Sonic Superstars team doesn’t think pixel art will be a “viable” art style in 10 years
Sonic Superstars team doesn’t think pixel art will be a “viable” art style in 10 years
by No-Buyer-3509
47 Comments
Dacvak
So I guess they’re still salty about Sonic Mania lol
Dukemon102
I did read the same thing in 1996.
Exquisite_Poupon
Instead, let’s just patchwork together some disjointed platforming bits into an open world and call it a day.
thebestbrian
In complete fairness I think they do have a point where pixel art has become trendy and “indie” developers will go with that style for cost cutting reasons and end up dropping a mediocre game on the eShop to get money just from the nostalgia factor.
For every Shovel Knight and Celeste there are 5-10 cheap shovelware games that utilize similar styles.
That said, Sonic Mania was the best Sonic game since like 2001, and I find it so embarrassing how Sonic Team continues to shit on it’s legacy because it wasn’t made by them.
TheLimeyLemmon
Blimey, how many times have I heard this over the years?
Pixel art is probably in a better place than it’s ever been collectively. The sophistication of some of the artwork nowadays truly blows me away and it remains a highly desired aesthetic. It’s not going anywhere.
No-Buyer-3509
*Looks at Sea of Stars currently trending on Steam* Sure thing, whatever you say to convince yourself.
crossingcaelum
And yet I’ll never stop asking for another Sonic Advance artstyle game.
Glitch_Ghoul
I love pixel art.
KennKanifff
Maybe not for the mainstream, but it will always have a place. It just ages so well compared to 3D.
Juklok
> However, while Frontiers is being seen as a platform for the next two decades of 3D Sonic, Superstars has a slightly different role to play. Iizuka described the game as an “evolution of the 2D Sonic gameplay,” saying that “we look at the pixel art – it’s great – but when we think about 10-20 years in the future, we don’t think it’s going to be a viable art style or presentation for our players. And in order to advance and really step things up, we did want to make sure that we’re presenting something that 10-20 years down the road we’re still evolving and creating new content for.”
​
Kinda just sounds like their talking about no pixel art for Sonic and not bashing pixel art as an artstyle in general. So this is clickbait.
GhostMug
“Black and white won’t be viable in ten years.” -Hollywood in 1939, probably.
Artistic choices, when done right and fully committed to will always have a place.
No_Hurry7691
Indie developers will keep it alive.
Hahndude
It will never die. It’s ageless. Go back and play Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot. Those games are still fun as hell but they look like diarrhea. Super Mario 3 for NES however still looks great.
DracosKasu
Pixel art have grown better with time than most of the 3d art style. It have been proven many time that pre-3d era game are still looking good and that many people are still enjoying the game. The truth is that most 3d render are more cost efficient which is why they keep pushing that narrative.
skeletank22
As someone who loves pixel art and also thinks they did a good job with the 3D models in Superstars, I can’t help but think this “opinion” is nothing more than a marketing excuse/justification for the graphical style they chose to go with.
I haven’t been keeping up enough with this game to know for sure, but I imagine there is at least some drama where there are a handful of people complaining that it’s not pixel graphics like Sonic Mania?
AngelusAlvus
There are 2 kinds of pixel art. Ones that get lot of attention and care in details and the ones that can’t be bothered to give characters a face or even eyes
TotalSpeech
Weird how SNES games aged better, visually, than N64 games.
Sega-Playstation-64
There’s always waves, designs, and styles.
Pixel art will fall out of favor in a few years, but it will always return.
Drekels
Not a great vote of confidence for their game, considering the target audience probably thinks sonic mania is rad.
class2cherub
Imagine thinking an entire art style can just become “not viable.”
Duke_Vladdy
I think superstars is visually very appealing, and the only 2D game that rivals its visual appeal is Mania. If they have great colors, they’ll be better.
DarkEater77
Do not say that, my game project has Pixel Art style.
Tolkien-Minority
lol ok mate
Wasimx64
I like sonic
queerdevilmusic
My son is 12. I’m 40. I lived through the SNES era and still love pixel style games. I had until recently assumed it was because of nostalgic attachment.
But some of my son’s favorite games are Celeste and Enter The Gungeon. Dead Cells. I don’t think 16-bit art style is going anywhere.
Sir_Meowface
Tons of people love retro themed games… Pixel art isn’t going anywhere.
Turnabout-Eman
Im pretty sure they meant for sonic specificallly.
lordpugfart
It’s ok… Because society has told sonic team that sonic wouldn’t be viable in 10 years. While society was right, Sega somehow managed to prove em wrong. Sonic got good again, and the movies were awesome.
