feast for the eyes.
9Hades
The game that made rogue-like dungeons and ancient gods cool again also gave a boost to hand-drawn art styles. An isometric dungeon crawler, this unique title also had a storyline, many creative locations to visit, and even a fishing minigame.
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The color and composition ofHadesused certain bright colors to accentuate important details, like Zagreus' red hot feet, and the art style was perfect for the sexy gods that helped the son of the God of the Underworld try to escape Hell.
8Cult Of The Lamb
It was so adorable,yet so strange and horrifyingat the same time, a game about cults and sacrifice was also populated by cute little cartoon animals. It was made in an isometric style that made the most of a simple yet bright color palette and simple designs as opposed to complicated ones.
Other fun details of the art style unlocked as the game progressed, and the player discovered more of the settings. This includes perks like different icons for the followers, each of which represented a different and sometimes strange and obscure animal, or building summoning portals that can turn them into funny little floating demons.
7West Of Loathing
The brilliance of this art style is the lack of one, but after spending some timeWest Of Loathing, a player understands that there’s more to this simple design than meets the eye. It’s a 2D game that’s set up like an old platformer or point-and-click PC game and uses the aesthetic of the stereotypical old West.
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Despite the lack of any color and the stick-figure designs, everything is distinct, creative, and often funny. There’s a second game in this franchise,Shadows Over Loathing, that parodies the Lovecraftian horror theme and has the same style.
6Ōkami
A gamederived from Japanese mythologyshould use an art style that reflects its origins, and that’s the idea behind the art style of Ōkami. The colors and lines are reminiscent of a medieval watercolor painting or art print, and it’s so important that it’s even integrated into the gameplay.
Celestial Brush is a mechanic that gives the player different abilities and art styles. They can use it to draw a gust of wind during a combat scene, for example, or travel across a bridge by drawing in the broken part. It’s a brilliant idea that other games have yet to replicate.
5Old School Runescape
Even when it was one of the only MMOs that existed, it had a distinctive art style that betrayed its Java origins. It’s simple, angular, and has a basic color palette that a team of creative designers do a lot with, plenty of which is a pleasant surprise considering the game’s age.
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Gamers that want a more updated version of the same thing can check out the recent version, and although it’s also great, it lacks the same vintage charm.
4Minecraft
It’s as much a part of the public face of the game as its distinctive art style. Even non-gamers who don’t know thatmuch about the gaming worldrecognize the art style ofMinecraft. A sandbox game where players can build or destroy almost anything, it’s built to be both simple and beautiful, and it works.
The programming language used is Java, which explains the heavy, simple color palette and angular lines. The setting is procedurally generated and filled with resources the players can find, extract, and use to build their own artistic worlds.
3The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
The Legend of Zeldavideo game IP has been around long enough to have used almost every kind of animation, with even the earliest games in the 2D world of Nintendo getting noticed for their strides when it came to art and design. Wind Waker isn’t everyone’s favorite, with its use of cel-shaded animation, but it’s a unique art style that other games in this franchise don’t have.
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The design team behind this unique look wanted to make something that hadn’t appeared in the franchise before and turned away from the trend to realism at the time to use a more cartoony look instead. The more recent games have a combination of both types of animation.
2Cuphead
The reputation this game has for its savage difficulty level overshadows its other fun and interesting points, like the old-timey art style that mimics a vintage cartoon. It’s not just the form and style of the characters but also their simple color scheme and the 2D platformer that recalls a time even before video games.
It might be cartoonish, but it’s not for kids, and players that have an eye for detail will noticethe intricate and often fiendish designsin the enemies and backgrounds ofCuphead.
1Myst
The game that started it all when it came to just how amazing a game could really look,Mystwas a first-person POV puzzle game. It has an interesting history as one of the most profitable games in the industry’s history, costing only a few thousand dollars to make in the 1990s and still turning a profit to the present day.
It was the age of puzzle games, which worked well with the point-and-click method that PC gamers used, soMystwasn’t exactly the first game of its kind. However, its use of CGI to create several unique 3D worlds was ground-breaking and a joy to behold.
