Of all the art styles in video games, none has a stronger chokehold on developers and players alike than the humble pixel. Whether it's a fantastically detailed modern take on what is possible in pixels, or something made in homage to NES and SNES games of yore, pixel art can be found everywhere — in every genre of game, on every console (no matter how powerful), and in every generation of games, too.
Some may dismiss pixel art as an old-fashioned art style [Names and addresses of those people on my desk, please - Ed.], but the games in this list show that pixel art can be up there with some of the most beautiful games on Switch. Just because something adheres to an evident grid doesn't mean it can't be utterly gorgeous — so let's celebrate the best pixel art in games!
Eastward (Switch eShop)
What likely drew you first to Eastward was the incredible pixel art direction, and we can happily report that it does not disappoint. What’s so striking about the visuals is how absolutely detailed they are, packing in a litany of small elements that give a lot to chew on, so to speak, in every frame.
A series of misshapen posters on a wall. The faded paint of an old boat hull being used as a roof. Flickering neon lights of an old diner’s sign. All these things come together to convey a tremendous sense of place, and we applaud the developers for executing such an impressive visual style. And if you want more of that, the DLC, Eastward: Octopia, delivers.
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Kingdom Two Crowns (Switch eShop)
Even with the embarrassment of retro-aesthetic riches on Switch, the pixel art in Kingdom: Two Crowns is standout. Starting on horseback on a moonlit night after a lengthy initial load, the lighting and the ever-present reflection in the foreground water are immediately striking.
Beauty is an integral component of Two Crowns; be prepared to spend a long time gazing at scenery as you canter from one end of your territory to the other. Night turns to dawn, day to dusk in a lovely cycle of light, weather and seasons. While some may find it monotonous or one-note, its tranquillity grows on you – we found it to be a perfect bedtime accompaniment.
Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition (Switch eShop)
Running at a smooth 60fps in both handheld mode and docked, Hyper Light Drifter isn’t just another port of a popular indie game, but the definitive version on the platform it best suits. You only need to play this iteration for five minutes to appreciate just how perfectly Heart Machine’s labour of love suits Nintendo’s portable console.
Its neon-coloured pixel art world - a setting rich with colour but marked by a terrible tragedy that informs everything from character design to the aesthetics of its large and varied map - is a joy to explore, even if you will die ad infinitum in your first few hours.
Huntdown (Switch eShop)
The fine detail of Huntdown's beautifully detailed, hand-drawn pixel graphics infuse everything you do with a real sense of satisfying momentum and weight. Your bounty hunter feels great to control as they manoeuvre through gunfights, their clothes swooping and swishing as they jump and slide, their weapons turning enemies into bloody giblets and scenery into smouldering ruins as they leap around platforms and take cover from the crazed mobs piling out of subway trains, emerging from sewers and arriving on all manner of vehicles in an attempt to take you down.
Potion Permit (Switch)
The visuals in alchemy sim Potion Permit are impeccable. Everything adopts an enchanting autumnal pixel appearance, and the amount of detail in each area on the map is enough to have you exploring for hours.
Moonbury is filled with unique characters for you to meet and speak to, and they're just as visually detailed as the town itself. These aren't bulk-created NPCs — each has recognisable and unique personality, including romanceable bachelors and bachelorettes.
Live A Live (Switch)
The nostalgia-inducing HD-2D visual style used for Live A Live is both faithful to the original Super Famicom game, and also stunningly detailed, and might just be the best-looking HD-2D game yet.
Not a pixel is out of place, as every single environment is utterly gorgeous, with character models that look distinctive and sharp and crisp, and colourful pixel environments that blend seamlessly with the 3D aspects. Rocks on cliffs, computer units, forests of bamboo, and more all meld together perfectly as jagged grass sways in the wind, or a warm flame flickers with sunset orange digital dots. Even the crystal clear water looks flawless as you sneak your way through Edo Japan underwater with your cute little pixel snorkel poking out of the top. And, on an OLED, it’s a real feast for the eyes.
![Live A Live [Download Code - UK/EU]](https://images.nintendolife.com/products/19416/100x100.png)
Owlboy (Switch eShop)
As you can hopefully see from the included screenshots, the aesthetic of this game is absolutely jaw-droppingly stunning at times. The pixel art approach has been used a lot recently, attempting to have gamers fawning all over nostalgic memories of their childhoods, but rarely is it done to such a high standard.
Games such as Owlboy prove that pixel art should never be forgotten as a medium; certain touches such as the immense detail in the clouds and trees had us staring in awe just as much as the most realistic-looking games of 2018 will manage.
