Gaming's Biggest Graphical Jump

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[@NamelessGamer29]

Like you pointed out in the video the jump in visual quality from Smash 64 to Melee will always blow my mind. And the fact they were able to pull that off in a little over a year is miraculous

[@bobosmith101]

melee to brawl felt bigger to me

[@Matanumi]

Man was just playing melee with the boys last night talking about how crazy the jump was Brawl single player and content was nice but not the same

[@traviscunningham7062]

Brawl was my favorite because of the single player. I hate the other Smash games because they are way too competitive.

[@Marlotix]

​@@bobosmith101 The difference with Melee to Brawl wasn't because of what the different systems were capable of though. Brawl's drastic art style shift was because Sakurai and the development team didn't want the game to look to visually similar to Melee. So it's not really the same thing.

[@bobosmith101]

@@Marlotix No, I would say it is. There is a focus on much higher textures and backgrounds. Melee's are comparatively flat while Brawl's are much more detailed. The effects of moves, too.

[@MigueUgartechea]

I think the jump from NES to SNES is very underrated, not only in graphics but in scope and QUALITY. To go from Metroid to Super Metroid, from Zelda 1 to A Link to the Past. The 8 bit era still was for the most part very 'arcady', and then just think for a second how many masterpieces the 16bit era had.

[@fluffy_tail4365]

I think a lot of us that really remember it are a bit old and not the majority

[@MigueUgartechea]

@@fluffy_tail4365 i was born in 98, so I didn't experience it first hand, I just know that the SNES games I have played are way better in every way than their NES equivalents

[@Tofu6969]

@@fluffy_tail4365 I’m 14 and I know it lol mostly cus I was a HUGE fan of street fighter 2 and Megaman so I had a lot of time playing SNES and NES games and eventually played too many that I’ve loved retro games more than modern ones. Quarantine also gave me more time to play them since I played them during class (I somehow got A’s without paying attention but whatever) nothing beats classics and I’m sure glad pixel style games are still alive (stardew valley and omori are ones I like) I do like modern games but not as much as retro.

[@KingUSVI]

Agreed. As someone who’s a few months from turning 50, I vividly remember the leap from the Atari 2600 to NES was quite significant as well.

[@jaykelley103]

Using "arcadey" as a pejorative is a uniquely zoomer phenomenon

[@dmanandcmac]

I was a hardcore N64 kid back in the late 90s and early 2000s - I can still absolutely remember the first time I booted up Luigi's Mansion on my GameCube and going "Holy F@ck look at these graphics, this is insane!"

[@sheldoncooper8199]

@dmanandcmac Thats what i thought when i first Saw Resident Evil 0. on the Gamecube.

[@KJ-su4ph]

Exactly my reaction when I first played Goldeneye on N64 in 1997. It was a fkking unreal experience I will never ever forget.

[@sheldoncooper8199]

@@KJ-su4ph Oh Yeah and Perfect Dark Blew my Mind Even more the Like 21 Different Death animations.... The Music the 50 Weapons with 2 Fire Modes i was Like this is Half Life for Consoles.

[@sheldoncooper8199]

@@Buckeyes-pj8tr Oh Yeah i played The Demo of SSX Over and Over and Over again cause i couldnt believe the Snow Graphics. ONE of the Best Console Launch Games EVER. To Bad the SSX Series killed itself with the PS 3 Game. SSX 3 was soo good. Back when EA made great Games. I remember i couldnt believe the Graphics of Def Jam Fight for New York. and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

[@shaun8062]

See, If I were a kid with the n64, maybe I'd not have been as blown away by 3D. But I was a kid with 2D graphics. It was a long while before seeing a world that moved like real life.

[@LordelX]

Atari 2600 to NES. I guess you had to be there. Side scrolling, music, text, save games, bosses, games longer than a single session and endings. All of that was new, and it was mind blowing.

[@catsaregovernmentspies]

I don't think there's any larger jump in performance. The 2600 was like 2-bit, making the jump to NES (which is what our family did) a 4x jump.

[@jsr734]

@@catsaregovernmentspies No, both the NES and the 2600 are 8bit machines, the difference comes from how their gpus or ppus handled graphics.

[@st0rmchild]

This is the correct answer.

