Progressing Art in Video Games

For this post we will be taking a look at the progressing style of art in video games over the years. Now this is rather broad as every genre and development studio has its own styles (for example cell shading) so to narrow it down a bit I will be picking a specific franchise, one that I hold quite dear. The Street Fighter franchise.

From its very humble beginning in 1987 Street Fighter was a very modest 2D fighter, using (while boldly colored) simplified layered 2D backdrops to try an create a bit of depth while keeping it simple enough to not over complicate the game engine. There is little that can be said of its first installment many of the characters at this point lacked any real artistic potency, many felt like carbon copies with slight tweaks. Simply looking at the main character (Ryu) it became obvious that art was not the games main focus point.

Fast forward to 1991 and the development team behind Street Fighter take a major leap in not only the character design but in the design of special moves that brought a bit of flair to what was a bland punch and kick game. We see in Street Fighter II the return of the main character and his rival, but we also see the introduction of many new key characters all with their own very distinct style. From the dramatic villian M. Biso with his military style dress and armor to Dhalsims Indian witch doctor theme we now have many varying characters whose styles began to give the game a real distinction of its own.

Now comes Street Fighter 3 in 1997 which is a true sight to behold. With the advances in processing power for video game consoles and the forward development in video game studios we get a game that is not only a pleasure to play but for that time visually stunning. We see advances made in the character design focusing on facial structure of the characters turning Ryu from an indistinguishable Asian man into a face easily recognizable among the thousands of other fighting game characters. In Street Fighter 3 we see in addition of even more new charcters each as indivuidual and and artfully designed as their predessesors. We also see the actuall game play interaction between characters advance, fighting moves and attacks flow much smoother then we had seen before and the special moves become flashy displays that grab our attention. And we wonder how can it get any better?

With that the answer comes, in 2008 we get Street Fighter 4 and boy does it change everything. Street Fighter 4 is the first time we see the franchise displayed in 3d (well not counting EX). Character models are brought to life in 3D models that have a distinct comic book feel to them, keeping heavy black outlines and non realistic color palletes we get to keep our favorite Street Fighter style while gaining the HD graphics we so crave on the new generation gaming consoles. We also see the addition of beautifully rendered scenery with background characters cheering and having their own events giving a real life feel to every fight. Vibrant colors and well rendered character motions bring this fighting game into another realm for others of the genre, and as a fan of the franchise I can't wait to see where it goes from here.