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Comment by craigjb | Hacker News Reader

It always makes me smile when I hear the term "8-bit" used to describe art. The strict hardware and software limitations of early computers spawned a complete visual aesthetic!

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And yet I can't think of many 8-bit systems that let you set any pixel any color like most of today's "8-bit" art. Most had tile based systems with various color limitations in each tile, to save memory. Graphics on different systems had a distinctive look because of this. Most of today's "pixel art" games look pretty samey.

The current 8-bit art just uses some inspiration from old games, it does not aim to remake the same experience (which will be pretty boring because there already is a ton of games like that).

And I have to disagree to the fact they all look the same. When I watch Super Meat Boy, Shovel Knight, Void & Medler, Swords & Sorcery etc. they have really distinctive design.

You picked an interesting one, Shovel Knight, because its graphics engine actually emulates how the NES graphics chip works (with a few enhancements). That gives it a look that stands out from a lot of others.

Super Meat Boy is an example of the visual sameness in my opinion. It looks exactly like Broforce or Super Time Force Ultra or a million others. The aesthetic seems to be 256 color VGA with really tiny sprites. It doesn't really remind me of anything or look inspired by anything in particular IMO.

Further the color channels offered by today '8-bit' don't correspond to the RRRGGGBB packing of the systems they emulate.

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