Board 8 > Post an animated series, comic, or video game, and I'll tier its visual design.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Punch-Out (Wii)

pyresword posted...

I don't think you know anything about this show or what moe anime is.

I definitely know nothing about the show, but I associate moe anime with overly cutesy characters and giant eyes.

I mean if you want to zero in on just the character designs, then yes it's probably an accurate description in that context.

Steins Gate VN

I guess what gets me is really the "generic" part more than the "moe" part. Flip Flappers has some of the most wildly creative visuals in any medium that I'm aware of, but maybe it doesn't really come through if you're just Google searching and getting mostly still shots of the characters.

pyresword posted...

I guess what gets me is really the "generic" part more than the "moe" part. Flip Flappers has some of the most wildly creative visuals in any medium that I'm aware of, but maybe it doesn't really come through if you're just Google searching and getting mostly still shots of the characters.

It's true that I looked up mostly still images, so I went back and reranked it.

S Tier

A Tier
X-Men (Jim Lee)
Dragon Quest
Ace Attorney: In terms of feeling like a professionally-made game series, Phoenix Wright blows its competitors out of the water. The presentation is always top-notch. You see the characters, and you instantly know that this is some kind of wacky lawyer game that won't take itself too seriously. I don't love EVERY character design, like Mike Meekins and Armpit Sweat Guy, but things are overall very well-made. Some of Phoenix's 3D reactions aren't quite up to par with the silliness of his sprites, but that's such a minor nitpick that I can't give this series anything under A.
Paper Mario: What a ****ing genius idea. It's just Mario, but with paper cutouts! It has weird, gross locations, like a crappy port town run by thieves, and it characters who are just normal enemies but twisted a little, like Admiral Bobbery! Shame about where the series went after the third game.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Everything looks a little clayish for some reason, which is fine even though I don't associate clay with spiders, they manage to strike a balance in visual design even with the wacky alternate Spidermen like the anime girl, and everything in general just completely oozes style. 10/10 job on the visuals for this movie. I wonder if we'll get a crossover with the MCU, since this is already an established thing.
Batman Beyond

B Tier
Skies of Arcadia
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Return of the Obra Dinn
Superman (Max Fleischer): Ah, the classic CLASSIC superhero look. Superman looks like the ideal perfection of a human being, and all of the robbers and criminals are chinless weaklings because their morality matches their bodies. Certain frames give me Snow White vibes, which is doubtless because many of the same methods were used. Looking at it, I notice that Superman's S has a black background, which looks evil-y.
Wario Land: Shake It
Stein's Gate (VN): You specified the VN, so I'll only do the VN. I really like the more grounded aesthetic here, it immediately jumps out to me as being a little more serious than other anime stuff. I'll be honest: the only thing I know about this series is I watched a guy complain about the anime on youtube even though I've never seen it, and I specifically remember him complaining that season 2 allowed the character to time travel back further than was established as possible in season 1. But in all seriousness, do you know how you can instantly tell how serious an anime is? How dark are the hair colors, it works 95% of the time. No random blonds = probably more serious.
Viewtiful Joe: There was a time when this was my second favorite game of all time. It's dropped since then, but I think we can all agree that it should have gotten a third game to wrap things up.
Bleach
Bayonetta: This is a series that does its best to make me embarrassed that I play it. I really like the genre! I'm being sincere, I've played basically everything in it except God Hand, and only then because it's a pain to get hold of. The hyper-detailed angels that match Biblical descriptions are fun enemies, Bayonetta is a super fun character, and the completely insane plot is fun... but it's one of those games I can't imagine anyone seeing me play, because Bayonetta herself is just such an absurdity. I also appreciate that the upcoming third game decided to just invent new enemies since they already used angels and demons in the previous games. I would have liked it more if they'd licensed Modrons from D&D, but alas.
Comix Zone
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Punisher (Greg Rucka): I'll level with you, I know two things about Punisher. First, the meme where he has a gun that shoots knives. Second, Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe. Googling this shows me that he recruited a redheaded female Punisher, which, fine. The art is being super inconsistent on what his dominant hand is. You can tell that this is going for a darker, more realistic tone than other superhero comics, and I like how frequently wounded he seems to be, but this is more identifiably "normal modern comic" than the other comic nominations.
Hollow Knight: Ah yes, short bright-character-on-big-dark-backgrounds, a classic. The stylized bugs that make up all of the NPCs and enemies are very nice-looking. This is still on my Steam wishlist, but I have way too much to play as it is.
Night is Short, Walk on Girl: I've never heard of this, but I can immediately tell it's a 1970s throwback. I was shocked to see the girl drinking so much before I looked it up to find they were college students, okay. That still doesn't seem very classic anime to me, but I'll allow it. The simplistic designs made me realize something: without the famous anime eyes and hair, it SHOULD be difficult to tell if something actually is an anime, this almost looked like normal Western animation for a bit, but the setting is so obviously Japanese, and the minor characters' behavior still follows anime tropes with the way they move their mouths (that really thin vertical mouth while screaming is not a Western thing), so it's still obviously anime. Looking at it, I can't imagine this having even a single day scene, it's so obviously reliant on nighttime visuals and concepts.
Punch-Out!! (Wii): This is the best possible translation of Punch-Out!! into Wii graphics, I'll give it that. All of the characters' personalities are still clear. However, they removed all of the absurd racism of the original games, and is it really Punch-Out without it? In all seriousness, this is the best possible cartoon-y boxing game aesthetic you could have.

