Personally, I really appreciate that they didn’t go with pixel art for the new Monkey Island game…
The idea that, in order to capture a similar feel, today’s games have to look like they did back in the 90s, seems kind of bonkers to me. It’s almost as absurd as saying that in order to fall in love again, you gotta go back and dress the same way you were dressed the first time you fell in love. And everyone else better dress up in the same way too, or else it just won’t be the same...
While pixel-art is a beautiful artform in its own right, and it does tend to remind us of our old love affair with adventure games, it’s really love itself we’re after - and I’m fairly sure that had very little to do with the size of the pixels.
When I started working on Justin Wack, I never saw blocky pixels as being part of the end result. Even though I do love that classic look, for me personally, there’s something just a little bit sad about the idea that everything related to this genre has to be some sort of throwback. Keep in mind that back in the day, these games were praised for having some of the most beautiful state-of-the-art graphics around!
Lastly, I just want to mention the day that old-school “pixel art” kind of lost its magic for me personally. When I grew up, we usually played on a C-64, or later on an Amiga. These computers were hooked up either to a CRT TV, or (if your parents had cash) a CRT monitor. Things looked beautiful through those displays because they were all MUDDY as crap. If you drew two pixels of varying color next to each other, they would blend into each other in a very natural and non-discreet way.
I remember visiting a friend who just picked up a new PC and monitor, and for the first time, we could see the pixels for what they actually were rather than through the hazy vail of those old screens. Fact is, we were playing adventure games. When my friend loaded up ”Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist”, I remember saying something like “Huh, everything looks kinda boxy, no? It’s like the graphics aren’t bleeding into each other”. My friend responded with something superbly truthful like “Well, I think it’s the same ol’ thing – just that we can see stuff more clear”. Technology being what it is, pixels just became clearer and clearer since then, and never looked quite as cool to me.
Anyway – to me - the big takeaway regarding the new Monkey Island game isn’t whether it should be using pixel art or not, but the fact that (for however long) it will get a lot of folks interested in the genre again… Well, that and the fact that Justin Wack isn’t gonna win any of the Adventure game awards this year :P
Have a good one! /Pontus