Cel-Shaded Games: A Recommendation of Sorts

Cel-shaded games have been around since the introduction of the Playstation and it still remains as popular as ever among developers. With a visual sty|e that is akin to those used in comic books and manga, graphics have a vivid and hand-drawn feel to them.

 

What is cel-shaded graphics?

 

Cel-shaded animation (also known as Cel Shading or Toon Shading) is a type of non-photo-realistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. It is often used to mimic the sty|e of a comic book or cartoon. The name derives from clear sheets of acetate, called cels, which are painted on for use in traditional 2D animation, such as Disney c|assics. - Wikipedia.

 

 

Object with a basic cel-shader (also known as a toon shader) and border detection.

 

Got all that? Good, now on to the list:

 

Prince of Persia

 

Eschewing away from the staples that made the Sands of Time trilogy great, Prince of Persia is a beautiful looking game that still has the same charm that you have grown to love. Think of its visuals as a mesh of Okami and Valkyria Chronicles and you're just about right. Like poetry in motion, the lush and colorful lands will keep you that much more engrossed into its narrative.

 

The game consists of mostly drab and dull environments, and in order to bring life and color back into the world, you'll have to collect the various light seeds that are peppered across the vast lands. Collect enough of them and Elika, an Ahura will restore these cursed lands back to their original state. It is this moment of sheer magic that will leave you breathless as seemingly dark stones and dead grass are given back their lustre and the land that was once cursed is given new life once again.

 

 

Elika giving life and vigor back to the lands.

 

Enemies that caused you so much grief have taken a step back, with an emphasis on never fighting more than one enemy this time around. If this sounds easy on paper, it is as you can't die in the game. Mess up on one of the intense swordfights or platforming sequences, and Elika will be there to guide you back on your feet. Even in boss fights, Elika will be there to assist and string combos with you. She is also rarely in your way throughout the game, which makes setting up fluid combos and traversing through Persia a real treat.

 

Valkyria Chronicles

 

With its watercolor like graphics that resembles a painting in motion, Valkyria Chronicles is one beautiful looking game that is a treat for the senses. In an era where brown and dark color hues are commonplace, Valkyria Chronicles stands out not only for its lush and colorful visuals but also for its addictive combat that is remarkably different from other JRPG's out there. Featuring a unique turn-based battle system called BLiTZ (Battle of Live Tactical Zones), an overhead map will appear at the start of each players turn. From there, various stats and attributes are shown and its entirely up to you to choose which unit you want to assume control off.

 

 

Selvaria's tale will leave you feeling sorry for her.

 

Choose a lancer, an anti tank unit and the game will then zoom in and let you control them. In Action Mode, you have a limited AP gauge that restricts your movement depending on your unit type. A scout like Alicia will have a very high gauge that will be useful for scouting out the environment and also to take pot shots at the enemy. During Target Mode, the player has complete control of the aiming reticule while the action grinds to a halt, enabling players to carefully line up a head shot or a specific region of an enemy vehicle.

 

If a heartwarming tale and a solid role-playing game is what you are after, you can't go wrong with Valkyria Chronicles as it is an extremely polished game with an equally compelling narrative that will pull you in and refuse to let go.

 

Okami

 

Taking place in c|assical Japanese history, Okami is a blend of several Japanese myths, legends and folklore that weave a tale of how the land was saved from impending doom by the Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu, who assumes the form of a white wolf. It features a distinct cel-shaded visual sty|e and the Celestial Brush, a gesture-system to perform miracles. With the flick of the analog stick or Wii-mote, players could cut down trees in half and also create stars in the galaxy to form constellations.

 

 

Expect gorgeous visuals like this throughout the game.

 

While you still shake the Wii-mote for normal attacks, pressing down the trigger causes the screen to turn into a canvas whereon you paint various actions. Although the mechanic worked on the Playstation 2, the motion controls of the Wii make for a more intuitive experience. Not everything is spot-on with the new controls though, as drawing a straight line with the Wii-mote is much harder than it sounds.

 

Composed of a gripping tale, intuitive controls, beautiful art direction and a musical score that further draws you into its narrative, Okami is the perfect addition to the Wii's overly casual library. Like Zelda, this thirty hour adventure game will tug at your heartstrings, embrace you with its charm and pull you in with its engaging story.

 

Borderlands

 

Gearbox Software is known for two things - porting popular titles to other platforms, as proven with the PS2 version of Half-Life and the PC version of Halo. So a loot-driven role-playing game and first-person shooter hybrid taking place in a barren wasteland full of lunatics, dancing computer-shaped boxes and a cel-shaded appearance may seem out of their comfort zone.

 

Yet here is Borderlands, one of the year's surprise hits that came from nowhere and surprised everyone. While it's definitely more of a first-person shooter than an RPG, it has enough elements from the genre to make Borderlands stick out amongst the usual croppings that gamers have come to expect from other shooters.

 

 

Big things come in pairs...

