No High-Res Here
Yes, the 4K, 128 GB games are beautiful, and it's thrilling to see an NPC’s head get crushed in high resolution, but not all of us need or want to be able to see the individual hairs on a person’s head. Sometimes, the best storytelling is found in the simplistic art style from many, many years ago, when games were played on a TV that gave you static shock.
1. Stardew Valley
This indie farming sim is obviously going to be first on the list, and can you blame us? With a surprisingly complex blend of combat, conversation, and crop management, matched with a heart-pulling desire for the quieter life, Stardew Valley takes the pixel art style of Terraria and turns it on its head.
2. Axiom Verge
You wake up in a mysterious alien world, with no memory of how you got there. Now, you must travel this labyrinthine world to uncover its many secrets. Axiom Verge is a gorgeous example of how to blend biomechanical horror into the familiar pixel art style, and even plays on the ability to “break the game,” reminiscent of the old up, down, up, down, left, left, right, down cheat codes from the recent past.
3. Graveyard Keeper
This management simulation game was widely inspired by Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon, which is evident from the moment you load in. However, Graveyard Keeper does have a darker, grittier feel to it than the familiar farming sim, accompanied by a medieval-era-inspired town.
4. Carrion
This reverse horror game allows you to control a red tentacled monster that’s making its way through a lab facility, taking down whatever humans it finds in its way. As you progress through the game, you’ll learn more about the creature, its origins, and its life up to that point by unlocking memories. The game is reminiscent of your standard platformer and was largely inspired by 80s and 90s horror films.
5. Dead Cells
This gorgeous 2D-scroller honors the platformer style of the past with a brightly colored art style from the future, and is often compared to Metroid. It's a “roguevania” style game, meaning that you’ll lose all weapons and upgrades obtained during the playthrough.
6. Omori
This RPG features a unique art style, combining colored pencil sketches with the simple sprite design from early Pokémon games. Relatively innocent-looking, you’ll be shocked to discover the darker elements that this game has in store.
7. Signalis
Signalis is a survival horror game that's largely inspired by the classics, Silent Hill and Resident Evil, as seen in part by its fifth-generation video game graphics and gameplay style. In this game, you control Elster, a ship technician who must solve her way through a hostile mining facility.
8. Cyber Shadow
In this 2021 game, you play as Shadow, a cyborg ninja who is working to free his clan members from the grasp of synthetic lifeforms. Operating as a side-scrolling action-platformer, this game was largely inspired by Ninja Gaiden, Shatterhand, Mega Man, and Castlevania.
9. Panzer Paladin
This side-scrolling platformer has you play as Flame, a rescue android who must defeat a series of demonic invaders. While reminiscent of games like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Mega Man, this 8-bit game makes use of intuitive swordplay mechanics and has a fresh take on side-scrolling combat.
10. Sea Of Stars
This 2023 RPG is set on a series of islands in a fantasy world, in which you can control two warriors who harness the power of the sun and moon. You must follow these two characters, destroying powerful monsters and ultimately defeating an immortal alchemist. The game has a 2-D pixel art style, similar to games like Chrono Trigger.
11. Octopath Traveler
This game is a beautiful blend of old and new. It makes use of an aesthetic called “HD-2D,” in which the characters look similar to Super NES-style sprites, but the background is a high-quality 3D space.
Holly Raven (Mandarich) on Unsplash
12. Cuphead
This indie game was published back in 2017 and follows Cuphead and his brother Mugman after making a deal with the devil. The game is largely reminiscent of the rubber hose animation style, the standardized style of the American animation industry in the 1920s.
13. Celeste
This indie platformer has you controlling a character named Madeline, a young woman who is struggling with anxiety and depression, as she makes her ascent to the summit of Celeste Mountain. The game was largely inspired by Super Mario Bros. 3 and mimics the changing landscape often seen while climbing a mountain.
Maddy Makes Games on Wikimedia
14. Undertale
This 2015 top-down RPG was popular for its heartwarming storytelling and difficult combat interactions. The art style took inspiration primarily from the series Earthbound, and a lot of the design was created in Microsoft Paint.
Toby Fox and/or Temmie Chang on Wikimedia
15. Disco Elysium
Following a troubled detective who wakes up with a serious case of amnesia, this RPG blends elements of a tabletop game with an expressionist art style, a movement that caught on in early 20th-century Germany. While the animation style is simple, the game itself has a deep lore, and every choice the players make greatly influences the outcome.
16. Mouthwashing
Designed to reflect the low-poly aesthetic found in early PlayStation games, this 2024 horror adventure game follows a group of astronauts who have been stranded in space, with no means to get home.
17. The Messenger
This action-platform video game has you controlling a ninja, who’s on a quest to deliver a scroll. The game uses a unique dual-art style, switching from 8 to 16-bit animation as your character journeys from the past to the future.
Guilherme Stecanella on Unsplash
18. Shovel Knight
This 2014 platformer is very much inspired by the gameplay and graphics of the original NES. It features an 8-bit style situated within a 2D side-scroller, and requires the player to end each “world” with a boss fight.
19. Owlboy
Created by an independent Norwegian studio, this platform-adventure game follows a boy named Otus, who’s part of a humanoid owl race. When Otus’ village is attacked, Otus must set out to fight the band of pirates who ruined his home.
20. Slay The Princess
This 2023 game is very much inspired by a combination of choose-your-own-adventure books and point-and-click adventure games. The game is simple: you must slay a princess who is trapped in the basement of an abandoned cabin. We’ll let you figure out the rest from there.
