i find it incredibly irritating when people say "oh so and so isnt TRUE pixel art" as if the only way to make "correct" pixel art is to hunch over and do it pixel by pixel with a mouse.
if you're making art that is intended to be viewed at a very low resolution and the pixels play an integral part of the aesthetic, then its pixel art lol. i dont see the asinine need to make some sort of weird moral judgement about it, its the same as snobby classical weirdos saying "this isnt music! this is just noise!!!" about other genres. something is allowed to be a part of a genre you create/observe, regardless if its terrible at being that genre.
do i consider pre-rendered sprites and bad downscaled art in gba games to be pixel art? absolutely, because the pixels, low resolution, and color limitations become an inseparable part of the art thats being conveyed. to me, that's much more important than how it was created. whether its GOOD pixel art or not depends on just how much effort was put into making sure the image translates well, which in and of itself can be just as difficult as creating a pixel art image from scratch and requires a lot of clever tricks.
