Favorite Art Direction in arcade games.

[Amakuchi]

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.

 

[Deleted member 560402]

Everyone saw Alien and said, " I want to do that in my game."

 

[kuroninneko]

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

 

[RustySK]

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.

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Mine personally is the "FUCK IT NCSDSBIUEBDIUFwbu9rbouirsiuaeosiDNOZS)bv9rgb9w3r8e9q3049ejwfjgrv-pw[das>":XAs
fetw4hy5rt" art style

 

[Turbo Kid]

 

[myhosea]

this one was really cool, the strong visuals stayed with me

another one was the night city and overall graphical/text design from Tokyo Cop.... but unfortunately, this game is really bad..... actually. this game is evil and tries to gaslight you

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Capcom VS SNK just can’t be beaten.

 

[Moreno909]

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.

That Search and Rescue game of the last image is a great one

Post automatically merged: Sep 19, 2025

Golden Axe for it iconic stages for me
Undercover Cops for overall graphics
Splatterhouse for the horror atmosphere
Metal Slug for the animation
Progear

 

[Vardalis]

I'd say the (roughly) PS1 to PS2 generation of 3D. The era where everything had color, particle effects and ambient lighting wasn't used everywhere, textures and models were lower quality but everything still managed to pull you into that world and has that perfect mid 90s to mid 2000s 3D aesthetic.

...Is that an art direction? I guess in modern times it kind of is when you have indie games emulating the PS1 style now.

 

[Tonberry]

The mid-90s Capcom games, especially the Street Fighter Alpha series

 

[88cmflak]

Fighting games usually have best art direction but I personally think SNK'S Metal Slug and KOF XIII is the best of the era.

I remembered playing this game only so that I could see the animated background arts.

 

[Deleted member 887798]

For me, it's those Y2K era rhythm games, especially the ones by Konami

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

 

[water_kooler]

Bunch of arcade stuff incoming...

Vs. fighters - Power Instinct was ahead of it's time. It was made to compete with Street Fighter. Vampire Savior 2 from Capcom had shocking themes. SNK produced the most impressive sprite work. Look at Samurai Showdown V, Last Blade 2, and Garou.

Puzzles - Puyo Puyo 2, Pururun, and Block Out were great presentations of sound and graphics.

Shmups - Batsugun and Sorcer Striker were unrivaled at the time of their release. Raiden DX also for it's style.

Beat em' up - Vendetta, Undercover Cops, Night Slashers, DnD Shadow over Mysteria and Sengoku 2.

Run and gun - Out Zone, Shock Troopers 2, Desert Assault, Caliber 50, Gun Force 2 and Commando.

Hope this helps.

 

[SpcDaicon]

SNK were the kings of pixel art in the 90's.

I think their best in art direction were all the Metal Slugs. Super detailed pixel art, distinctive and unique artstyle that merged anime and cartoon. Very fun art overall

 

[extermist]

For 2D, it'd either be Metal Slug or Three Woders.

For 3D, it's gotta be the original arcade version of Tekken 6, I don't even care that other games look better or are more realistic or graphically impressive.

 

[Isegrim]

Most of what I could have mentioned had already been mentioned.

Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap remade by Dotemu and Lizardcube is an amazing remake. As a fan of the Asterix series, the french comic style used in this game as opposed to the regular anime style of the original looks and plays wonderful. Not to mention the real orchestra music.

Since no one's mentioned Darkstalkers directly yet, I'll just put this here. The DS games has this splatter effect where you can see some Looney Tunes type hitstun animation not present in the SF Alpha series. I heard that the animation in the Darkstalkers series is a masterclass in itself for teaching traditional 2d drawn animation since it instills a lot of the fundamentals.

 

[dkpopman]

As a minimalist, Tempest's original vector graphics have stuck with me for years.

Pictures and modern ways of playing don't do it justice. You have to see the true vectors being drawn in person to really get what Atari was going for. There's definitely more impressive stuff out there, But I can't help but feel something when I see a cab of this out in the wild.