To The Moon (Switch eShop)
To The Moon may have that "made in RPG Maker" look to it, but that doesn't mean it's not beautiful. Unfolding a love story over the course of decades, through the memories of a dying man, To The Moon shows you brief but beautiful vignettes of pivotal moments in a couple's life.
Unpacking (Switch eShop)
Unpacking stands out from the bunch in this list because its pixel art is a little different. You won't find softly diffused light streaming through stained glass windows, or complicated grids of exacting colour that create the illusion of depth — no, Unpacking's strength is in its utter simplicity.
Objects both large and small are recognisably replicated as simply as possible, and though we'll admit it took us a while to figure out that the small rolled up fabric things were underwear, Unpacking's no-frills pixel art matches the simple-yet-deep story that the game tells.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Switch eShop)
Graphically, Shredder's Revenge is a feast. There are no CRT filters for this pixel party, which some may find disappointing, but it’s so beautifully, exactingly drawn that it’s hard to muster a complaint.
Every inch is crammed with detail, beginning inside April’s Channel 5 TV station before moving through New York’s backstreets and sewers. Familiar locations are rendered with fresh, loving attention to detail, gorgeous colour, and an authentic cartoon flavour, all strung together with great visual storytelling.
Comments 65
Kate, why are your lists always so controversial. I mean you haven't even included Shovel Knight! 🥲 I mean it's fine... I'm getting used to your style. And it's nice that lesser known games get the spotlight.
I would also add Souldiers and Deaths Gambit to that list.
Great list! Probably the biggest stand out for story and such is To the Moon, but only by a hair. Lotta good games on this list.
I’ll toss some more to the list of quality pixels!
Graveyard Keeper
Fishing Paradiso
Dropsy
Thimbleweed
Darkside Detective 1&2
And of course the well known ones like Stardew and Shovel Knight. There’s also a few really good Metroidvania ones like Tou Hou and Haiku.
Lastly, after the Sierra article the other day, sweet baby Jesus I wish someone would bring the original Kings Quest and Leisure Suit Larry games to the switch. Freddy Farkas would be awesome too, as well as Space Quest (I think it was…)…. Sierra was the KING of pixels back in the day.
@Freek I concur, though Souldiers has some issues on switch and ps4/5. Still playable, just be warned the Fire Temple can have issues still. And don’t bother with it on ps4/5 as the save corruption still exists from what I can tell. PC, Switch and maybe Xbox are the best bets for that game.
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth deserves some notice, and a fun SotN-style Metroidvania, to boot.
It's a crime Sonic Mania isn't on this list. One of the best looking pixelated games.
I have had many a time where I see a game with awesome pixel art and buy it on a whim only for me to end up not enjoying the way it plays. I fall for great pixel art Every. Single. Time. I need to be extremely wary any time I see a new game with an awesome artstyle now, and I hate it.
No Undertale & Deltarune? Both would fit really well on this list, especially Deltarune. And let’s not forget that a large chunk of Undertale is a homage to Earthbound.
I’m missing Axiom Verge…… great list even without that game.
Triangle Strategy, Undertale, Deltarune?
Played all of them except for the sim games, shmups and other VN junk.
Pixels just have so much more life than 4k ultra realism.
@ChaoticKirby @JokerCK I think you overlooked the word "art" in the title. Undertale is ugly and you can't deny that.
Love pixel art. SR did a great job with it
Dang no love for Dead Cells, or Katana Zero.. eastward while gorgeous was a huge disappointment, probably more than owlboy and to the moon was a letdown too with its simple gameplay cheap graphics and lame story, but you got some greats on there with hyper light zero and shredders revenge
Honestly there are just a ton of beautiful pixel art games on Switch. I like a lot in this article, but I could easily list 10+ great ones not listed here. I'm surprised dead cells and celeste aren't on this list. They bleed pixels is a less popular one I like a lot personally. There are so many good ones.
Cadence of Hyrule has the best 2D Zelda art since Minish Cap! I want to play a true Zelda game with the art of Cadence of Hyrule!
Does Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in handheld mode count as pixel art?
No Signalis?? Such a unique art style in that game, great use of pixels
Seems like Pathway is one that flew under everyone's radar but if you like turn-based strategy and Indiana Jones, I can't recommend that one hard enough.
Octopath 2 obviously the most incredible-looking.
I put off buying Stardew Valley for so long because the pixel art graphics suck however after buying it I sunk over 100 hours into that game even though I still hate the graphics.