[@wile123456]

It all existed on home computer platforms though. The 2600 lived far too ars than it should have.

[@drjohnwooberg]

The NES was built to play Donkey Kong; the 2600 was built to play Pong. You only had four or five on-screen elements to work with. The fact that they could make something like Pitfall even work on that system is quite impressive.

[@AbruptAvalanche]

The poll results pretty much align with my feelings. It's just too hard to top the jump from 2D to 3D, though the gamecube generation still felt like a huge leap as well.

[@Volvagia1927]

Generally? Phrased on technical achievement, I'd agree. But on AESTHETIC achievement? That's either NES to SNES/Genesis or N64/Playstation/Saturn 3D to PS2/Gamecube/Xbox 3D.

[@98SE]

Yeah I completely agree with this, but what about the VR generation, that jump was just INSANE.

[@jarerarebear1765]

2D to 3D wasn't really a "graphical leap" though, it was more of a shift in perspective

[@leonro]

I would argue that the jump from Atari 2600 & co to the NES and SEGA Master System was even greater than 2D to 3D. Games went from looking like... things... to looking like a real world. Side scrolling, more than a couple of colours, actual stories... It can't be overstated how great that leap was.

[@chrisrichfield8906]

​@@jarerarebear1765they aren't talking about perspective though, they me a n 2d graphics to 3d graphics. You think going from a flat plane using sprites to full 3d environment was not a big leap in graphics? You can have a 3d game in a 2d perspective, and vice versa.

[@theblubus]

When I saw the title, I were really hoping you were going to cover the 3D refinement era. Everyone goes to the initial jump to 3D consoles but the refinement era of the 00s is just mindblowing. Thank you so much for covering this :)

[@PNWDOM]

Started gaming in the 80's on a Commodore 64 and NES. Nothing will ever compare to the generational shift to 3D with the PS1 / N64 / SS era of games. It was truly a magical time to be alive.

[@TjIrineu]

The first 3 playstations were always big jumps.

[@dhollsynthmusic]

Tomb Raider in 1996 was incredible. Then FFVII a year later for different reasons (cut-scenes, epic narrative). Then a year after that Silent Hill gave us the first genuinely-scary horror game which could compete with the best horror movies.

[@michaelhernandez1841]

Going from the original RE to RE remake on the GC blew my mind away

[@rodrigo53]

Snes to n64 were magical times. It will never happen again

[@lol-ih1tl]

Ironically SNES games held up better than the N64 graphically.

[@traviscunningham7062]

Like compare Mario World to Mario 64. Which one aged better?

[@croper0]

@@traviscunningham7062 mario world

[@wurzelbert84wucher5]

@@traviscunningham7062 Mario World looks super cool, especially in high res and widescreen in Mario Maker!

[@Nutty151]

I thought VR would bring that magic back but it hasn't caught on yet.

[@richardlu6706]

Glad you covered this, I think this is such an underrated discussion. Like how could your mind not be blown by going from Mario’s blocky hands to his fingered gloves in melee

[@henriqueaugustus1761]

I believe the PS1 was the beta test of 3D and PS2 was the true realization of it all.

[@48hourrecordsteam45]

👏🏽 👏🏽

[@Clery75019]

You forget the N64 in your analysis. It is the N64 which brought the analog stick, as well as games such as Super Mario 64, Golden Eye and Ocarina of Time which basically set the standards of 3D gaming that mostly still applies today.

[@aliali-ce3yf]

SNES to N64 - that blew me away. seeing Mario 64 at Target, the Jolly Roger stage and its great soundtrack will forever be the bar of "wow , this is the future"

[@WhyYouWahYoo]

BRO I was just talking about this with a friend, we both agreed it was 64/ps1 to GameCube/PS2. I can see the jump to 3D being an argument for sure, but what I think cements it for me is how… solidified it has felt since then. GameCube, for instance, was the era where the Mario characters got their designs they still have now. I know that’s a silly example… point is, everything since then has kinda felt like an iteration on that foundation of GameCube/PS2, just expanded and of course with more detailed graphics.

