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It's What Catches Your Eye

What is the one thing about a game that you notice first? It's not the sound, music, gameplay, or even challenge. It's always the graphics. And most developers like to "wow" players with unique and fantastic graphics. In this special feature, you'll see many different graphics techniques that developers have used over the years for the Nintendo systems.

Super Mario Bros. 3
A Link to the Past
Link's Awakening DX
Wario Land
The most common and most used type of graphics is drawn graphics. This technique has been used in all NES games, almost all Game Boy games, almost all Super NES games, almost all Virtual Boy games, and some Nintendo 64 games. Some of the finer-looking games include: Chrono Trigger (SNES), Final Fantasy III (SNES), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES), Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES), Kirby's Adventure (NES), Super Metroid (SNES), The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GB Color), Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (GB), the Mega Man series (NES / GB / SNES), the Castlevania series (NES / GB / SNES), etc.

Mario Party
Yoshi's Story
Donkey Kong Country 3
Super Mario RPG
Since the fall of 1994, ACM (Advanced Computer Modeling) has been widely used in some Super NES games, some Game Boy games, and some Nintendo 64 games. Some of these games are Donkey Kong Country trilogy (SNES), Donkey Kong Land trilogy (Super GB), Killer Instinct (SNES / Super GB), Super Mario RPG (SNES), Secret of Evermore (SNES), Uniracers (SNES), Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run (SNES), Killer Instinct Gold (N64), Mischief Makers (N64), Goemon's Great Adventure (N64), Yoshi's Story (N64), Mario Party (N64), etc.

Ocarina of Time
Super Mario 64
Star Fox 64
Banjo-Kazooie
Recently, polygonal graphics have been widely used, mostly in Nintendo 64 games, but also in some Super NES games. Here are some of the better of these kinds of games: Star Fox (SNES), Stunt Race FX (SNES), Vortex (SNES), Dirt Trax FX (SNES), Doom (SNES), Super Mario 64 (N64), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64), GoldenEye 007 (N64), Banjo-Kazooie (N64), Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (N64), Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64), Diddy Kong Racing (N64), Mario Kart 64 (N64), Star Fox 64 (N64), etc.

Red Alarm
3-D Tetris
Zero Racers
Wire-frame graphics have also been used here and there, mostly in early 80's arcade games that tried to give you a sense of the game being in 3-D. The most well-known game that uses this type of graphics is Red Alarm for Virtual Boy. 3-D Tetris also uses some wire-frame graphics, but not as much as Red Alarm. The never-finished Zero Racers, for Virtual Boy, also used this type of graphics.

In 1995, Nintendo introduced the first (and last, so far) game to use a new graphics technique called morphmation. This game was Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. With the help of the Super FX2 Chip (which allows for polygonal graphics on the Super NES), this technique gave Yoshi's Island a "coloring book"-type look. This game also used some polygonal graphics here and there, like when you pause the game, the letters at the top of the screen rotate about. Those letters are polygonal.

Diddy Kong Racing
In 1997, Rare developed a new graphics technique: RDA (Real-time Dynamic Animation). This graphics technique made the polygonal graphics look more smooth, especially when objects move. In other words, it's harder to see where two polygons meet, because the "skin" of the character is "wrapped" around the polygons. So far the only game that uses this technique is Diddy Kong Racing (N64).

Mortal Kombat 4
Clay Fighter Sculptor's Cut
Another somewhat widely used technique is digitized graphics. With a camera, developers take pictures of moving objects (usually people) and then digitize them onto a computer. Games that use this technique include the Mortal Kombat series (SNES / GB), Mortal Kombat Trilogy (N64), the Clay Fighter series, etc.

Jet Force Gemini
Yet again, in addition to RDA and ACM, Rare has come up with another graphics technique: RLE-DRR (Real-time Lighting Effects and Dynamic Reflection Routines). This technique, which will first be used in Rare's upcoming game Jet Force Gemini, will show off some excellent lighting effects that other N64 games just couldn't do.

Rise of the Robots (SNES) uses a technique called ray-tracing. This is the only game (that I know of) that uses this technique.

Another graphics technique (that is not widely used in Nintendo games) is FMV (Full Motion Video). Although no Nintendo games (that I know of) use this technique right now, a recent news article stated that Capcom's upcoming Resident Evil 2 for the Nintendo 64 will use FMV.

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