C Tier
Flip Flappers (Rerank): I went back and watched some of the show on youtube to see it in action, and its seizure-inducing opening with appearances by the Ku Klux Klan? I sure didn't expect that. Having seen more of it, I'll give it some credit and say it's not as generic as it looks in still images, and I kind of like the main character in normal girl mode more than super mode. I enjoyed the schoolgirl with a gross, scary mask, but she lost it after the battle and turned into a normal anime girl. Then I saw the Sailor Moon-esque transformation sequence which gave a shot of her crotch, which I KNEW was going to happen, I would have bet money on it. I'll say this: I still don't love the character designs, but I guess it does have a little more going on than I gave it credit for, and the animation quality is better than I expected.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Little Nightmares II
One Piece

D Tier
Peanuts
Donha Donha
Code Lyoko
An Untitled Story
The Midnight Gospel
Dusk
Ren & Stimpy: See Ed, Edd n Eddy. I'll give it more points because it occasionally does more creative things with its medium.
Mad Rat Dead
Metalocalypse
Generic Moe Anime: I just googled this, and didn't get the results I wanted. I was thinking more like that Clannad meme with the girl whose eyes are half her face. Maybe I DON'T know what moe anime really is, I just imagine girls acting cutesy and blushing a lot
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
Space Funeral
Reboot
Duckman

F Tier
Monster by Mistake
Joshua and the Promised Land: I want you to know that I pulled up more Angela Anaconda to reference fro which looks worse. In terms of technical skill, Joshua is definitely much worse, because you can tell that AA requires at least some genuine talent to make something so ugly, while this is just poorly-made CGI. But it's SO poorly made that it's the ugliest thing ever. I'm narrowly giving this to AA, but I don't feel good about it.
Angela Anaconda

Vetoed
Hotel Dusk: Room 215: Gonna veto this one, surprisingly, because I don't want to look it up, because I plan to play it later.

Vib-ribbon

Cuphead

My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute

Child of Light

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Hotline Miami

Parappa the Rapper

Anagram posted...

It's true that I looked up mostly still images, so I went back and reranked it.

I mean it's probably excessive to expect this for everything you haven't seen, but I appreciate it.

If you're talking about moe character designs I think you've pretty much got the right idea. That tends to not be what I think when I hear "moe anime" but it's sort of a very vaguely defined phrase in the first place which people use in a lot of different ways which I wasn't really remembering.

Anagram posted...

Punch-Out!! (Wii): This is the best possible translation of Punch-Out!! into Wii graphics, I'll give it that. All of the characters' personalities are still clear. However, they removed all of the absurd racism of the original games, and is it really Punch-Out without it? In all seriousness, this is the best possible cartoon-y boxing game aesthetic you could have.

They got rid of the absurd racism? This is news to me

(to be clear, I think it's pretty benign, but the ethnic stereotypes are still in full force in this game)

Odin Sphere

Anagram posted...
Vetoed

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: Gonna veto this one, surprisingly, because I don't want to look it up, because I plan to play it later.