 

When Borderlands was announced, it looked rather plain and uninspired; as it used the same Unreal Engine 3 genericness that we've grown used to with first-person shooters. Somehow, Gearbox had a change of heart and decided to forgo the darker tones that was shown in the previews to something we don't usually see in a FPS game - cel-shaded visuals. The last shooter that was cel-shaded, XIII used the cartoony effect to good use as it gave the game a charm that fits with the irreverent attitude on display.

 

Instead of it all looking brown and barren, it's as if someone took a Crayola to the wastelands of Fallout 3 and splashed it with vivid and colorful tones that fits with the game rather well. Also kept intact, is the brutal amount of gore that blends right in whenever you're blowing up torsos or other appendages with ruthless precision.

 

Borderlands, a game most had expected to fall on the wayside, was not only one of the most memorable shooters to grace the holiday season but to actually stand out amongst Call of Duty and more prominent shooters, is reason enough for you to pick up the game.

 

Street Fighter 4

 

With Street Fighter 4, Capcom have learned from their past experiences and brought back the twelve original characters from Street Fighter 2 as well as the more popular characters from the Street Fighter Alpha games. Six new characters bring the total number of playable characters up to 25, each one as diverse and unique enough to bring an interesting new dynamic to the fights, yet still familiar enough that they are easy to pick up.

 

 

The smell of Chun-Li's socks proves to be too much for Dhalsim.

 

Graphically, Street Fighter 4 has made the jump to 3D whilst keeping the fluid combat to a single axis. This allows for faster movement and as the characters feel more animated than ever before, you'll be chaining combos and setting up killer blows like you once did in Street Fighter 2 in no time. In a nice twist, the art design means that the characters still retain a "cartoonish" feel and powerful moves are detailed with ink-like effects that hark back to the hand drawn sprites of the mid nineties.

 

Online is where you will want to spend the most of your time with the game. You have the option of allowing other players to challenge you at any given time in ranked and unranked matches as you play through the arcade mode. Searching for other players can be a bit of a chore as you are limited in filtering your choices though. Previously, even local games have been unplayable due to lag, but a good connection will offer you countless hours of thumb twisting action and lots of mindless banter.

 

Overall, Street Fighter 4 doesn't bring a lot of new ideas to the table but it does everything better than its previous games, that it makes for a much more solid game that you'll want to keep playing until Super Street Fighter 4 rolls around of course.

 

The Wind Waker

 

For all the lack of third-party support that Nintendo has, it is their flagship titles that most gamers are interested in. With the Marios, Legend of Zeldas, Metroid Primes that have continued to grace its systems that date back to the Nintendo Entertainment System days, these games have rarely fallen on the way side. Legend of Zelda, a game that many would purchase a Nintendo console just to experience its witty charm and clever puzzles that never seems to loses that trademark feel of the series.

 

With Ocarina of Time, gamers were introduced to what many still consider to be one of the best games in the series if not one of the all time greatest games ever made. It brought about one of the most engaging and heartfelt experiences that you have ever played before and for that reason alone, the Legend of Zelda series deserves the same amount of plaudits and recognition that a certain moustache plumber has enjoyed over the years.

 

A first for the series, Wind Waker is set on a group of islands in a vast sea. Players assume the role of Link as he struggles against his arch nemesis, Ganondorf to gain control of the Triforce, a sacred relic that grants its bearer any wish that they desire. Link spends a large portion of the game sailing, traveling between islands, and traversing through dungeons and temples to gain the power necessary to defeat Ganondorf. If that wasn't enough, he also has the unenviable task of saving his little sister that has been kidnapped.

 

 

Cel-Shading at its finest.

Upon its announcement, many were taken aback at the new art direction that Nintendo was going with the Wind Waker. After the stellar game that was Ocarina of Time, many felt that this was a wrong decision on behalf of Nintendo and they were taking two steps back instead of advancing the series. All the critism and controversy that led up to its release was unwarranted though, as Wind Waker became one of the best Legend of Zelda games that was ever made. It is also till this day, one of the highest rated games of all time.

 

With that, don't let its cutesy graphics fool you into thinking that its a kids game. Beneath all that cel-shaded goodness lies a highly polished game that will you'll remember for years to come even after its completion. Its that good.

 

Jet Set Radio Future

 

Continuing where it's prequel left off, Jet Set Radio Future takes place in a futuristic Tokyo where the freedom of expression is forbidden. Players assume the role of a GG, a group of in-line skating graffiti artists who roam the streets of Tokyo covering up rival gangs' grafitti, knocking over Rokkaku police and dancing around to the eclectic beats that will keep you bobbing your head throughout the game.

 

 

Graffiti have never looked so good.

 

As far as cel-shaded games go, Jet Set Radio Future is considered by many to be one of the best looking games around and for good reason, as it's crisp graphics look like its ripped straight out from an anime. Jet Set Radio Future, a game that has been around for eight years, has aged remarkably well over the years with it's unique art sty|e that still remains as revelant today as it was back then.

 

Final Note

 

As technology advances in an accelerated path, video games as we know it will only get better with time. Better physics, realistic visuals, 3D gaming and motion controls, are just some of the many tools that developers have at their fingertips. What the future holds, will cel-shaded games be just as popular, and will 3D gaming take off? Your guess is as good as mine.