[@hartonosutrisno5452]

Saturn to Dreamcast also have lots of grapichal jumps and performance on the game, but they being forgotten because on how bad Sega marketing back then. Sega Dreamcast actually initiate the graphical jump before PS2, Gamecube and XBox participate in Golden era of Console Wars. However, they make the fatal mistake by making too many consoles in hope for taking lead before all of them join in. As result, there are lots of Dreamcast was being dusted in the shelf and thrown into scrapyard. I owned Dreamcast back in 2000 with PS2 in 2002 and I can feel the pain of how Sega pulled from Console wars forever because they keep making mistake after the success from Genesis like Atari 2600 with later generations. But, they still alive and healthy thanks to their games being popular in Arcade which is their best redemption from failure.

[@NesrocksGamingVideos]

Ironically the Mario style being cemented is what basically made me lose all interest in the series. I'm not the target audience anymore, I guess.

[@gamesandplanes3984]

​@@NesrocksGamingVideosSame. It became silly kid crap.

[@constantk8780]

​@@gamesandplanes3984 there's no silly kid crap, just adults that think they're not kids anymore.

[@El_Chuchuca]

I beg to differ. Nintendo games were also the most packed at that era. Switch games doesn't have the polish that Gamecube era games had.

[@Rizzdice]

Bro dropped a Dreamcast ad in 2023

[@kingjeffwx5331]

The jump in 3D graphics from the 90s to the 00s is just massive.

[@epretzel72]

The Atari gen to NES to SNES was also impressive

[@catsaregovernmentspies]

Yes, going from the 2600 to the NES blew my mind when I played SMB1 and Double Dragon for the first time.

[@baileywatts1304]

I know that wikipedia considers all of atari stuff to be one console generation but the 2600 saw the 5200 and Colecovision to the 7800, and the Colecovision games were about on par with NES titles at launch before mapper chips were introduced.

[@LITTLE1994]

Definitely

[@NesrocksGamingVideos]

@@baileywatts1304 7800 was released in 1984 though, so technically the NES (famicom) already existed.

[@thehound1359]

By far.

[@jiraiya0698]

I disagree with you. The N64/PS1 jump was astronomical. You are kind of disregarding the jump from 2D to 3D when it's a total game changer. That feeling of playing Ocarina of Time, MGS1 and FF7 will NEVER be recaptured.

[@vitmaubra]

He's not talking about a vague feeling. He is talking about graphics, *visual* feeling. Ocarina and MGS1 are ugly af. MGS3 and GT4 are beautiful games by *today's* standards. It is the same thing with early 2D graphics. Super Mario Bros 1 was astonishing *when* all you had was 2600 graphics. Nowadays it does not hold up so well. Yoshi's Island, however, was and still is a 2D beauty. Technology needs time to reach its full potential.

[@Nails077]

I remember when I saw Star Wars Rogue Squadron II for GameCube for the first time and was blown away by the graphical leap. This is also the time I think back on as the last time it happened.

[@leonro]

Yeah, back when the jumps in computational power between console generations was humongous, it felt amazing to think "So this is how games will look from now on!" when you popped in the first game for your new system.

[@pkbelly]

It was definitely a giant leap, and the last time Nintendo really pushed graphics forward.

[@sheldoncooper8199]

@Nails077 Most Underrated Star Wars Game Ever. It really showed the Power of the Gamecube long before Resident Evil 4.

[@AbstractM0use]

Yes, loved those games. Now there's a series I'd like to see make an appearance on modern systems. If they can somehow get the Factor 5 team back together, that'd be even better.

[@gamesssssssssssssssssssssssss]

If you look at it from 2 generations in 1988 came the megadrive/Genesis in 1998 the Dreamcast was released, only 10 years later, compare the graphics of Shenmue to something like altered beast/golden axe on the megadrive, its just mind blowing how quickly graphics got noticeably better. go 10 years back now, from 2023 too 2013, you can barely notice a difference

[@sonyx4500]

Games pretty much reached their limit. Xbox360 and ps3 games still look great.

[@TheOldSchoolCrisis]

@@sonyx4500 I don't think they have "reached their limit" so much as the curve towards the limit offers much less space for that wow factor that we got moving from the 4th to 5th generation, or the 5th to the 6th generation. Games are still getting better and better in terms of graphics, but those differences while noticeable are not impactful. Moving from 2D to 3D was HUGE, and the refinement of 3D in the 6th generation with GC, PS2, and Xbox was pretty astonishing. On the other hand, things like Raytracing and HDR are pretty substantial when you stop to look for them, but they just don't make that much of a difference in the moment to moment gameplay. The other thing to consider is that often the implementation of these advanced technologies take massive teams tons of extra man hours and it means that you get diminishing returns when it comes to time spent vs budget allotted so most games aren't taking full advantage of all the power allotted to them.