Good call!

Ha I could see how you thought Punisher recruited her but it's actually quite the opposite! He doesn't want her following in his footsteps. I just love Punisher's Big Boss-esque look, and Checchetto's artwork, especially in regards to weather effects, just becomes so ethereal and dreamlike as the series goes on.

Observer (video game)

Paratroopa1 posted...

They got rid of the absurd racism? This is news to me

(to be clear, I think it's pretty benign, but the ethnic stereotypes are still in full force in this game)

You know, going back to the NES one and looking up the sprites, the only one that's AS racist as I remember is the Indian guy.

Cavedweller2000 posted...

Vetoed

Good call!

Yeah, sorry.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Ha I could see how you thought Punisher recruited her but it's actually quite the opposite! He doesn't want her following in his footsteps. I just love Punisher's Big Boss-esque look, and Checchetto's artwork, especially in regards to weather effects, just becomes so ethereal and dreamlike as the series goes on.

Oh, looking sort of like Big Boss, that's a good connection I didn't make.

Blacksad (comic)

Dead Space

Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou

Arcane

S Tier

A Tier
X-Men (Jim Lee)
Dragon Quest
Ace Attorney
Batman Beyond
Paper Mario
Cuphead: Absolutely flawless interpretation of 1930s rubber hose animation into modern video gaming, 10/10 job.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

B Tier
Hotline Miami: You're lucky that I happened to play these games earlier this year. This game really nails the gross, disgusting falling-apartness of the era and locale. Everyone is so hideous and everything is so gnarly, it's wonderful. Second game's worse than the first, though.
Skies of Arcadia
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Return of the Obra Dinn
Superman (Max Fleischer)
Night is Short, Walk on Girl
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Ah, I can tell this is an attempt to mix classical Japanese artwork with modern anime, right? I like it a lot.
Wario Land: Shake It
Stein's Gate (VN)
Viewtiful Joe
Bleach
Observer: Ah yeah, gross computer cyberpunk-y feelings. Every single screen shot where you're outside has rain, because you can't have cyberpunk without constant rain. I want to highlight something, actually -- these gross futures always have someone with a robot arm. What is happening in the future that causes people to get their arms ripped off so often? I get that it's an easy way to show that it's the future or whatever, but it's so often.
Dead Space: More disgusting future stuff, like Observer. I feel that I should put them together. Man, I remember everyone complaining that Dead Space 3 ruined the series with multiplayer, remember that?
Bayonetta
Comix Zone
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Punisher (Greg Rucka)
Hollow Knight
Punch-Out!! (Wii)

C Tier
Flip Flappers
Arcane: I'm gonna let you in on a secret: I hate steampunk. The city this takes place in, I think it's Zaun, has heavy steampunk vibes. Anyway, the character animation, I've never seen anything quite like it? I don't know any of the lingo used to describe it, but it neat. That's what I'll give it: it's neat.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
One Piece
Little Nightmares II
Blacksad: Does this cat guy ever not look angry? Every picture of him on google makes him look furious.
Odin Sphere: This reminds me heavily of like late 90s PS1 games that tried to have 2D sprites in 3D locations, like FFT. Modernized dversion of that? Not bad, but the actual execution of this looks a little off to me. I can imagine this being done much better.
Vib-Ribbon: I'll grant that it's distinctive, but it's not for me.

D Tier
Peanuts
Parappa the Rapper: My entire life, I thought it was "Parappa the Rappa," I'm ****ing shocked. Anyway, I really dislike the vegetable head guy, it reminds me of those gross 90s cartoons I didn't like back in the 90s.
Donha Donha
Code Lyoko
An Untitled Story
The Midnight Gospel
Dusk
Ren & Stimpy
Mad Rat Dead
Metalocalypse
Generic Moe Anime
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
Space Funeral
Reboot
Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou: Ugh.
Duckman

F Tier
Monster by Mistake
Joshua and the Promised Land
Angela Anaconda

Veto
Child of Light: Vetoing this because I plan to play CoL at some point. I even have it downloaded already!

Persona 5

Umineko: When they Cry (original sprites)

Anagram posted...