Joseluki
MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
doritology
ITT: people who didn’t read the article and took the clickbait headline at face value
>”However, while Frontiers is being seen as a platform for the next two decades of 3D Sonic, Superstars has a slightly different role to play. Iizuka described the game as an “evolution of the 2D Sonic gameplay,” saying that “we look at the pixel art – it’s great – but when we think about 10-20 years in the future, we don’t think it’s going to be a viable art style or presentation for our players. And in order to advance and really step things up, we did want to make sure that we’re presenting something that 10-20 years down the road we’re still evolving and creating new content for.”
It feels pretty obvious that Iizuka is referring to the presentation of mainline 2D Sonic games specifically and how they’re trying to evolve the presentation with newer games, not pixel art as a whole in the industry.
Solced
One of the most „out-of-touch-statement“ i‘ve ever read.
JumboClin
*laughs in Red Alert 2*
(still looks great at high resolutions)
thatguy52
Super pretty graphics are a nice plus, but I’d rather smooth, compelling, and creative gameplay.
jellytothebones
its easy to jump to conclusions, but look at the present. so many indie games and smaller games are pixel art, even irrespective of trying to evoke a retro look. it’s making it all meld together for me, and I sincerely just have less interest in most things doing the pixel art aesthetic unless it’s going for something other than 16-bit and being VERY faithful to old limitations.
but just because it could go out of style again, doesn’t mean it can’t come back as well
Tropical_Nighthawk55
Idk man, pixel art tends to age better than other art styles.
Brotherprester
tbh I don’t know how Sonic franchise is still viable in 3D, wasn’t Sonic Mania one the best last ones released?
XTheProtagonistX
Anyone played Songs of Conquest? That pixel artstyle is gorgeous.
ravenwitchband
Sea Of Stars has entered the chat…
zdada
Personally, I’m getting tired of the pixel art style but it’s not like I have a hatred for it. I grew up on 13” CRTs and to see these blocks blown up on a 65”+ gets irritating after a while, especially after seeing games in 4K. Younger folks might find it interesting for a while, tho.
boneidol
Sonic devs still have their finger on the pulse I see.
Absolutely_Chill
L take. This weird plastic aesthetic isn’t good now, and won’t be good in the future.
Dinokaizer
Context missing from headline: He’s talking about the Sonic franchise specifically
FoFo1300
meanwhile terraria in 10 years with their 47th final uptade:
Icee202
IMO this reads less like a “pixel art shouldn’t be around anymore” statement and more like a “it’s already oversaturated now, in 10 years that oversaturation will be to such a high degree that it’ll be frowned upon.” statement. Like the “everything is brown” phase of gaming
mitchob1012
I mean mainstream, AAA?
No
But Indies? Absolutely
Krait972
Well, I disagree.
pichu441
Sea of Stars came out TODAY and it is one of the most gorgeous pixel art games ever made.
47 Comments
So I guess they’re still salty about Sonic Mania lol
I did read the same thing in 1996.
Instead, let’s just patchwork together some disjointed platforming bits into an open world and call it a day.
In complete fairness I think they do have a point where pixel art has become trendy and “indie” developers will go with that style for cost cutting reasons and end up dropping a mediocre game on the eShop to get money just from the nostalgia factor.
For every Shovel Knight and Celeste there are 5-10 cheap shovelware games that utilize similar styles.
That said, Sonic Mania was the best Sonic game since like 2001, and I find it so embarrassing how Sonic Team continues to shit on it’s legacy because it wasn’t made by them.
Blimey, how many times have I heard this over the years?
Pixel art is probably in a better place than it’s ever been collectively. The sophistication of some of the artwork nowadays truly blows me away and it remains a highly desired aesthetic. It’s not going anywhere.
*Looks at Sea of Stars currently trending on Steam* Sure thing, whatever you say to convince yourself.
And yet I’ll never stop asking for another Sonic Advance artstyle game.
I love pixel art.
Maybe not for the mainstream, but it will always have a place. It just ages so well compared to 3D.
> However, while Frontiers is being seen as a platform for the next two decades of 3D Sonic, Superstars has a slightly different role to play. Iizuka described the game as an “evolution of the 2D Sonic gameplay,” saying that “we look at the pixel art – it’s great – but when we think about 10-20 years in the future, we don’t think it’s going to be a viable art style or presentation for our players. And in order to advance and really step things up, we did want to make sure that we’re presenting something that 10-20 years down the road we’re still evolving and creating new content for.”
​
Kinda just sounds like their talking about no pixel art for Sonic and not bashing pixel art as an artstyle in general. So this is clickbait.
