The Video Game Art Style That Divides EVERY Gamer
Pixel art - fundamentally outdated or totally acceptable?
With PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, gamers are experiencing console gaming on a whole new level.
These powerhouse systems are capable of stunning visual effects and graphics. It’ll be fascinating to see what they’re capable of in that arena, once developers learn enough about the hardware to really push them to their limits.
Gaming isn’t all about hyper-realistic visuals and technical splendour, though.
In recent years, a trend for retro-inspired pixel art has really made its presence felt. This style, like the battle royale or Metroidvania phenomenon, is everywhere, particularly among indie development teams.
Pixel art games are nice palette cleansers for today’s gamers, in between bouts of visual-effect-intensive AAA titles, but gamers are fickle. They can be enamoured with an aesthetic or visual style one moment and utterly tired of it the next.
For many, pixel art has gone the way of roguelike/roguelite elements: becoming a buzzword sure to diminish any interest they may have had in an upcoming title at the mere mention of it.
Are graphics really the be-all-and-end-all of gaming’s present and future? Is there still a place for pixel art amid all the bells and whistles of the biggest AAA titles and the new systems?
Let’s take a closer look at the highs and lows of this contentious art style.