"to really give it that current look"
Man. Man. Look. I get it. Wide-appeal games is about chasing mushy "all-audience" trends. But it's really depressing to me that, rather than attempt to come up with an art style with any sort of standout design to it, they're content to continue making "that current look" (IE overworked shiny 3d) as if it's the only option while dismissing anything else offhand. What a depressing way to view an entire art form.
Ah yes, 2d pixel art, the famously niche art style used by games with narrow appeal like checks notes Celeste, Undertale, Stardew Valley, Vampire Survivors, Terreria, Starbound....
(All except Celeste have more sales on Steam alone according to SteamDB than Sonic Frontiers had in total according to Wikipedia)
Kinda hoping that Super Mario Wonder shakes that line of thought a bit. Even tho I don't think it's mind blowing innovative it's at least fresh and outside of the mold
how, though? it has the same over-polished corporate 3d style as every modern 2d mario does
The decision to force a perspective on the 3D models and interpreting it as if it was 2D is smart and makes the game bounds more interesting than most other 2D 3D Marios. The rendering style isn't my cup of tea either but the models and animations are lovely
i won't act like superstars couldn't have had a more unique artstyle whether it be in 2d or 3d but i legit think the current way it looks is great, and given how hard it prob is to translate the vibe of the classic 2d sonic games to 3d i find it more plausible they actually discussed a bunch of other ways to do it instead of going "it's going to be THIS way and no other way"
