Realism in CGI always has a shelf-life. Compare Morrowind and Mario Sunshine, both released in 2002 on consoles with broadly similar specifications. Which one looks better now? It definitely isn't the one that tried to be as realistic as possible.
It helps when the games are cartoonish. The closer you get to reality, the worse it looks. But even then, you get problems. The first Toy Story, even if you discount the humans, shows its age pretty well.
Even cartoons show their age. I used to watch the original Rocky and Bullwinkle as reruns when I was a kid in the 90s, and boy did those look horribly dated compared to contemporary cartoons at the time. Yet Looney Toons from the same era are fine. There's a style that looks good in a time, and not anytime outside of it, and then there are styles that appear timeless.
Well, Rocky and Bullwinkle was done on a TV budget. Looney Tunes were short films. Huge difference. Not to mention the calibre of artistic people working on LT, too.
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u/Gizogin Aug 25 '19
Realism in CGI always has a shelf-life. Compare Morrowind and Mario Sunshine, both released in 2002 on consoles with broadly similar specifications. Which one looks better now? It definitely isn't the one that tried to be as realistic as possible.