Personally, I really dig when companies go towards the horror sci-fi art direction, Irem was definitely on top of this but there were some other companies that did this well like SNK.
I was just playing that last game on my SNK collection. Really good ideas in that game. If I had to pick a favorite it would probably be low poly 3D games from Sega like Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop, and House of the Dead.
And of course Capcom and SNK fighting games
There are so many gorgeous arcade games out there with all sorts of different visual styles that it's practically impossible to pick a favourite, but gun to my head I'd probably say 2D sprite art (with a focus on detailed animation) is the most timeless to me.
Either Street Fighter 3: Third Strike or Garou: Mark of the Wolves would be the best examples of this. To this day I think those are some of the best looking games ever made.
Metal Slug is right up there as well though!
I'm also really fond of the visuals in Cave shmups - Mushihimesama, Ibara Kuro and ESP Ra.De. especially.
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