Vangaurd Princess has the best sprites and animation of any indie game. Makes Skullgirls look like shit.
CVS/CVS2 - the sprites made specifically for the game of course not the reused ones from other games. Terry, Mai, Haohmaru etc look amazing and animate really well too.
Chaos Breaker/Dark Awake, KOF 12, BB and SF3 are all really good too but I like the new CVS2 sprites the best.
Among my favourites are Fatal Fury 3/Real Bout 1 and Last Blade 1/2. WeaponLord deserves a mention, too.
Yeah, I’mma hop on the Third Strike bandwagon too. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the GG and BB sprites, and most of SNK’s work is quite good as well, but I still remember the first time I played SF3 and saying to myself “HOLY SHIT, RYU’S PANTS MOVE!”
Third Strike was rotoscoped (basically rendered to 2d from 3d models); I’m not sure you can classify it as part of the same lot as games with hand drawn sprites.
I’m going to have to go with GGAC.
Sprites: BlazBlue
Animation: Third Strike
HDR
Darkstalkers. It’s hands down the best spriting conceived by any fighting game developer. IMO.
I know I’m wasting my time getting you to admit any fault on the part of ASW, but I’d like to make a counter-point that you don’t need to have shitty, jerky animation like most GG and BB characters to make a fast game.
Case in point: Vampire Savior.
The game has a ton of “unnecessary” animation, and is still one of the fastest FGs there is. In fact, if you listen to trag, the game is too fast to be taken seriously.
real bout series, or last blade
Okay, but that game is at such a tiny resolution that animating sprites is way easier. Compare Guilty Gear to all the other “HD” fighters that came after it and the animation looks pretty damn impressive.
From the games I’ve played I think Darkstalkers is pretty good, but not the best, and this article explains it really well.
3 essssssssssssss
nice bait
The smaller resolution has nothing to do with why its animation is vastly superior. I suggest you read the link to the article just posted below you:
Darkstalkers and the Twelve Principles of Animation | Art-Eater
Gosh everyone that isn’t blind or stupid knows 3rd Strike is the best animated and best looking 2D FG around you silly…
So the 12 principles of animation are…
Squash and Stretch…
Anticipation…
Staging…
Guilty Gear has great stages. Who doesn’t remember London, Russia or the Heaven and Hell stages?
Straight Ahead or Pose to Pose…
Followthrough and overlapping action…
Slow In Slow Out…
Arcs…
Secondary Action…
Testament’s succubus familiar?
Timing…
If I’m not mistaken, that large window of hitstun is there to make the moves look like they hit stronger/weaker
Exaggeration…
Everyone bounces off the floor no matter what knocked them down. If that’s not exaggeration, I don’t know what is. Also, while not an exaggerated detail, it is notable that a few of the characters will flick the hair out of their face when getting up from a face down position.
Solid Drawing…
Everything ever drawn by Daisuke Ishiwatari
Appeal…
Derp
Yeah, sorry to sound dense but I’m still not seeing how Guilty Gear’s animation quality is questionable. :V
King of Fighters 13.
KOF XIII is the best looking 2d game of all time, nothing topping it.
This animation from Jojo’s isn’t done and it is more fluid. Then those finished ones that you posted.
OK, compare Jam’s cartwheel to Q-Bee’s cartwheel posted in the article.
One of the two actually takes into consideration gravity physics when animating and the other doesn’t.
Can you guess which is which?