What are the most aesthetic games out there?

IlluminatiPirate

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what are the most aesthetic games out there?
Hotline Miami comes to mind
 

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LCD Noir

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Games like Broken Reality come to mind, as well as VHS vs. Betamax for some tongue-in-cheek humour with the aesthetics of vaporwave. I've played the demo of Broken Reality and it's pretty surreal, it's more of an experience than a game, but that didn't stop me from enjoying how the environment was crafted.

Broken Reality:


VHS vs. Betamax:


Hotline Miami and Far Cry: Blood Dragon are closer to synthwave and it's subgenres too, which gives off a whole different vibe in their aesthetic. The original OutRun is up there too, even getting a whole genre named after it.

OutRun:


Far Cry: Blood Dragon


Edit: Fixed image order
 
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IlluminatiPirate

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LCD Noir

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Wow, Total Anarchy looks cool! It reminds me of the old-gen GTA games back when they still had the top-down perspective.
 
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Neon Vangelis

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I just get on itch.io and search for random games related to some other aesthetic game i played before.
Not much of a recommendation but hope it helps you find a wider selection to choose from.
 
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IlluminatiPirate

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jankyswans said:
Any game by Jay Tholen. Dropsy and Hypnospace Outlaw are both amazing.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4Jul496QE[/youtube]

wow that looks awesome!
 
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vmrrobotic

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Katana Zero is pretty A E S T H E T I C. It is really similar to hotline miami, but in my opinion it has better storytelling and controls
 

Deleted member 795

The latest Pokemon iterations, Sword And Shield. No, they don't LOOK all that A E S T H E T I C, but there's this constant riff in them about looking fashionable and buying "branded" products so that you might get an "endorsement" to allow you into higher-level battles. If that doesn't sound like rampant consumerism and commercialism, I don't know what DOES.

And yes, knowing those guys, the inclusion of this in this prominent a manner is NOT a ringing endorsement of capitalism. I'm sure there's going to be a not-all-that-subtle point made about it in-game. Remember, Pokemon always touches back to the point that Satoshi Tajiri had a bit of an environmental protest statement in there from the very start. They might be making money, but they're on the right side of things...
 

EtymonLegomenon

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Sonic 1-3&K deserve a mention here. I've said before that those games are worthy of a book written about their aesthetics (in the sense spelled without v a p o r s p a c e s). The music is clearly both foundational and cut of common cloth, i.e. the principle that pretty synthesizer sounds aren't "cheap," they're tools to reach new heights of beauty - I even remember there being a popular vaporwave mix on YouTube that ended with Star Light Zone's music, unedited. In contrasting with Mario's cartoon look, Sonic Team created a distinctive aesthetic full of idealized CGI renders, random scenery objects, sunny seasides and sparkling cityscapes. Green Hill has checkerboard floors, ffs.
Sonic-1-green-hill1.png
Specialstages1.png


This video goes into nice detail and is incredibly a e s t h e t i c in its own right.


Donkey Kong Country, sort of Nintendo's answer to Sonic, and probably more aesthetic. (The quality on this video's shitty - THAT'S aesthetic, right?)


Vectorman, sort of SEGA's answer to Donkey Kong Country, and even MORE aesthetic.


WaveRace 64


Daytona USA
 
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Eis-T

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I want to wholeheartedly endorse Broken Reality. It really is something special. I've played it only for a few hours so far and I'm blown away by how creative they were with implementing the aesthetics.
 
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EtymonLegomenon

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I want to wholeheartedly endorse Broken Reality. It really is something special. I've played it only for a few hours so far and I'm blown away by how creative they were with implementing the aesthetics.
Oh boy, I see Errant Signal used the game to discuss "IRONY"!1 I got as far as when he got into the Thinker pose and started asking "are these sarcastic anti-capitalists or REAL anti-capitalists?" and my eyes rolled fast enough that I was forcibly thrown backwards, exiting the video reflexively.

Worth noting I only made it to that point 'cause the footage was cool. Cooler than the screenshot posted before looked; I just wished I knew whether it was sarcastic or sincere for my homework assignment...

I think video games are perfectly suited to rendering imaginative vaporscapes in 3D, paired with a refined aesthetic and more interesting gameplay. Most vaporous indie games inspired by the vaporspectrum are 2D, and are "inspired" to the point of having vaguely vapey color palettes and generic synthwave music. It is my perennial grief that so few indie games aspire three dimensions, and even fewer bother to look good when doing it.

Which reminds me of this game, should've mentioned it earlier.

 
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Sonic 1-3&K deserve a mention here. I've said before that those games are worthy of a book written about their aesthetics (in the sense spelled without v a p o r s p a c e s). The music is clearly both foundational and cut of common cloth, i.e. the principle that pretty synthesizer sounds aren't "cheap," they're tools to reach new heights of beauty - I even remember there being a popular vaporwave mix on YouTube that ended with Star Light Zone's music, unedited. In contrasting with Mario's cartoon look, Sonic Team created a distinctive aesthetic full of idealized CGI renders, random scenery objects, sunny seasides and sparkling cityscapes. Green Hill has checkerboard floors, ffs.
Sonic-1-green-hill1.png
Specialstages1.png


This video goes into nice detail and is incredibly a e s t h e t i c in its own right.


Donkey Kong Country, sort of Nintendo's answer to Sonic, and probably more aesthetic. (The quality on this video's shitty - THAT'S aesthetic, right?)


Vectorman, sort of SEGA's answer to Donkey Kong Country, and even MORE aesthetic.


WaveRace 64


Daytona USA

Vector man was the shit back in the day
 
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