I think a lot of 320x200 256-color VGA games look so fantastic, in a way that hasn't translated to higher-resolution games, because good VGA art implies detail. Detail that is very hard to make explicit at higher resolutions, especially within budget and under a deadline.
This is how I feel seeing the new HD sprites for the Ace Attorney Investigations games in contrast with their original pixel art sprites.
I prefer the HD sprites because the old sprites implied the detail in some cool ways that worked amazingly on a screen the size of a Nintendo DS (256x192!), but on a 1920x1080 screen, some of the tricks look off in a way that i don't really see with contemporary pixel art made for HD or near-HD resolutions