Polygons
I’ve been going back and looking into as many early 3D games to look at the low poly games of the era. Some of them had this ability to make cozy spaces with a specific feel despite whatever hardware limitations were at hand. One part nostalgia. One part exploration. The real time 3D hardware for consumers between the first Playstation and right before we got “HD” consoles had a unique graphical economy to it. It felt like we could make digital spaces with a sense of scale. A sense of cozy. A place in town.
While a few things came before it, the 1994 release of the Playstation brought a level of 3D at a price that could put it in more hands. It also put enough power that we could have characters, in a space, in 3D and have it play well. 3D platformers, RPGs, and other games tried to move into 3D and some of them achieved a place to be.
I never got to experience the Phantasy Star Online lobby and online as it originally was, but I always love how that game and others from around that time period more consistently felt bigger than the spaces you could go. Clever use of perspective and art to just hint at the world your character was in. On the PS1 and N64, some games would give that sort of experience. Majora’s mask had some really good scale and sense of place. It was small for hardware limitations but it felt like it understood and worked with that. PS1 3D platformers always surprised me, especially the Spyro games. Even the early Floating Runner and Jumping flash feel like fun, interesting places. The entire Ape Escape series excels at this and 3 on the ps2 is packed with wonderfully crafted small spaces.
Few things I ran into felt like it worked despite the hardware. I don’t think too many are lamenting that Jet Set Radio doesn’t look as good as it could. They’re going to complain about the weird controls and handling that makes the game really frustrating to play, especially if you want to get Jet rankings and unlock things. Dewprism/Threads of Fate can have weird flickery polygons like other games on the console, but the areas and characters work perfectly for what they are. Goemon on n64 has a 3D in engine anime style intro and expressive characters. Kirby is perfect. All those small on-track areas are great at giving a sense of what the world there looks like. Going back it’s nice finding these games that didn’t have shaders, didn’t have complex lighting systems and they just work. I kinda wish we got some developer to make a larger budget complex RPG on the N64 just to prove it could have one like the ps1 and saturn got. Bigger than paper mario.
Sometimes I wonder when I look at some games on the Switch if we could convince publishers to let simpler graphics work. I think about people who hacked out the lighting in GTAV to get it working on lower spec machines. There’s been such a push for realism, depth of field, and lighting. I wonder if we simplified some of that and put it back into animation, number of objects, and spaces. Not every game needs to be an open world or large map to feel lived in and going back reminded me of that. We have a lot of the same genres from the PS2, 360, PS3 and thankfully more forgiving RAM, could games be a different kind of fancy now?
