Topic: Graphics Or Sound: Which matters most to you?

I'm mixed. I mean I love a great soundtrack but I also love great graphics. I'm gonna say both.

Also, for my sound argument, look at rhythm games. If you had just good graphics but no sound, it would be a terrible rhythm game! Music is what counts for those kinds of games! In fact, I don't see how graphics are important to how a game plays, unless a game doesn't have any, of course!

Well... I prefer detail to graphics.

When is there ever a time in a game where the people making it ever have to sacrifice one to improve one. I say make them both good and then everything is all right. Personally though graphics should be a higher consern in any game that isn't soley based on music/rhythm because if the sound is bad you can adjust the volume on your TV/Device but if the graphics are bad there is nothing you can do about that.

Graphics
I can play a that doesn't have sound
But I can't play a game that I can't see

Art style reigns supreme.. Art can make a game timeless.. look at super metroid or even wind waker.. those games will always look good, even if they are not up to par with the newer systems

Gameplay overall.

Ballkirby: When is there ever a time in a game where the people making it ever have to sacrifice one to improve one. I say make them both good and then everything is all right. Personally though graphics should be a higher consern in any game that isn't soley based on music/rhythm because if the sound is bad you can adjust the volume on your TV/Device but if the graphics are bad there is nothing you can do about that.

I have a simple answer for you. Gameboy Advance. Seriously. Go look up some early history on IGN or whatever with developer interviews. A huge argument that hit the system was that games earlier on either looked great but sounded sketchy, or the other way around. GBA games unless they tapped the GBC secondary chip for a few beeps and boops had to work off a % of how much CPU to give to audio and visuals. A good example would be Castlevania COTM and HOD on the GBA. The original has ok visuals, very lowly animated, and not very high color at all, but the sound track is lush, very lush and sounds very clear. Then HOD came out a year later and the visuals took a massive increase, but they had to downgrade the audio to a more 8bit synth/chiptune type music which got a lot of complaints as they pushed the % too far in the other direction. The good 18mo they had from there to Aria, they learned to work a balance and eek more out of the device and then Aria got the best of both worlds.

So yeah, there are times that you do have to sacrifice audio and or visuals.

Really, I think it depends on which was put more work into, whether it be graphics or sound. It seems to me like graphics often are harder to do than a soundtrack. My personal opinion, graphics are more important.

That typically is the case, not to diminish someone doing audio as it's a lot of work making up music, scoring, and recording it. I was just going by a functional limitation of that GBA hardware that forced things for a few years to go good/bad one way or the other which really was kind of sad. I still and probably never understand why anyone would feel graphics are more important though as it makes no sense because if you're of that mind set, then it would make one wonder just a bit why bother, just go buy some blu-rays of some intense movie and just drool over it. Graphics sure help a game but it matters little how they look if they get the point across, but bad or missing audio can ruin an entire experience entirely since it can move someone in so many more ways.

@J.K The golden sun games had both great graphics and a great soundtrack.

Close, but graphics because if a game has bad graphics it can't be helped, if there's bad sound, it's i-pod time!

No, Mario Galaxy without at the very least decent graphics = a worse game. 3D platformers are more complex and can't get away with poor visuals as easily as 2D platformers.

Mario 64

I like how most of the people are saying sound, with this being a Nintendo forum.

They are called "video" games for a reason, right? So I would have to say sound. :3 I loves the music in games.

Btw, just wanted to add-Tha NES an SNES is no HD so haz bad grafix everting flat

You usually don't even remember how the graphics looked after a bit, Much how people who go back to the N64 say "This used to look a lot better", or for some "This looks a lot better than I remember". You will always remember a good tune though.

Can I say both?

I say as long as you can tell what is going on graphics don't matter. Sound is more of a personally taste, too. That is why some people enjoy one type of music while someone else can hate it. Either way though sound is the only thing you can manipulate in the game. Both of them aren't really essential any how. Gameplay is what matters but if you're playing a music game and the sound is off then it ruins the gameplay, or if you're playing any other type of game and foes appear out of nowhere and there is that fog type effect going on in the background in front of you preventing you from seeing what is ahead that also ruins the gameplay. But other then that the two are really just extras that enhance the gameplay. It just is an opinion on which one makes the game more enjoyable to you.

Sound - I can tolerate mediocre graphics, but the game experience is ruined for me if the music sucks.

Mariofanatic: I'm aware golden sun (both) looked and sounded nice, but the point I was making was on earlier (year 1 and 2) GBA titles because people hadn't grasped the hardware yet so using the default Nintendo tools they struggled to get a balance between audio and visuals and one would often suffer in the earlier titles. An odd one I recall and a less odd would be Chu Chu Rocket, and Final Fight One respectively. Both of them had some pretty nice visuals, though Chu Chu Rocket was more plain with a ton of mice on screen it was busy, and do to the setup of both they had 1/3 to 1/2 of their music running off the secondary old z80 chip for the 8bit gb and the audio sucked as a sacrifice.