Kirk_Johnston

Sounds like some interesting stuff you're trying there. Looking forward to seeing [hearing] more if it.

Mesen says it's 4bpp. It does look good though. Makes you wonder just how pretty a full Mario platformer done in that visual style on SNES could look: New Super Mario Word. I have a feeling someone is going to try that one day, so maybe we'll see.

It's surprising when you see the arcade version and just how not totally crap it is, especially when compared to the meh Genesis version and the just crap SNES version. This game didn't port particularly well to the 16-bit systems. Would kinda like to see a VR version of it now though, just for a bit of novelty. . . .

For me personally, it goes Castlevania IV > Rondo > Bloodlines. Couldn't blame anyone who put that list in any order though.

Funnily, I felt the same to a degree. They're visually more beautiful than just about any other games of the generation on any platform, IF you can appreciate the particular pre-rendered visuals and everything Rare is doing there graphically in pretty much every scene, but they're only good not great platformers for me. Although, I do actually appreciate them more and think they're much better as an adult than I gave them credit for as a kid to be fair, and they're still better than the vast majority of platformers on SNES and indeed on any other consoles in that generation imo. Nothing on PC Engine really comes remotely close in the platformer genre for me personally, zip on Neo Geo, and they even beat Sonic in terms of the fun I personally can get from that series too. I don't really rate Sonic to be fair, outside of some similarly nice art direction of its own [the first one at least] and I guess how accessible it is to all. The Sonic games are also still better than most platformers of the era though. But, yeah, the DKC series of games on SNES are stunning visual showcases with some good and at times maybe great and a times a bit below good platforming, but they ain't no Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, or Yoshi's Island in terms of my personal hierarchy. For me, nothing really sniffs those three first party Nintendo greats on SNES, even to this day. But that's just my opinion. They did blow people's minds at the time though--rightly so--and I can't knock anyone who does consider them up there with the very best to be honest.

Now there's a racing game on SNES. I recall reading recently that the base game is actually stuck running in SlowROM on SNES. If ever a game really should have used FastROM . . . So, despite it being terrible on SNES, imo, it's clear a small improvement could have been made by doing nothing other than moving to FastROM and properly using that roughly 30% CPU speed increase alone. And I have no doubt it could have just been a lot more optimized and polished on top of that too, before even considering any enhancement chips. Not one I'd ever put even on a list of decent SNES games personally. Each to their own mind you. Interestingly, here's the difference going to SA-1 [not FastROM] made:

I updated my SNES Background Modes article with Maxel/Maxwel's Mode 6 demo. Looking forward to being able to add more new examples for some of the other rarely-used SNES background modes and features in the future too. I'm confident we'll get that fully-working example using an 8bpp 256-colour background during full gameplay as well. Doesn't even have to be exactly on the same level as my very much doable mockup examples like this and this--I like to push close to the limits with my ideas just to see what's possible there--but really just anything using the mode during gameplay [a single-screen high-colour level with characters jumping around like the original Super Mario Bros., a racing game like Super Off Road but just with an 8bpp 256-colour track, a cool looking boss battle with an 8bpp high-colour enemy in some graphic adventure novel, a "walking simulator" where you just walk past a looong scrolling background displaying a gorgeous 8bpp 256-colour landscape that conveys some interesting story/narrative across a series of intertwined images, etc] makes exactly the same point, which is that you can absolutely use the SNES' 8pp 256-colour backgrounds during full gameplay, and how [the royal] you choose to show that off in your own example is the only real variable there. All good things in time. . . .

Some great choices there too. A couple I've never quite gotten into myself, but I know they have plenty of fans.

Since it was the topic of the first post, here are three of my standout visual moments in the various DKC games (one for each): 1. This whole level with the way the snow builds up layer by layer and the scene slowly darken and becomes more and more atmospheric (the bonus area with Rambi is impressive too): 2. This beehive level is just visually gorgeous and sumptuous (it possibly tastes as good as it looks): 3. This looks like something out of a Pixar movie imo; Finding Nemo if it were running on SNES: Now, there are faaar more examples I could pick, but I want to leave some for other people if they'd like to add them.

Interestingly, Maxel//Maxwel told me he's also working on doing demos with the SNES' other background modes too. Can't wait to see what he does with some of those other modes, especially the 8bpp 256-colours of Mode 3, 4, and 7, if he actually decides to take full advantage of that aspect of those modes. Really hope he does. Either way, the guy is doing great stuff of his own, and I look forward to his next demo running on SNES.

Talking about Mode 7, as I was, and following on from that . . . Anyone ever considered doing something as "simple" as this with it (pick one of any the countless examples of Mode 7 background rotation and scaling): Edit: Actually, to stay on topic, let's just use the same Mode 7 clip again from the original post, since it has a perfectly nice rotating and scaling background alongside a little palette cycling too (although nowhere near as good as you could do with the palette cycling in any of the SNES' 8bpp modes, obviously): Combined with palette cycling the 8bpp 256 colours: Two totally standard features available in a single background mode on SNES: A 60fps fully-rotating and scaling Mode 7 background, and palette cycling of the 8bpp 256-colour palette. Well, I guess you have to specifically instruct the SNES to do the palette cycling as opposed to just turning on some default switch, but whatever. Just put the two together, bake in the oven for 30 mins, and done. Now, you'd have to repeat background tiles in this case for whatever lovely image, because Mode 7 allows less unique tiles for that background there than in the other modes, but that's a minor concession that's easy to live with just to see it in action. Also. . . .

You could totally do a nice take on this little scene on SNES using Mode 7 too: Both parts.

Great. Thanks for the info.

Aye, that's the one. Definitely one of those quirky modes/features on SNES again. LOL But, yeah, it seems like a pretty standard use for it is to give the Mode 7 background tiles priority to be above or below sprites, so you get the characters walking under the bridge in the overhead Contra III level for example: It seems, other than there being only a single [real] background layer in Mode 7, most of the other standard SNES effects can be used in one way or another too.

You could of course just do this kind of thing on SNES using Mode 7 and have an even more convincing sense of perspective on that single background layer. But I like the fact you can have multiple layers of properly overlapping parallax in the standard SNES background modes, potentially even up to four full-screen fully-overlapping layers with an effect like this using Mode 0, so I still see the value in this novel approach. Regardless, seeing the original effect in Axelay back in the day was certainly impressive to behold as a graphical feat on SNES.