[@XanderCrease]

Yeah, Street Fighter 2 and Soul Calibur, Sonic 1 and Sonic Adventure all released in the 90's. Madness! The 90's was the decade with the biggest changes.

[@Richard.Linder]

True. In those early days of the gaming industry, each generation was truly a massive leap, and it was very exciting.

[@jamesgaines6676]

Good observation.

[@dezheathen]

8 bit to 16 bit was also incredible

[@FelixSandwichez]

Awesome video Jon! You're so good at just keeping a good flow throughout the entire video, it kept me glued to the screen all the way through. I personally voted for the PS3 Xbox 360 era, simply because I remember how impressed I was as a kid with the jump from PS2 to PS3. But watching this video, I have to agree with the 39% that the jump from PS1 to PS2 was unmatched, and we'll possibly never see such a big jump again. Keep up the amazing work my friend!

[@hepwo91222]

how about the 3rd generation, NES/SMS and maybe PC Engine (could also be 4th gen) over the 2nd gen, that was an insane generational jump on consoles. From little squares and blocks to much better looking sprites and scrolling games not just using screen to screen.

[@catsaregovernmentspies]

Yes, it was mind-blowing. I'll never forget my dad asking about the NES "why does it have two fire buttons?"😂

[@JustinJonesDuke]

This is my vote for the biggest jump. You move from stick figures to cartoon characters. The leap I'm colors and sprite size is incredible. Take your pick of 2600 games, and put them up against punch out. It is an astronomical big jump.

[@hepwo91222]

@@JustinJonesDuke Yes, Punch Out had huge cartoony sprites, even later NES games sort of had like "fake" parallex scrolling and some good animations. Also PC Engine was 1987 in Japan, technically a hybrid "8bit CPU, 16bit GPU", if that counts, thats an even bigger jump as it often looked on par with SNES or Genesis. But evne just the NES or SMS was a huge jump.

[@SteveEricJordan]

dayum i forgot about that. that was definitely the biggest leap by far. games went from pc word software looking applications to full on realized worlds like donkey kong country.

[@hepwo91222]

@TheMahayanist could you point out the best looking intellivision game and then compare it to the best looking NES game?

[@kevinkite3418]

Awesome video! I always thought that the jump from Super Smash Bros 64 to Super Smash Bros Melee was the most impressive jump ever considering it's only two years apart. Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 also was unbelievable. You know the graphical leap was huge when even your grandma notices the difference between the two systems graphical capabilities.

[@AbstractM0use]

The preview and demo for Metal Gear Solid 2 was unreal at the time. That was when I went from "Wow" to "OMG!"

[@LITTLE1994]

The jump from 16-bit to 32, basically 2D to 3D, was the REAL biggest graphics change.

[@DogeTheShibe]

3:07 "Metal Gear Solid 3 on the PlayStation 3" Shows footage of Metal Gear Solid 4

[@SteveEricJordan]

i think the jump from nes to snes was the biggest leap BY FAR. games went from pc word software looking applications to full on realized worlds like donkey kong country and secret of mana. i think the proof for that theory is that games look exactly like snes games until this very day, it's a very popular art style especially for indie games. the same thing doesn't happen with nes and it happens way less with n64 era type graphics.

[@Optidorf]

I find it a bit baffling that so many people vote for the 32 bit generation. The graphics and art style of some 2D games on the SNES can easily be mistaken for 32 bit games. The early 3D games were either very pixelated or blocky.

[@viewtifuljoe99]

Going from something like Dragon Quest 7 to 8 was absolutely insane.

[@Chelaxim]

Especially because of the merger they got a biggerbudget. If you compare Dragon Quest V and VI to other SNES JRPGs and VII to other PS1 JRPGs woof. Dragon Quest VII is my second favorite but even if you only compare it to 2D sprites on a 3D background Grandia,Breath of Fire III,Breath of Fire IV,Xenosaga,Wild Arms 2 and Shining Force III it still looks rough....despite Dragon Quest VII coming out after all of them.

