Now that we are 3 generations on from the Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube, which of their 3D games do you feel have aged the most gracefully visually, and why?


Now that we are 3 generations on from the Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube, which of their 3D games do you feel have aged the most gracefully visually, and why?
Forza Motorsport 1 looks still nice on Xbox.
Also Burnout Revenge on Xbox and PS2.
Racing games in general, cars don't need that much polygons to look good.


I will do this a few games at a time rather than a massive list.
Okami
Zelda Wind Waker.
Zone of the Enders 2ND Runner
Starfox Adventures
Mario Sunshine
Gungrave + Gungrave Overdose
Jet Set radio/JSRF
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Most of these benefit from hyper stylized and cel shading. ZOE2 benefits from smart use that in 4K is pretty much looks modern. SFA was just a showcase on Gamecube and glows up well. Mario Sunshine looks good now and has some great reflections where someone new to it will go they had Ray Tracing back then? What makes orta special? Go play it on a Series X. Be blown away
Last edited by Leynos - on 19 April 2026
Okami, Dark Cloud 2, ZoE2, DQ8, Wind Waker, Auto Modellista, Jet Set Radio. Cel shading baby!
And RE1 Remake. The prerendered final boss (RE Zero train section looked phenomenal too).



| Leynos said: I will do this a few games at a time rather than a massive list. Okami Zelda Wind Waker. Zone of the Enders 2ND Runner Starfox Adventures Mario Sunshine Gungrave + Gungrave Overdose Jet Set radio/JSRF Panzer Dragoon Orta Most of these benefit from hyper stylized and cel shading. ZOE2 benefits from smart use that in 4K is pretty much looks modern. SFA was just a showcase on Gamecube and glows up well. Mario Sunshine looks good now and has some great reflections where someone new to it will go they had Ray Tracing back then? What makes orta special? Go play it on a Series X. Be blown away |
Yeah while I wasn't a big fan of Starfox Adventures as a game, graphically it's stunning.
Same for Orta; one of my all time favourite OG Xbox titles.
| Kyuu said: Okami, Dark Cloud 2, ZoE2, DQ8, Wind Waker, Auto Modellista, Jet Set Radio. Cel shading baby! |
Yeah REmake and RE0 were stunning and hold up brilliantly; almost feels like cheating as their environments are pre-rendered, but I'll allow it.
Wind Waker. Great style doesn't age. Paper Mario also ages wonderfully. Shout out to JSRF, same rationale as Wind Waker.
rtx 4090, 32 gb ram, i7-13700k
Switch 2
I don't know if F-Zero GX will ever look truly old to me despite new stuff looking so much better. It's just so smooth and pleasing to look at in motion and even has a widescreen mode. As people have said, racing games, cel shaded titles, pre-rendered stuff and games running at 60fps tend to hold up best.
I've always thought Metal Gear Solid 2 has aged wonderfully. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but I suspect it owes a lot to its visual design - oh, and I guess lighting too. For comparison, Metal Gear Solid 3 looked better at the time, but it hasn't aged as well. That natural geometry, which MGS2 doesn't have, simply doesn't look that great in higher resolutions.


Ninja Gaiden
Dead or Alive 3.
Tecmo just had stunning looking games this generation. Play HD ports of either and they still look good.
Soul Calibur series this gen Like DOA, they just looked a step ahead of most things that era and go play Soul Cal II on NSO. It looks great even now.
I guess a lot of 2D stuff can apply so Odin Sphere look as great as ever. Never aged.
I'm not a fan of them but Kingdom Hearts aged well visually.