“Black and white won’t be viable in ten years.” -Hollywood in 1939, probably.
Artistic choices, when done right and fully committed to will always have a place.
Indie developers will keep it alive.
It will never die. It’s ageless. Go back and play Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot. Those games are still fun as hell but they look like diarrhea. Super Mario 3 for NES however still looks great.
Pixel art have grown better with time than most of the 3d art style. It have been proven many time that pre-3d era game are still looking good and that many people are still enjoying the game. The truth is that most 3d render are more cost efficient which is why they keep pushing that narrative.
As someone who loves pixel art and also thinks they did a good job with the 3D models in Superstars, I can’t help but think this “opinion” is nothing more than a marketing excuse/justification for the graphical style they chose to go with.
I haven’t been keeping up enough with this game to know for sure, but I imagine there is at least some drama where there are a handful of people complaining that it’s not pixel graphics like Sonic Mania?
There are 2 kinds of pixel art. Ones that get lot of attention and care in details and the ones that can’t be bothered to give characters a face or even eyes
Weird how SNES games aged better, visually, than N64 games.
There’s always waves, designs, and styles.
Pixel art will fall out of favor in a few years, but it will always return.
Not a great vote of confidence for their game, considering the target audience probably thinks sonic mania is rad.
Imagine thinking an entire art style can just become “not viable.”
I think superstars is visually very appealing, and the only 2D game that rivals its visual appeal is Mania. If they have great colors, they’ll be better.
Do not say that, my game project has Pixel Art style.
lol ok mate
I like sonic
My son is 12. I’m 40. I lived through the SNES era and still love pixel style games. I had until recently assumed it was because of nostalgic attachment.
But some of my son’s favorite games are Celeste and Enter The Gungeon. Dead Cells. I don’t think 16-bit art style is going anywhere.
Tons of people love retro themed games… Pixel art isn’t going anywhere.
Im pretty sure they meant for sonic specificallly.
It’s ok… Because society has told sonic team that sonic wouldn’t be viable in 10 years. While society was right, Sega somehow managed to prove em wrong. Sonic got good again, and the movies were awesome.
MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
ITT: people who didn’t read the article and took the clickbait headline at face value
>”However, while Frontiers is being seen as a platform for the next two decades of 3D Sonic, Superstars has a slightly different role to play. Iizuka described the game as an “evolution of the 2D Sonic gameplay,” saying that “we look at the pixel art – it’s great – but when we think about 10-20 years in the future, we don’t think it’s going to be a viable art style or presentation for our players. And in order to advance and really step things up, we did want to make sure that we’re presenting something that 10-20 years down the road we’re still evolving and creating new content for.”
It feels pretty obvious that Iizuka is referring to the presentation of mainline 2D Sonic games specifically and how they’re trying to evolve the presentation with newer games, not pixel art as a whole in the industry.
One of the most „out-of-touch-statement“ i‘ve ever read.
*laughs in Red Alert 2*
(still looks great at high resolutions)
Super pretty graphics are a nice plus, but I’d rather smooth, compelling, and creative gameplay.
its easy to jump to conclusions, but look at the present. so many indie games and smaller games are pixel art, even irrespective of trying to evoke a retro look. it’s making it all meld together for me, and I sincerely just have less interest in most things doing the pixel art aesthetic unless it’s going for something other than 16-bit and being VERY faithful to old limitations.
but just because it could go out of style again, doesn’t mean it can’t come back as well
Idk man, pixel art tends to age better than other art styles.
tbh I don’t know how Sonic franchise is still viable in 3D, wasn’t Sonic Mania one the best last ones released?
Anyone played Songs of Conquest? That pixel artstyle is gorgeous.
Sea Of Stars has entered the chat…
Personally, I’m getting tired of the pixel art style but it’s not like I have a hatred for it. I grew up on 13” CRTs and to see these blocks blown up on a 65”+ gets irritating after a while, especially after seeing games in 4K. Younger folks might find it interesting for a while, tho.
Sonic devs still have their finger on the pulse I see.
L take. This weird plastic aesthetic isn’t good now, and won’t be good in the future.
Context missing from headline: He’s talking about the Sonic franchise specifically
meanwhile terraria in 10 years with their 47th final uptade:
IMO this reads less like a “pixel art shouldn’t be around anymore” statement and more like a “it’s already oversaturated now, in 10 years that oversaturation will be to such a high degree that it’ll be frowned upon.” statement. Like the “everything is brown” phase of gaming
I mean mainstream, AAA?
No
But Indies? Absolutely
Well, I disagree.
Sea of Stars came out TODAY and it is one of the most gorgeous pixel art games ever made.