Recs for obscure games with absurdly good pixel art?

[jumbletash]

The level of obscurity I am thinking of is along the lines of Kyuutenkai: Fantastic Pinball or Keio Flying Squadron 2
(I just played Kyuuntenkai for the first time and wondered to myself "how many more stunning games like this have I been sleeping on")

 

[99nereids]

alwaysss have to recommend Star Ocean: Blue Sphere for GBC, such a beautiful game that i never see people talk about

 

[plaindillo]

I say Silva Saga II, or Metal Slader Glory---the nes or snes version. Both are stunningly beautiful.

 

[SpcDaicon]

Can't remember any specific game of the top of my head but I think digging for some arcade releases is a good start.

There is a bunch of arcade games that never left Japan with incredible pixel art. They are sweet, short and very stylish.

 

[Dr.Kisaragi Dr.Kisaragi]

I don't if consider pixel art but

Saga Frontier 2
Legend of Mana
PopoloCrois Monogarati (1,2, rogue)

 

[RetroZero]

Twinkle Star Sprites is absolutely adorable.

 

[PacGuy]

The level of obscurity I am thinking of is along the lines of Kyuutenkai: Fantastic Pinball or Keio Flying Squadron 2
(I just played Kyuuntenkai for the first time and wondered to myself "how many more stunning games like this have I been sleeping on")

Awesome idea for a thread. I'll be keeping an eye on this one. <3 Pixel art

 

[throughdarkness]

Harmful Park is pretty.

 

[zombie100379]

kairosoft games

 

[DinoRexMax DinoRexMax]

Depends on your mileage of "obscure" and "insanely good". Especially considering the fidelity of consoles vary so widely. Sonic Mania has insanely good pixel art, but is far from obscure. What about the Sonic Advance games? Does anyone remember those anymore?

The Super Robot Wars series on the PS2 and PSP also has insanely good pixel art, but the series has become much less obscure over the years due to it's recent entries on PC (the PS3 Original Generations games are also pretty to look at).

I guess there's Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm, that fighting game made by all those Pro-3rd Strike players in Japan.

That one has Maximillain Dood announcing in it.

 

[NOTthatHARD]

Super Alloy Crush
BERSERK BOY
Witchroid Vania: A Magical Girl’s Fantastical Adventures
DaemonBride: ADDITIONAL GAIN
EvoCreo 2
Monster Tale (DS)
Draglade (DS)

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but all of them have great pixel art graphics and are also kinda obscure.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Mystic Ark, Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt, Moonring, The Dark Spire, Devil Crush, Mega Serval, Rosenkreuzstilette, Ashina: The Red Witch, Red Bow, Deep Dungeons of Doom, Evoland, Strikey Sisters, Wings of Vi, Slime-san

 

[zombie100379]

 

[ArchienineArchienine's icon]

Most Way Foward games, i mean, they put a unreasonaly good pixel art on their Sabrina the Witch GBC games. I also can think of Mega Man Xtreme 1 & 2.

 

[HYEROS]

Arcade :
Dragon Blaze
Gaiapolis
Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode 3
Battle Circuit
Warriors of Fate/Tenchi o Kurau 2
Top Hunter (Neo Geo)
Varth: Operation Thunderstorm
Pocket Fighter
R - Type Leo
Steel Gunner 1&2
Muscle Bomber/Saturday Night Slam Masters, Muscle Bomber Duo, Super Muscle Bomber/Ring of Destruction: Slammasters 2
Mobile Suit Gundam EX Revue
Metamorphic Force
Light Bringer
Knights of Valour/Sangoku Senki series
Hyper Duel
Guwange
Gunforce 2
Guardians/Denjin Makai 2
V - Five/Grind Stormer
Grid Seeker
FixEight
ESP Ra.De.
Dragon Ball Z 2 - Super Battle
Dogyuun
Cybattler
Sorcer Striker, Kingdom Grand Prix, Dimahoo
Desert Breaker
Demon Front
Daraku Tenshi - The Fallen Angels
Cyvern

 

[Disgaean]

Gigawing, Progear and Soukyugurentai

 

[SpcDaicon]

Another god source of real obscure games with perfect pixel art is the PC-98 catalog, here some exemples:

• Tokyo Twilight Busters
  
  
  
  
• Dead of the Brain
  
  
  
  
• CRW: Counter Rebelioin War Metal Jacket
  
  
  
  
  Fair warning: many of PC-98 releases are point-and-click adventures/Visual Novels with a lot of NSFW content

 

[Noon]

• CRW: Counter Rebelioin War Metal Jacket
  View attachment 188631

Ah I forgot I downloaded CRW and the emulator I gotta on that cause it looks so cool!

Contact

Magical Starsign, (and Magical Vacation)

Knights in the Nightmare

Wonder Project J2 (and Wonder Project J)

And Cladun X3!

 

[daido]

Another god source of real obscure games with perfect pixel art is the PC-98 catalog, here some exemples:

• Tokyo Twilight Busters
  View attachment 188628
  
• Dead of the Brain
  View attachment 188630
  
• CRW: Counter Rebelioin War Metal Jacket
  View attachment 188631
  
  Fair warning: many of PC-98 releases are point-and-click adventures/Visual Novels with a lot of NSFW content

One that isn’t NSFW and with really nice pixel art is the Slayers dungeon crawler. The music is great too. Unfortunately it’s not all that fun to actually play—the dungeons devolve into teleport puzzles to an insane degree, and the only guide I know of is in Japanese.

 

[dizzypixel]

not obscure per say but needy streamer overload

 

[jumbletash]

Thanks for all the recommendations so far!

Twinkle Star Sprites, Harmful Park and Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm are the ones I am most looking forward to checking out

I am very familiar with pocket fighter but it's a fantastic example of what I had in mind, explosively animated

 

[ArchienineArchienine's icon]

Drill Dozer for GBA, is a overlooked game from the devs of Pokemon