Older games that aged well. (strictly talking about graphics)

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Basically any Sprite based game for the SNES or GBA have aged well kind of hard to find a bad example of that there. Personally I think all the Final Fantasies have managed to age well. The only sort of bumps are FFVII and FFVIII and given at the time how big the games were and how used the studio was to making 3d it still looks pretty good. I find the FFVII polygon characters aged a lot better then FFVIII as it gave it a kinda lego feel.

Donkey Kong and the Half Life games(more so 2 and the eps) as well as most of Valve's games tend to age quite well too.

 

[Pinkamena]

Beyond Good and Evil still has a very pleasing color scheme and aesthetics.

 

[Kizo18]

I'll make a pretty big generalization here and say that almost all 2D games hold up extremely well.
On the other hand most of early 3D games (early-mid PS1/N64 era) look really bad today.
Games after that rise sharply in graphical quality. And the cartoony cel-shaded ones tend to look almost timeless.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Jade Empire is still very beautiful and I played it just 3 months ago.
And 2D games, like Age of empire II, I think it still holds up. 2D fighting games...
Silent Hill from 2 onward.

 

[imnot]

Pacman still looks awesome today, its like haunted tron.

 

[That_Sneaky_Camper]

How far back are we talking? Could I talk about something from like a year or two ago, from several years to a decade ago?

In any case I was thinking about Crysis when you said that. I got the console version of Crysis but I swear even 4 years later it looks like something you would see come out today. Crysis is a very pretty game.

 

[Bamkills]

Man, I had to make an account just to respond to this thread, but I send 1 huge vote to Metal Slug 3 on Neo-Geo. Some of the best 2d graphics I have ever seen in my life to date, and its from 2000. That game should be recognized as art.

Also I also go for Windwaker and Jet Set Radio Future also, they just can't be dated, they work perfectly for what they are.

And another for the Megaman x series. Just really seems to never age.

 

[Tigurus]

Command & Conquer and Red Alert (The first ones)
Those pixels cannot age and always look stunning!

 

[Zay-el]

I think Jazz Jackrabbit 2 can still be appreciated greatly for its graphics.

And the soundtrack, of course.

 

[EvilMaggot]

Far Cry 1

still awesome looking to this date

 

[SausageAssassin]

Homeworld 2 is old enough and still looks fantastic and its an rts and they normally look shit, even to this day.

 

[Treblaine]

Not in itself, but as a product of functionality over time:

Doom


Bear with me here, I know that game is incredibly basic in term of graphics but by god, for a game coming up on 20 years old it is functional in almost every area that counts. The enemies may be sprites but they have well realised death and attack animations, for all the fun of fire, manoeuvre, dipping in and out of cover and so on it really holds up today.

Few games REALLY take advantage of the third dimension, height, in FPS that would truly benefit the 3D enemy models. Actually, not enough even benefit from hitting different parts of the body!

Way better than say the awkward 3D of the likes of Goldeneye. Sprites I think age so well because you can have such creative animations that only recently have 3D models become advanced enough to replicate:

The only time this is really a problem is if you try to shoot them from a high angle.

 

[farscythe]

[i still love the look of XIII

 

[NoNameMcgee]

I think Crash Bandicoot (the first one) is an example of a PS1 game that actually does still look pretty good in an aesthetic (not technical) way. On an emulator in a full-HD resolution with AA its actually very pleasing on the eyes.

Most cartoony sort of games tend to age well graphically though.

Also, a lot of 90s point and click adventure games still look great simply due to them being 2D and having extremely detailed drawings.

 

[Vkmies]

Most 16 bit games stand the test of time expectionally well, because of the colour. Especially SNES. Donkey Kong Country series and the 16-bit mario-games? Freaking gorgeus! Mickey Mania and blah blah blah... Just check the SNES library, the 2d games of that console pretty much all look just fabulous!

 

[Susurrus]

The Baldur's Gate series looks pretty good.. Character models now look a bit blurry, and the resolutions could do with being higher, but the backgrounds are all simply pieces of artwork anyway, so it still looks pretty good..

 

[Penguin_Factory]

In general I find that old 2D games have aged much better than 3D ones. Almost anything from the Playstation era now looks hideous.

From the PS2 era:

Silent Hill 2 and (especially) 3 still look impressive today, particularly the PC versions. Hell some of SH3s character models are more realistic than games that came out this year.

Shadow of the Colossus (the original version). Although if you go back and play it it's pretty obvious that the game was pushing the PS2 to within an inch of its life.

Metroid Prime. The frame rate alone puts many modern games to shame.

Wind Waker is still awe-inspiring to behold, a real testament to the strength of art direction.

Metal Gear Solid 3 was another game that came out at the tail end of the PS2's life, and it really managed to push the aging hardware in a way that holds up surprisingly well today.

The first two Kingdom Hearts games still look really good today, particularly the second one.

This one is kind of cheating since it's not that old, but I continue to be blown away by how good Mario Galaxy looks. The fact that they managed to do that on last-gen hardware is astounding.

My last example isn't so much to do with graphics as how visuals are used in a game. There's been a major push this generation toward making games more "cinematic", mostly with poor results in my opinion. By contrast, go back and watch the opening credits to Final Fantasy VI. Proof positive that music and striking visuals count for far more shiny graphics.

 

[Vault101]

due to how awsome the source engine is...half life 2

 

[Naeras]

Generally games that used color and art correctly and usually didn't have pretensions to look realistic. Zelda: Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Zero(and REmake, who still look awesome despite being "realistic looking"), Golden Sun, Serious Sam, Beyond Good and Evil, World of Warcraft, Advance Wars... you get the idea.

 

[necromanzer52]

Abe's oddysee still looks gorgeous. Why am I the first to mention this one?