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Abominations of Technology: Pre-Rendered Graphics

Posted by Bob Mackey

As a weird side-effect of technological anxiety and the transition from 2D to 3D games, pre-rendered graphics had their place.  In some cases, that was a very, very bad place, like where Big Bird said strangers couldn't touch you; basically, any game with pre-rendered, animated sprites.  Though in the 32-bit era, it's reasonable to say that some pre-rendered graphics were necessary--if a circa 1997 Square programming team tried to make a real-time Midgar, the result would be an abominable pile of warping polygons and broken dreams.

But so many years later, you'd think that we, as a people, could unite against pre-rendered graphics and say "No more."  In what can only be considered an affront to the eyes and good taste of gamers everywhere, developers are still using pre-rendered graphics.  And it's high time they stopped.

I've always thought that pre-rendered graphics--at least in their first few years--were a strange sort of technophilia in that they assured us that somewhere, very powerful computers exist; and these computers are hard at work, rendering things ahead of time so your puny hardware doesn't have to. Never mind that pre-rendered sprites always look muddy, fuzzy, and ill-defined when compared to their hand-drawn counterparts, there are SGI workstations spending countless hours making Donkey Kong uglier and you will show them respect!

This kind of attitude made sense in the mid-to-late 90s, when there was a real tension between 2D and 3D gaming, and many 2D games were cast in the pre-rendered mold in order to make them "acceptable" to modern gamers--even great games like Klonoa suffer from bloated, fuzzy sprites. But why, in 2008, must we continue to suffer through the anxieties of hardware generations past? Fire Emblem, a series known for its beautiful, hand drawn sprites and character art, has now gone the pre-rendered route with its newest DS iteration, leaving a legion of fans scratching their heads and clawing out their eyeballs. And this is by no means an isolated event; both updates to the phenomenal Donkey Kong '94 (seriously, go play this game) have been zombified by the process of pre-rendering.  In the words of Nancy Kerrigan, "WHY WHY WHY WHY!?"

Does anyone still like pre-rendering? Has it ever improved a game? These are questions which demand answers.

Related Links:

Alternate Soundtrack - Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?


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Comments

Roto13 said:

Donkey Kong '94 and Mario vs Donkey Kong were awesome. Haven't played the last one, though.

Anyways, yeah, pre-rendered graphics are horrible. I won't even forgive Final Fantasy VII for them. I thought Final Fantasy VII looks hideously ugly. Rare had this stupid fascination of them. Even with the Game Boy Colour. The stupid thing was like a handheld NES and they tried to pre-render everything on it. Idiots.

I don't mind Super Mario RPG's pre-rendered graphics, though, for some reason.

September 8, 2008 6:52 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

I still say Yoshi's Story pre-rendering looks awesome.  It's the only example of a good looking pre-rendered game I can come up with though.

September 8, 2008 7:51 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

Oh, and just to add, I think Donkey Kong's ugliness comes from the character design, not the pre-rendered sprites.  I have never liked Rare's character art style and they really beat that poor ape with the ugly stick.

September 8, 2008 7:53 PM

Nadia Oxford said:

I agree. A DKC with Donkey Kong's "retro" design would be adorable.

September 8, 2008 10:56 PM

Eric said:

Hi this is Michael Jordan, welcome to Michael Jordan In Flight:

www.youtube.com/watch

Not sure exactly what tech they used on this graphics in this game, but to my younger self it looked insane. Not to mention the brilliant VO work by MJ... What time is it? Game time! Take it to the hole... Yes!

September 9, 2008 3:36 PM

Bob Mackey said:

Never play basketball in the middle of a black hole.

September 12, 2008 12:04 AM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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