[@jaretco6423]

Especially considering Dragon Quest 7 was still an 2D game with an 32-bit approach and Dragon Quest 8 was the first real 3D DQ game we gotten.

[@AbstractM0use]

Absolutely

[@coreyhull7625]

I remember looking at magazine previews for the PS2 and the graphics just blowing my mind. Stuff like the PS2 being able to do the FF8 waltz scene in realtime. The change from mostly 2D to mostly 3D felt too apples to oranges to really compare, but PSX to PS2, Saturn to Dreamcast, and N64 to Gamecube were such straight comparisons to see how far things were jumping.

[@SPONGEBOB20]

I’ll never forget Christmas 2001 when I got a Gamecube with SSBM. Could not believe what I was even looking at and that I could actually move these characters in this world

[@svenbtb]

Same. Going from OG Smash to being able to see the detail in Mario's denim blew my mind at the time.

[@Wesgarbarwil1420]

I remember playing Luigi's mansion on launch day and being blown away at the animation of his hand turning the door knob 😂

[@gasparmxm]

Me too, i was a kid and my dad bought us a gamecube with melee, and i was stunned when i saw the graphics

[@Johnnygga]

I remember going to my friends house to finally see what the GameCube was like, and I remember seeing Link in SSBM doing his spin attack in 60fps and him looking extremely detailed and way more detailed than from OoT, it blew me away It’s like we went from polygons to Pixar style quality. Insane

[@Adam-jw3uz]

I think it's interesting growing up with the different generations of 3D hardware and playing them when they were new, thinking "these graphics are so realistic, how can they possibly get any better than this?" And then we look back at them in modern times and can see the flaws, the low-resolution textures, the edges of character polygons, the low bitrate audio samples, the smaller and emptier worlds we explored, so on, and wondering how we put up with it. Younger generations will never get to experience that feeling, as everything has always been high definition and high-fidelity for as long as they can remember. Anything past 10 years ago looks ugly and primitive to them, and the only future upgrades they have to look forward to are under the hood.

[@J.Wolf90]

Yeah man for like the last 15 years evolution in games has mostly been skin deep attention to graphics. Like I literally call me ps5 a ps3 3.0 because it just feels like the same old same old. The passion is gone. It's all corporate now

[@max-fastwalker]

I remember when my brother borrowed a PS1 with a bunch of games. Seeing that graphics after Mega Drive was mind-blowing. Resident Evil 2 looked like a movie to me. I begged him to buy a PS1 as he was collecting money for a Dreamcast. I could hardly believe there could be anything better looking than PS1 games. In a few months, my brother came home with a Dreamcast and 10 or 12 games. He knew I was a big fan of Sonic games, so he started showing Sonic Adventure 2. It literally felt as if I played a Pixar movie. He also showed RE Code Veronica, RE2 could not compete here. I still remember almost all the games that came along with the console: Dragon Riders, Draconus Cult of the whyrm, Sonic Adventure 2, Resident Evil Code Veronica, Soul Calibur, Sega Marine Fishing, Half-Life + Blue Shift, Rainbow Six + Rogue Spear, Tomb Raider Chronicles. I was so happy he hadn't listened to my whining and bought a Dreamcast in the end.

[@HollowRick]

​​@@max-fastwalkerI mentioned in my comment the exact same thing lol The jump from PS1 to Dreamcast was honestly crazy especially if you had one Christmas of 99 I wasn't lucky enough personally but my cousin's boyfriend bought one and brought it round at Christmas and wow seeing Sonic adventure, blue stinger and power stone blew away my 7-year-old mind lol

[@Jakob-W]

I had no idea MGS2 was running at 60FPS on the Ps2 that's pretty insane

[@steveburt804]

Going from N64 to Dreamcast was a huge upgrade in graphics for me. Good review, thanks👍

[@dudujencarelli]

I couldn't agree more. The jump from Ocarina/Majora to Wind Waker/Twilight is staggering. So is the jump from Mario 64 to Sunshine. Sunshine's lighting and seawater effects still blow me away today, even at 30 FPS. Meanwhile, 64 had transparent water and a few bubbles. And Nintendo was wise to let Metroid skip the N64 generation. Going from SNES to Gamecube's Prime was also mindblowing.

