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Obscure Mid-late 90s PC games with 2D/cartoony graphics

TheGreatOne

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I saw screenshots of a game called Battle Beast in the fighting game thread and it immediately caught my attention. It kind of reminds me of Three Dirty Dwarves (Saturn/PC)
lafss4.jpg

I'm a huge fan of games with hand-drawn/2D visuals. Although I love the pixel art style of early 90s adventure games such as Day of the Tentacle, I'm looking for games with graphics that represent the next gen from Amiga/16 bit consoles. I'd say that King's Quest V/VI level graphics already qualify, but it's at the King's Quest VII level when games really nailed that cartoon look with out any pixelization. Some examples of this would be:
1. Most SNK/Capcom fighters from the (4MB RAM) Saturn/Dreamcast era (1995-2001) era such as Last Blade 2, Dark Stalkers 3 and Guilty Gear X. Warzard is an arcade exclusive that's a good example of the visual style I'm fond of, same goes for Konami arcade beat em ups.
2. Speaking of SNK: The Metal Slug series
2. From the adventure games of that era Toonstruck and espescially Curse of Monkey Island had God tier visuals (who ever is responsibile for the transformation to 3D in Monkey Island 4 and Sam and Max 2&onwards deserves to be shot for the crimes against art he/she commited). Broken Sword is up there too. Discworld games don't quite reach that level imo. There's also some more obscure games that have nice visuals like Buster and the Beanstalk and Nanatsu Kaze No Shima Monogatari
4. Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Lomax, Rayman, Super Tempo and Mega Man 8 are some platformers from that era that have that look.
5. The CDi Zelda games might be shit but I like them visually. Same goes for the 32X game Kolibri.


It's not just "cartoony" graphics that I'm after, a more realistic, comic book style approach is fine too, something like the first two Broken Sword games. The Last Express looks too realistic/boring though. I adore the first two Oddworld games from a visual standpoint too as they represent a more dark and life like look, but since the game uses prerendered backdrops it's not a good example of what I'm looking for.

I feel that all in all not that many games like this were made during the late 90s as traditional 2D got lost in the shuffle with FMV, 3D and prerendering (and I assume it was more expensive to boot), just when the technology to make awesome looking 2D games was there. So I wanna know if there are any obscure/forgotten PC games of that era I've missed, like Toonstruck and Three Dirty Dwarves.
 

Unkillable Cat

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At first I thought of Dr. Drago's Madcap Chase and Bud Tucker in Double Trouble, but while the former has crisp graphics they aren't exactly what you describe as "God-tier" level (and I doubt that they're hand-drawn), and the latter has graphics more in common with Sierra On-Line titles from around 1993-1994.

Likewise, the Duckman adventure game is too pixellated.

Possibly Deadly Rooms of Death? (The first one from 1995.)
 

TheGreatOne

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Bud Tucker looks quite nice. Not top tier, but nice. It's giving me a bit of a Day of the Tentacle vibe, I love how stylized that game is (a lot of architecture is tilted at an angle etc, it makes it look more zany).

Duckman is kinda mediocre in all categories. I'd say it's next gen enough compared to games like Gabriel Knight and Freddy Pharkas that it qualifies.

I don't know which Deadly Rooms of Death game this is, but it's certainly not what I'm looking for http://www.mathpuzzle.com/MAA/38-DROD/First1N2W.jpg

E: warpig: I had completely forgotten about Comix zone since my cartridge doesn't work. Good call. It's 16 bit, but atleast it's one of the most stylish 16 bit games.

Renegade looks rad, I like he comic style hand drawn pictures you'd see in cutscenes in many PC games, shmups etc during the early/mid 90s. That Polish game looks nice too, apart from the hero (same thing Curse of Monkey Island, the protagonist is almost the worst looking thing in the entire game), but if there isn't an English version I'm not able to play it.
 
