Absolutely not.

You need only to look at games like Odin Sphere and the Guilty Gear series to see that with enough care and funding 2D games exist in a very desired space.

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Castlevania...


...'Nuff said!

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2D has a very big part of todays gaming industry. Take a look at legendary fighters like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, both are much better in 2D. As a matter of fact, all 2D fighters should have remained in 2D, they did not need to upgrade just because it was available. Four recent examples that 2D has a prominent place in gaming are;
Worms, Contra 4, Ultimate Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter HD remix.

Recently, Worms announced that all of their games will be in 2D because the fans did not like their 3D versions. With Contra 4, they said they wanted to make a game that the fans wanted, so they ignored the sequels past Contra 3 for the SNES, and are making a 2D version that most Contra fans seem to be very excited about. Midway has their classic game Mortal Kombat 3 (another legendary 2D fighter) coming out to the DS (as Ultimate Mortal Kombat), and they are adding online play. Anyone who enjoys fighting games and has a DS is sure to be happy about this, and I wouldn't doubt that this rendition of the game will do very well. And even though it's not DS related, but surely 2D related, Street Fighter HD remix (coming out soon on XBLA for the 360) is a sprucing up of a classic 2D game. They are simply enhancing the original sprites, while keeping it in 2D, and fans of the franchise cannot wait for this rendition of one of the most famous fighting games.

2D definitely has its place in gaming. The DS is, by far, a perfect place for 2D to rule. It still can have a prominent place on other platforms, but 2D games on the DS are simply great, and more developers need to realize that. Fans appreciate 2D, and just because 3D is possible, doesn't mean it is necessary.

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Let's look at some highly regarded games and game series that are 2d: Castlevania, Mana (until Dawn of Mana, which doesn't feel right), Viewtiful Joe, Final Fantasy 1&2 and 4-6, Sonic Rush (the only good Sonic games are 2d), New Super Mario, Alien Hominid, Gradius (and the entire Shoot-em-up genre), Contra, Phoenix Wright, Final Fantasy Tactics (2.5d, right?), Warcraft2, Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom 1&2, Golden Sun, Tetris, Metoes, damn near every other good puzzle game, and obviously this list is incomplete, but you get the point. There are tons of good 2d series that developers aren't going to abandon, and there are plenty of older 2d games that people still rave about.

My brain personally never made the jump into 3d. Beyond 3d graphic adventures and racing games, I'm totally lost. I know there are others out there like me, and game developers still want our business. Gems like Odin Sphere and the new crop of RTSs and other strategy games coming out for the DS help prove my point, but even more advanced hardware like the XBOX360 have a good stack of games that are 2d thanks to the XBOX Live Arcade.

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2D,like most successful things will always have a place. 2D animation was ment to die with the advent of 3D, Look at all the new cartoons being made, using Flash, Hand animated or a mix, alot more than when I was young (thundercats, mask anyone?). Games will always be easier to make/manage in 2D and with that big and small creative developer will use that as an advantage...Drawn to life (even with it's 3D elements is a 2D scroller), Contra 4 are getting the most attention lately....as Ryan commented...Nuff said!

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I've been annoyed occasionally when I play a 2D game that really ought to be in 3D. I've been just as irritated when a game is in 3D but would be better in 2D. It's not obsolete, but it's not perfect for everything.

What pretty much IS obsolete, though, is 3D games with primarily 2D graphics. Whether or not FFXII Revenant Wings turns out to be good, the odd mixture of 2D and 3D in the game will lead to disjointed-looking animations caused by characters moving at a different angle from the camera.

While some games successfully pull off this hybrid effect (Paper Mario, in particular), most games that do it just look ugly. Pretty much the only reason anybody ever did this in the first place was so that weaker systems such as the PS1 could have games with a lot of stuff going on at once since the system couldn't really handle it otherwise.

Basically, what I'm saying is that 2D games are not obsolete, but the practice of using 2D graphics in otherwise 3D games is very obsolete.

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Course, you're obviously asking a biased crowd. We're fans of the DS despite its limitations and some of us may even revel in the fact that the system has a strong 2d bias. I'm sure if you ask a 14 year old FPS fan with an XBOX360 who plays Crackdown and Gears of War all day, you'll get a completely different answer. If you ask modern MMO fans who got into RPGs via WOW and not Ultima, again, very different answers. If you ask people who run Castlevania fan sites and actually bought the Sierra classics box sets, then yeah, 2d rules.

I kinda wonder where games like Cooking Mama and Feel the Magic fit into all this. They have polygons, but rely mostly on 2d sprites and 2d gameplay. Those kind of games will be around forever.

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2D FTW!
No I think 2D Will never "truly" die, namely because people aren't going to go out and make 3d buttons for their menus. Plus i just love 2d style, 3d games always seem the same, i mean sure there are different styles but not as varied as 2d games though, that and I

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^

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What the frick? it's not posting all of my comment! T-T

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I would say that straight out 2D is dead. Almost every 2D game now has a polygon somewhere, even castlevania games (the backgrounds) Don't get me wrong, my favorite game is the original Super R-Type, but if they made a new one, it had better have polygons somewhere

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@11: I think the question was asking about 2D gameplay, not graphics.

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are 2d games obsolete?
better question...
is TV obsolete?

great graphics doesn't make a better game!

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All of the Metal slug games are in 2d and they're still great. The fact is, some games are just better in 2d.

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2D will never be dead. I was really concerned actually before the next-gen handhelds arrived that the PSP would push Nintendo and third parties to abandon 2D on the DS, but luckily the opposite may have happened thanks to games like New Super Mario Brothers, Castlevania, Sonic Rush, and Yoshi's Island DS. Even the new Zelda, which of course is entirely 3D actually keeps the 2D (top-down) style from what I see. :)

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Of course it still has it's place. 2D games focus more on depth of gameplay, rather than graphics. When people complained about the Halo 3 Beta looking bad, I wanted to cry.

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New Super Mario Bros.
Contra 4
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD
Loco Roco
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Ikaruga
Metal Slug
Odin Sphere

etc. etc. etc...

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I certainly hope not! Half of the reason Alien Hominid was such a great game was its awesome 2D graphics! I could even live in a world with 2.5D games, like Paper Mario or the original Grandia, but I need some 2D!

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Speaking as the only Unbiased party here.. Its more about facts. 2D is not dead. For 2 simple reasons. 1. It's a medium for seperating oneself from other games. and 2. It's easier and the fanbase is forgiving.

I personally like both when they are used well. 3D, 2D it dosen't matter. One isn't better then the other, they are different

But I'm looking at Capcom and I WILL buy both SF remakes. 2D needs to be Next-Genized. Down with Pixel art, let's get some nice big, high-rez hand drawn sprites. Or they need to build a good Vector art processing 2D engine... Basically Real-Time Flash.. so it'll be resolution independant.

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Uh...How could anyone think 2D could become "obsolete"?

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