Veto
Child of Light: Vetoing this because I plan to play CoL at some point. I even have it downloaded already!

Fair enough

Courage the Cowardly Dog

The Problem Solverz

xkcd

Gnosia

Red Dead Redemption

Minecraft

Anagram posted...

Blacksad: Does this cat guy ever not look angry? Every picture of him on google makes him look furious.

It's noir, so generally not, no. Though he does have his rare content moments.

New nomination:
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Kingdom Hearts

Mononoke (the 2007 series, not to be confused with Princess Mononoke)

S Tier

A Tier
X-Men (Jim Lee)
Dragon Quest
Persona 5: Absolutely perfect. Really sells the style and the rebellious feeling. P3 and P4 cannot compete in terms of visual acumen. Another thing is that they really push how modern things are, like in Strikers, where the shop is just your amazon account.
Ace Attorney
Batman Beyond
Paper Mario
Cuphead
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

B Tier
Hotline Miami
Skies of Arcadia
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Return of the Obra Dinn
Superman (Max Fleischer)
Night is Short, Walk on Girl
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Wario Land: Shake It
Stein's Gate (VN)
Viewtiful Joe
Bleach
Observer
Dead Space
Bayonetta
Kingdom Hearts: I don't like Kingdom Hearts, but I'll happily admit that its visual design is flawless. It's a perfect marriage of Disney and Final Fantasy, which is exactly what it needed to be. Shame about the visual change for the upcoming game, though.
Comix Zone
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Punisher (Greg Rucka)
Hollow Knight
Punch-Out!! (Wii)

C Tier
Flip Flappers
Arcane
Red Dead Redemption: Did you mean the box art or the game? I'm assuming the game, which just looks exactly like what I imagine a western to look like.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
One Piece
Courage the Cowardly Dog: Courage borders a little on that intentionally ugly 90s art, but it sort of works here, because everything is from the perspective of someone who's perpetually terrified.
Little Nightmares II
Blacksad
Odin Sphere
Vib-Ribbon

D Tier
Peanuts
Monokune (2007): Something about this doesn't sit right wtih me, and I don't know what. It's obviously another anime-meets-classic-Japanese-art anime, but this leans way more heavily toward the latter than the balance the other such entries went for. I guess maybe I just don't like classic Japanese art? And knowing nothing about this series, I wonder why the main character has elf ears.
Parappa the Rapper
Donha Donha
Code Lyoko
Umineko (Original): This is like 10% better than what I can do. The brunette witch's laughing face is so bad. It's so odd that this is a professionally-made product. Then again, it DOES get everyone's expressions across. You can always tell what's happening. I guess there's a certain strange charm to it.
An Untitled Story
The Midnight Gospel
Gnosia: I like this game and everything, but art is not its strong suit. Every character has one sprite that they barely alter to show different emotions. The art is super detailed, but it's not particularly attractive, and I can't always tell exactly what's happening with some of the characters. I can always tell their personality at a glance, though, which is helpful. For what it's trying to be, like a trip on a paranoid ship where trust is falling apart, it's good.
Dusk
xkcd: I cannot believe xkcd is still going on. It's been around forever.
Ren & Stimpy
Mad Rat Dead
Mineccraft: I feel like this isn't fair? I know that Minecraft appeals to kids everywhere, it's not Minecraft's fault that I'm a guy in my thirties.
Metalocalypse
Generic Moe Anime
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
Space Funeral
Reboot
Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou
Duckman

F Tier
Monster by Mistake
The Problem Solverz: Trying to look like gross 90s CGI, except with bad designs on purpose, got it. Showing that giant piece of poop eating pizza with his huge lips is nauseating.
Joshua and the Promised Land
Angela Anaconda

You skipped mine. I nominated Yoshi's Island.

If I can nominate two now, I'll also nominate Waking Life, with the caveat that I'd love if you looked up at least one scene from the movie. (If not you can just save it for next time!)

Mario Strikers

Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony

Hylics

Katamari Damacy

Shadow of the Colossus

Mirror's Edge

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Kholat

Journey (the game)

Pokemon RBY

Because someone posted a Toriyama thing earlier, here's Chrono Trigger before he was brought onboard.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/5/3/AACpsLAADigJ.jpg