Big sprites are beautiful, naturally, but the same is equally true for small sprites and I think that is often overlooked. It takes a lot of talent to make a distinct, recognizable and good looking small sprite and I love it when it works.
The early days of the Game Boy saw a lot of good examples, as seen in pic related. They respected the small screen resolution and made something fitting for it. Later on sprites got bigger and in my opinion quite often too big, examples of such are also present in pic related. SML2 is an example of that, arguably Metroid 2.
What are you favorites?
>>2965834
>that fucking donkey kong
I never understood why they made pre-rendered shitty 3D models and then turned them into sprites. DKC games always looked like shit to me.
>>2965850
The first DKL was definitely bad, but they managed to make it work in the successive games. Smaller sprits and less detailed backgrounds. And the animations of the main characters are very detailed. One of the few occassion where I actually like the prerendered sprites.
>>2965834
Game boy and Nes are a gold mine for these.
Here a few of my game boy favorites that haven't been posted yet.
>>2965850
Totally agre with you. I can understand the appeal of pre-rendered sprites, since it can look awesome if done right. But those 90's 3D models were awfull and looked awfull as sprites too.
DKC always looked too messy to my taste.
>>2965834
I feel classic mega man's 8-bit sprite really accomplished this, very recognizable and able to convey multiple poses perfectly.
I also really love kirby's sprite in kirby's adventure and super star, very expressive and with kirby's simple but appealing design.
>>2965850
Yeah, you're a faggot, no need to broadcast it.
>>2967132
>>2965834
>Big sprites are beautiful
no, they're boring
>naturally
exactly, there's no work in making them look good, you get plenty of pixels, just draw and you're set.
>the same is equally true for small sprites
no, it's not equal, because for small sprites it takes skill to make them work, and most are not beautiful. That's why you made this thread, to talk about the few good looking ones.
>The early days of the Game Boy
And then they stopped?
>They respected the small screen resolution
That statement depends on your opinion on what respects the screen size, as shown by your example of Metroid 2.
>examples of such are also present in pic related
These are all monochrome GB. You're implying the GBC fucked things up even more?
>>2967103
>>2965834
Wario Land 2 and 3 are beautiful in terms of detail and animation.
>>2965834
>praising the art of small sprites
>butchering it with non-integer scaling
LRN2SCALE REEEEEEEEEEEEEE
>>2967126
You hit the nail on the head. I'm a faggot because I have a different opinion on what kind of sprites look good. Good old /vr/, bastion of maturity. I'm shocked you didn't toss in a kiddo and go back to >>/v/ in there just for good measure.
>>2967117
>I feel classic mega man's 8-bit sprite really accomplished this, very recognizable and able to convey multiple poses perfectly.
Original sprite designed by Akira Kitamura, with animations by the rest of the team.
The smallest, and one of the best.
>>2965834
Link's Awakening sprite is still the best retro Link sprite, in my opinion. I suppose Zelda 2's is pretty great, but that didn't have the limitation of working in a top-down game.
>>2968324
Wow. That is pretty based. And to think Miyamoto bitched about animating hair on Jumpman's sprite.
>>2968390
Yeah, it gets enforced when you see how good some hacks make Mario graphics look like.
>>2968324
This is the shit I am looking for. Most of the stuff is way bigger than small, like, average size.
It's especially good, since it's a small sprite on a more advanced system, a 16-bit system.
Troddlers has similar looking characters, probably inspired by Lemmings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc13_0voSEU
>>2967138
Haha. That's cute.
C64 games, like Black Tiger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnIO9JsaCg8
>>2975708
Pretty cool.
>>2975708
That tune is definitely going to be stuck in my head for a while. Pretty sweet. Love SIDs.
>>2967138
Peach showing emotions?
>>2968324
The shrug when a lemming finish its bridge is probably the most expressive thing by number of pixel ever
King of Demons on the SNES had rather small sprites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3oWNm563H4