[@dudujencarelli]

I'd also make a case for the jump from Skyward Sword to Breath of the Wild, but in that case the latter game really, REALLY pushed the Wii U to its absolute limit (I still remember the screen freezing during Moblin's death animation).

[@jaretco6423]

And than we get to Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 and they look outstanding for an Wii title and still is to this day.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

Mgs1 to mgs2 was an even greater leap than that.

[@ShadowMan64572]

The N64 was more capable than what most games let on, watch what some people have managed to pull off in recent years on real N64 hardware with full understanding of the console. Even better than some GameCube games in some ways.

[@LCTesla]

Dreamcast was the miraculous one, beating its rivals by 2 years or more and already offering much of what that next generation represented... WHY did it not succeed? It will never cease to confound me that gamers rejected this gem of a system. myself I WAS enjoying Soul Calibur on this system at the time... what an incredible start of a series on an incredible system... none of the iterations after that came close to offering that much of a jump in value.

[@DGTelevsionNetwork]

Another thing to note is that the ps2 xbox GameCube generation, there was also a huge audio quality increase. We went from having compressed "dolby pro logic" at best to full on dolby digital dts digital surround sound, the likes of which havent been upgraded until the most recent with sudo atmos support.

[@Brad-cb2dt]

4:07 the “bits” have little to do with this graphical changes from Saturn and PlayStation to the Nintendo 64. After all, 32-bit PC’s can run Crysis. The reason the N64 looks better is because of its memory bandwidth. Its higher memory bandwidth allowed it to have a z buffer for perspective projection. While the textures were smaller on the N64 due to cartridge storage limitations, the textures did not wobble like they did on the Saturn and the PlayStation. Z buffers are not an exclusive feature to 64bit CPUs. It’s not the bits, despite what Atari’s and Nintendo’s marketing departments would have you believe.

[@svenbtb]

Aw man, you can't just hit me with the Nier feels like that out of nowhere But yeah, I agree. At the time especially growing up, the jump from SNES to N64, and then from N64 to GCN, were both AMAZING and haven't really been matched since. While there's nothing wrong with more polygons, bigger resolution, bigger textures, more stable framerate, more realistic lightning, those things are all small incremental game-by-game changes and on a game by game basis. They are appreciated and impressive when done well, sure. But I don't think we'll ever see another LEAP like we did before again.

[@r.c.c.10]

I remember when Sony directors said that the leap from PS4 to PS5 would be comparable to SNES to N64, from 2D to 3D! 😂😂

[@itsprobablypedro]

While we may never have another graphical jump wow factor, its nice to see the current generation of consoles with so much QOL features like Near 0 loading times, more stable frame rates, and Quick Resume. That's to say who knows what will really define the next generation.

[@Luke973T]

Yeah this gen blows the previous one away. As a fighting game fan its so nice not to have to wait a minute in between matches because the loading times are so bad. We are midway through the gen and that's when I expect things to really start getting pushed.

[@mb-md3wj]

I just got a ps5 and the loading times and download speed is just magical.

[@pkbelly]

For me the biggest graphical leap was Rogue Leader for the release of the GameCube. It looked so close to the movies, and it felt HD even though it was still 480ii.

[@Gogetta80]

Plsying my first ever 3d game: Mario 64 after 10 years of 2d starting on nes absolutely blew my mind. Changing camera angles, varying the speeds u could walk, things getting smaller in the distance. Will never forget that feeling

[@DesertRainReads]

For me it was the jump from PSOne to Dreamcast/PS2/GC/XBox, the graphical leap in terms of quality was absolutely huge to me. Though one can't deny the evolution from SNES & SG to PSOne/Saturn/N64 was very groundbreaking, the successors took what was great about those three and honed it to a finely tuned edge. I miss the Dreamcast especially though, so many great games released in such a short time. Sega exited the hardware industry with a bang.

[@Chelaxim]

I think the jump from 6th gen to 7th gen was the biggest with an asterisk. The launch Xbox 360 didn't have HDMI support and not everyone got an HDTV right away. Many early PS3 and 360 games when played today on a HDTV display looked like they were their own HD Remasters like Kameo Elements of Power,Enchanted Arms or Tekken 6. If you were to compare games from very late in the generation like Tales of Berseria, Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn,Persona 5,Metal Gear Solid V,Rise of the Tomb Raider or Soulcalibur V to their 6th gen counterparts counterparts they blow them out of the water.