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warpig

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Renegade: Battle for Jacob's Star, a mid 1990's Wing Commander clone. It doesn't fully fit here because it's not a 2d game, but it had some nice 2d graphics, ad the 3d part was also stylized to look "cartoony". The characters looked very cool, unfortunately i can't find many good screenshots of it.
94647-Renegade_Battle_for_Jacobs_Star_%281995%29%28SSI%29-2.jpg

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renegade_screenshot1.jpg

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Comix Zone. A really cool sidescrolling fighter/platformer, where the main character is sucked into a comic book. I like it's "1990s X-TREME" style.
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comix%20zone%20title%20screen.jpg


comix_zone_2.jpg


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The Orion Conspiracy:
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the-orion-conspiracy-fr_14.png
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Książę i Tchórz. Cool point and click adventure (I don't know if it was released outside of Poland)
ksiaze_i_tchorz_06.jpg
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rec_KiT_7.jpg
KiT_8.jpg
 

Astral Rag

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Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity

642061-mtv-s-beavis-agtjvg.png


Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth

Foto+Woodruff+and+The+Schnibble+of+Azimuth.jpg
 
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warpig

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Woodruff and the schnibble of Azimuth had a much cooler style than goblins imo. Goblins were a twisted wersion of a typical fantasy land, while Woodruff had a more "alien", outlandish athmosphere.

Edit: TheGreatOne
Just googled a bit, Książę i Tchórz has an english version, it's called The Prince and the Coward (which is a direct translation of the title btw.)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/prince-and-the-coward
 
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Unkillable Cat

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TheGreatOne: That DROD screenshot is from the second game, Journey to Rooted Hold. Possibly. Anyway, that's 2002, and the original game was ported into that engine shortly afterwards.
 

DalekFlay

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Don't forget Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail. It was very much in the King's Quest VII style.

Other than that I haven't played enough adventure games from that period to help. There are lots of modern ones with that animated style though.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I don't know why you would say the second Discworld game doesn't qualify. Also, Torin's Passage.
 
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Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
If you liked Battle Beast graphics you should check platform game Arcade America from the same company.
From the Disney licensed games Alladin is probably the best, and it has really good graphics. Lion King is the second. Jungle Book is the last.
Earthworm Jim - it's got many wacky elements, funny and memorable games.
Space Quest 6.


The Big Red Adventure

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(Maybe) Touche



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3 Skulls of the Toltecs

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Ace Ventura

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Braindead 13

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Fable

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Since you mentioned Jazz Jackrabbit I recommend Toxic Bunny HD version

637x358.resizedimage
 

Dexter

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WET: The Sexy Empire :lol: :
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Biing!:
biing.png
Biing.PNG


Both were afaik business sims made in Germany.

Chewy: Escape from F5:
Chewy6.jpg
Chewy18.jpg


The Gene Machine:
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genemachine-3.png


Orion Burger:
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Torin's Passage:
Torin's_Passage_screenshot.png
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Jack Orlando:
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Gilbert Goodmate:
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gilbert43.jpg


Clever & Smart: A Movie Adventure:
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Hopkins FBI:
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Archibald Applebrook (might be only German):
Archibald-Applebrook1.jpg


Imperium Romanum (might also be only German):
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Dunkle Schatten 2 (another German one):
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Maybe Muppet Treasure Island, although it doesn't exactly fit.

Not sure why Discworld 2 wouldn't count:
discworld2-371sf3.png
 
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Renegen

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Don't forget Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail. It was very much in the King's Quest VII style.

Other than that I haven't played enough adventure games from that period to help. There are lots of modern ones with that animated style though.
Is it any good? I remember seeing a huge preview of the game back in the day and being interested in it. The other Larry games aren't as fun being quite old in gameplay designs and look but Love for Sail seems different.
 

Borelli

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What's the name of that comical point n click adventure where you are a traffic cop who has to discover some crime or something. I remember low quality art, main character having his undershirt out and low quality humor. Several games from the same author/company have been made with the same style.
 

asper

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Project: Eternity
Excellent thread.

Enjoying these wonderfully careless, creative GFX. Those obscure adventure games :D
 

DalekFlay

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Is it any good? I remember seeing a huge preview of the game back in the day and being interested in it. The other Larry games aren't as fun being quite old in gameplay designs and look but Love for Sail seems different.

Both 6 and 7 were quite different from before and more in line with the sillier Sierra style of Space Quest 4. I think 6 is the one that is straight-up Lucasarts with no deaths or dead-ends. I remember liking both but it's been a while.
 

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