These all sound good, but I wish there were enough hand-drawn games to make a similar list. If more games looked like Hollow Knight, the cost-of-production for these games wouldn't rise much AFAICT and it'd also make them more appealing to those who aren't fond of pixel art.
Seems like a bit of recency bias with this list, but o can’t even be mad when it’s practically a list tailor made to advertise Hyper Light Drifter and Owlboy. Surprised to see NLife favorite Horace didn’t make the cut here.
That reminds me, I still need to buy Owlboy and Live A Live.
Btw, Hyper Light Drifter is great.
You left my boy Horace off your list 😢
ONE WORD: OCTOPATH
Don't forget:
- Super Hiking League DX -
Really beautiful game. ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ
I knew both Eastward and Owlboy would on here. Both of them are directly responsible for causing me to be much, much more careful about vetting a game I'm interested in buying because I hated them both intensely. Excellent graphics, terrible gameplay. Eastward never stops dragging it's by the numbers narrative like sandpaper over gravel and Owlboy feels half finished right down to it's dreadful steal levels. Meanwhile, the incredible La Mulana and it's equally brilliant sequel, both full of the purest gameplay a video game is capable of, are again ignored because they dared to challenge you. It's criminal how this medium gradually began embracing style over substance and aesthetics over actual gameplay. What a shame.
I was really interested in Potion Permit when it was released, but I was scared off by the reported bugs. Anyone know if they’ve been patched?
Octopath, Blasphemous, Moonlighter, and Iconoclasts are all fantastic recommendations, for their gameplay as much as their visuals. Since it's relevant, I'm gonna copy over a comment I made on the more general pretty games list a good while ago.
"And just to keep my last comment from being even more bloated, I'll dump some of my top picks for pixel art visuals here: Kamiko, CrossCode, Phoentopia, World for Two, Foregone, Batbarian, ScourgeBringer, Star Renegades, Narita Boy, Touhou Luna Nights, Astalon, Timespinner, Evoland, Eldest Souls, and Death's Gambit."
I'd also add in The Way Remastered, Shovel Knight, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, and Sparklite. I started to dig through my wishlist for more, but quickly realized I'd never finish writing them all out.
@CountDrakeulah I agree with your assessment of Owlboy. I played the whole game: I liked the art, but the game play and overall game design left me wanting a lot more.
Would Horizon Chase Turbo count as a pixel art racing game?
Cheating a bit but I'd count Sea of Stars too (releases later this year)
@sunny63 There are a ton of games with great hand-drawn style visuals on Switch. Besides the big names like Hollow Knight and Cuphead, there's Tangle Tower, GRIS, Ponpu, Hoa, Wulverblade, anything from Thunder Lotus, Sumire, Creepy Tale, Flood of Light, Liar Princess, Giga Wrecker, the SteamWorld games, the more recent Shantae games, Pankapu, and Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, just to name ones I've played. I could probably dig up twice as many from my wishlist if you want. If you're looking exclusively for games where every frame of every animation is drawn from scratch, then that is going to cut the list down a good bit, but that's because animating that way is much more work-intensive, and makes it harder to change character designs or anything else with a lot of animation mid-development.
"To the Moon" is one of the games that I think about a lot to this day, even though playing it wasn't that fun. The story made me cry though.
It's quite amusing browsing through this list. I distinctly remember in the early days of Switch bemoaning how many pixel-based games there were, and yet I own the majority on this list.
And yes, Dead Cells should definitely be included here.
Aren't all games technically pixel art games...?
I would add Speed Limit to this list, because it takes players through a variety of pixelated gameplay styles from games of the past, but in one game, and it's pretty fantastic.
It's not super long, but it has a speedrun mechanic to it if you like to attempt speedruns after you finish it.
Why is this board so upset with the picks mentioned??
I thought Rogue Heroes wasn't to shabby as well. Plus a bunch of fun to boot.
I believe Triangle Strategy, Death's Gambit and Souldiers should also be in the list. Beautiful pixel games!
Perhaps my favourite is Blasphemous though, the graphics are really something, the bosses and enemies remind me of the best Castlevania games, but more creepy.
Upvote for Hyper Light Drifter, The Messenger, and Blasphemous. Not just beautiful games, but great games, period.
Narita Boy is hypnotically engrossing in its style, but lacks balance in gameplay progression, making it not as satisfying to play.
Is it cheating to say BlazBlue Central Fiction and Under Night In-Birth Exe?
Both of these games are a master class in pixel art animation. The sprite work is gorgeous on its own, but the fast-paced fluidity of the action in both these games (Central Fiction especially) is a sight to behold.
