Getting real sick of these 8 bit not 8 bit indies.

I will be kind of surprised if Cuphead remains exclusive to the Xbox One.

 

It looks like Microsoft contributed to its development, so don't be too surprised.

 

Microsoft also contributed to the development of Tales of Vesperia, Ninja Gaiden 2, and Mass Effect.

I just don't trust MS to hold on to exclusives anymore.

 

Yes, but an indie developer won't have the power to say "thanks, but we still want to go multiplatform" when they sign any kind of funding agreement.

 

Say what you will about the authenticity or morality of their work (and for the record, I say this as a fan), but I have to admire Team I.G.A.S for at least keeping within the limitations of real hardware. Sure, their restoration of the BioHazard 2 prototype is restricted by the capabilities of the original PlayStation rather than 8-bit consoles, though I'd like to think the same basic rules apply. I bet most of these supposed "retro" designers aren't even aware of the fact the NES lacked native support for anything close to a yellow in its colour pallete - that particular information blew my mind when I first learned of it (just a few days ago, I'll admit)! Now, if only someone would step up and give us a similar quality homebrew project for the Saturn... Development tools and programming techniques must surely have improved over the last twenty years to a point where such issues that gave professional developers nightmares back in the day are mostly a thing of the past?

 

IF they do they're no longer an indie.

 

Because it's basically a remake of Phantis aka Game Over II - played a LOT on my CPC64 back then.

 

OP, Retro isn't a sales gimmick, indie (ie solo) dev's don't have the resources to make A+++++ games these days.
I completely agree that they should understand the hardware and obviously coding/building for old hardware is the most purest...
But I don't think unity3D deploys to anything older then a PS3 lol
Your right, about having the advanced libs, toolschains and knowledge on hardware, but sadly they never go opensource at end of life.. so yes it gets better/easy but it's thrown out.

I agree, If only retro devs made real hardware compatible games lol

 

That's still no excuse to have blobs on a screen and try to sell it as a full game.

 

As opposed to, say, changing a team's roster each year and selling it for full price?

 

That's not the same thing

 

1: I ain't seeing anybody defend that sort of thing here

2: don't try to change the subject

 

It's not changing the subject, it's pointing out a matter of perspective. "Blobs on a screen" may be a thematic choice, and not just due to limited funds, but some people are going to be adamantly against it. Same goes for releasing yearly "updates" to major franchises.

 

How many of those go for a full $60? I can't think of a single one that's gone for more than like $30.

 

That's true very few even go to retail. But the way these games look and the fact they release is just sad. Some people can tell when you're being authentic, and when you're just being lazy.

 

Ranting
I think looks are superficial, but I grow up with 8bit graphics
OP is correct, pixel art means less and less.. to me it now means bedroom dev, can't program on unity3D.. low quality.
The good stuff should be call Pallet art or C64PalletArt or NESPalletArt etc
It's the hardware limitation that made the "art", not just the low res and chunky pixels.
Without the HW limitations it's just a retro wanna be gimmick .
/Ranting

 

This game looks like it stays within NES limitations. Also whenever you speak to a merchant it uses compressed samples.

 

I forgot that game existed. that's a PC only game right now right?

 

compressed samples? lol that does that mean? lol
maybe via image pallet , auido sampling or via zip lol

looking at it, it looks mostly like the NES pallet (maybe from Castlevania), but with SNES detailed.
I guess it's an art still, but I doubt any hardware limitations were followed.
I don't think the kids care!