(Disclaimer: NO, I'm not a graphic-*****, I'm just pointing out something that has been on my mind for quite some time.)

Art has been around for a very long time, perhaps as long as humanity has existed. (Although you could argue that God invented art...assuming you believe in God.) Art has always served as a medium for humans to express their innermost desires, a unique trait that defines us as a species: we're creative, and we therefore feel a need to express our creativity. Whether it's books, paintings, sculpting or designing, art has always been an integral part of the visual medium we call life.

You're thinking to yourself, "why's this guy talking about art on a site that deals with video games?" Well, if the title hasn't already given it away, video games have always used their visuals (or graphics) as part of an interactive form of entertainment that doubles-up as art. In the beginning, back when a game was no more than two blips on a screen, art wasn't as descriptive and thus left plenty up to the imagination.


See this? You can almost picture yourself right smack in the middle of a heated table tennis match! Awesome!

As time went on, and video games became more complex, art in games evolved into something that could easily pass off as "semi-realistic," while not being realistic enough that it'd look like an abomination. Once again, the imagination still had to be used, although not as much as before.


It's a shame that with an art style as creative as this, people still manage to whizz through it all in 7 minutes flat...


You've gotta admit: for an NES game, this was pretty advanced stuff!


I miss the good ol' days! Rest in peace, little guy...

The limitations of the available technology also developers more room for creativity, as they had to work harder at trying to compensate for any restrictions they faced. But small or not, this was art at its finest.

The issues with art only started to become apparent once games made the transition to 3D: not only were developers forced to come up with new ways to made the transition work, but they also had to appropriately tinker with visuals in order to keep the art styles fresh, yet familiar.


Nintendo's big 3 in 3D: awesome! (Plus, it's nice to know that Team Ninja decided to go retro.)

But what becomes disheartening is when 3D doesn't age well, or borders TOO close to reality.


Ah, yes! A game so great, one can easily forgive it's badly-aging graphics.


Regardless of how good the final product will be, she's still scary to look at...

The problem that arises from here is twofold in nature: How can developers make a game's visuals such that they age well and don't get stuck in the Uncanny Valley? There's isn't one definitive answer for this, but my suggestion is to use cell shading. Why? Well, for starters, I think it has a certain appeal that traditional 3D doesn't. It optimizes a game's uniqueness while epitomizing video games as an art form. Plus, it ages better than traditional 3D.


It doesn't matter when each game was created, they all still look good today!

On top of that, cell-shading serves two other purposes: 1. It masks a console's limitations. 2. It makes more by using less, thus actually being more cost efficient due to developers not having to spend as much money on visuals as they would've otherwise.


Low polygon count, you say? I don't think it matters here! They still look awesome!


And here, we see pre and post-builds of the cult-classic Okami.


And let's not forget Red Steel 2! Looking good, I must say!

But the one real advantage cell-shading has over regular 3D is that there are SO many ways to harness it: there's the magic marker approach, the comic book approach, the crayon approach, the cartoon approach, the water colour approach, the acid-trip approach, so many different ways of effectively using cell-shading in gaming!

I guess this ends my blog. Remember one thing, though: soul without art is still soul, but art without soul is useless The same applies to cell-shading and video games.

And now, I shall leave you with this video of the upcoming game No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Enjoy!