Nice picks. I especially enjoyed Pocky & Rocky Reshrined's art style, it's easily one of the most beautiful games I've seen.
@KateGray Tried Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery? Beautiful pixel art, great soundtrack, interesting mechanics, deceptively simple puzzles that make you go OOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!! 💡💡💡
It’s also available on the app stores (originally for iOS), but the devs made a good/simple adaptation for the Switch. I wish more people knew about this game.
@theModestMouse Undertale is ugly? Okay.I will not take your comments seriously from now on.
@Dm9982 what was the Sierra article you mentioned? Missed that one but would like to read!
Owlboy is one big snoozefest I regret buying, the same goes for Iconoclasts which someone mentioned. Lots of much better pixel art games out there. Huntdown is good as is the excellent Horace.
@Robokku it was on TimeExtension, let me check for the link….
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/01/sierra-and-nintendo-almost-joined-forces-to-create-an-online-network-in-the-80s
There ya go!
@ParadoxFawkes What did you not like about Eastward? I thought it was a masterpiece. One of the best games I played last year.
@JokerCK I've got to agree with him. Undertale has a lot of things going for it, but the art style isn't one of them. I am not exaggerating when I say the color palette literally hurts my eyes.
@Dm9982 thank you!
Death's Gambit!
@bozz recently got it on a deep sale, but I still need to start playing it.
As for the art style in general, it is a very dangerous balance. On one hand, I love everything that reminds me of how I look back on the GBA and older Game Boys, but it is rarely done... "right". Eastward, Inmost, Wargroove, those are indeed fantastic examples of the visual style done right in my eyes. I love Minit as well for its art style, and many more, either on the list or not. But often it just feels like what it would be like if I painted in the style of Picasso without understanding why someone likes his work, only understanding that it sells in todays market and doesn't require much personality to just... plagiarise badly, instead of honour, I suppose.
Whenever I hear those words like "pixel art", "metroidvania", "rogue lite", "souls like",... I almost instantly feel a dislike for the game.
Eastward is beautiful, but tedious tho
@Doctor-Moo the constant talking of characters with no ability to skip made it a slog and i quit playing...i really wanted to like it but i hated the characters and hearing every little thought they had to say
Curse of the Moon is stunning!
@Anachronism Thank you! I will definitely try those out; I had no idea about most of them!
Pocket Rumble is one I haven't heard mentioned yet but had some decent pixel art.
@Robokku Np! Was a good read! Makes me want to boot up the laptop and get some old Sierra games on GoG, but I’d much prefer if some how they got ported to Switch as a collection. Would be just amazing.
The new LSL games on Switch aren’t bad, def worth a buy on sale if you’re an old Sierra fan. Soooo much better than the 360 LSL games which were garbage. And I love that they’ve got nods to the old pc games, as well as the original voice for Larry from LSL6 onward.
Cyber-Shadow is another fantastic game that doesn't get enough love. The whole futuristic/Ninja Gaiden vibes are fantastic and it's addictive as hell. Not to mention, it was published by the amazing Yacht Club Games, aka the Shovel Knight developers.
Where's Aegis Defenders??? Also, I kind of hate the term "pixel art" because 3D games also use pixels. But yes, I get it, and I regret that I joined Team Semantics.
You missed This Game and This Game! I'm SO MAAAAD!
@Olliemar28 I guess no matter how long you make the list, you're always going to miss someone's favorite. Would you guys consider doing a "Games We Missed" style reader-generated response list for each of these professionally done ones? I don't know how much work curating that kind of thing is, but if nothing else, it would give people a more constructive outlet for their opinions than just leaving angry comments. More selfishly, I just think opportunities to make small contributions like that are a lot of fun. Plus, they make for a more interesting read than the review score rankings format.
I enjoyed many of the games on this list, and more than a few of those nominated in the comments.
If I were to add anything, it would be Hollow Knight (is that pixelated enough?) and Celeste. Both of those had some vistas that made me pause the game to take a screenshot. Also I admire all the intricate details that went into the characters and scenery in River City Girls 2.
I love pixel art. It's like a love letter to my childhood gaming experience. There are so many Switch games to add to this list. But Sony and MS have their exclusives too.
@Teksetter
Hollow Knight has excellent graphic but it's not pixel art. Celeste and River City Girls do have it.
Fun list! I'm about 6 hours in on A Space for the Unbound and am hooked ❤️😺. Pretty sure I'm gonna be balling my eyes out at some point tho lol 🙄😊. I also made sure to give my cats some extra treats today!
Where is Scott pilgrim??
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