[@DannerBanks]

I remember playing NFL2K and Soul Caliber on my friends dreamcast for the first time. It was indeed amazing

[@jamiecal11]

It's part of why Gamecube has aged so well. Still looks great to this day whereas N64 looks like shit and has a shit controller.

[@RAGEAlanBun]

It’s wild you could have went from being used to playing the SNES in January 1995 to playing the Dreamcast just less than 5 years later, and the GameCube/PS2 a year or two after that. Compare that to the fact we’ve been able to play the PS4/Switch/Xbox One for over a decade and we’ve not had anywhere near as notable changes.

[@Jamsch101]

It's amazing just how far games have come. Great video, Jon. Nothing will ever beat the experience from the jump to ps2 for me.

[@kevinvandorst]

For me the ps2 was a downgrade, coming from the amazing Dreamcast.

[@Lexsoufz]

@@kevinvandorstok there 🤣

[@HollowRick]

​@@kevinvandorstearly PS2 games definitely If you had a dreamcast and DVD player in 2000 you didn't need a PS2 for me personally I'd say the PlayStation 2 didn't really hit stride until 2001 with games such as final fantasy X, devil may cry, and GTA 3

[@BlitzvogelMobius]

I see the 360/PS3 era as the inflection point of "good enough" for system capabilities in general. That generation offered the processing power, memory and rendering capacity to reasonably deliver any kind of gaming experience created since with rare exception. The Xbox and PS2, while great, lacked the memory, and processing power critical for the kind of compression and procedural generation schemes needed for the super detailed open world games that became so synonymous with the 360 and PS3. The 360/PS3 was was importantly a refinement of everything underneath the graphics needed to actually make the experiences take another potential leap gameplay wise. Personally if all I had was a 360 or PS3 or era appropriate PC and the associated games up through their end of lives, I'd be good with that.

[@michaelsummerell8618]

I'd say that the voters who responded aren't old enough to know earlier generations of gaming. Yes, I agree with the highest ranking choice as leap to 3d was massive - Mario 64 was literally overwhelming at the time. But how many of those who responded also remember the huge jump from 8bit to 16bit... Or even earlier?

[@grabisoft]

True but to remember the leap from Atari to nes the guy should have over 40 something. And let's be honest most of the gamers of that time lost interest in video games long time ago.

[@Yoshi889]

It’s like graphical improvements are following a descending curve, becoming less and less noticeable with each generation.

[@HollowRick]

The biggest jump I noticed was when I moved to PC a few years ago and seeing games run at 144 Hz That was honestly a bigger jump than the graphics lol

[@pauljakeman]

Exactly, I think the next generation will just be more smoother running, probably polish things up a bit. The last of us part one remastered remastered edition on ps6 will probably be a bit more clear and that’s it.

[@doctorg5056]

The fact so many sixth generation games held a stable 60fps is mind-boggling. I know the Switch gets a bad rap from some people for performance (despite being a trailblaser and a powerhouse for what it is, but that's a topic for another video), but even today PlayStation and Xbox can struggle with 60fps, even to the point that games advertised as 60 end up releasing at 30 with promises to add support for 60 later... and here the Gamecube and PS2 were just doing that perfectly out of the box.

[@lol-ih1tl]

Mario Sunshine ran at 30fps.

[@Bargate]

Developers back then had to work within a ton of limitations and very good at it but that also limited scope allowing a more polished product. Now the ps5 and Xbox are so powerful in comparison they can be lazy a lot of stuff and they kind of have to because the scope of games are so much bigger now a game of similar quality takes around 6 or 7 years to make now it seems

[@lol-ih1tl]

@@Bargate That's not true at all. Bad games are the result of many factors such as: Mismanagement, crunch, overambition, budget contraints, team size constraints, time constraints, hardware limitations and bad scoping, not laziness. Also only a handful of developers were creative with hardware limitations back then. Most developers at the time went overambitious and made terrible games hindered by the aforementioned problems.

[@goekhanbag]

I calculated the compute factor in graphics processing and found that the jump from the PS1 generation to the PS2 generation was the largest (around x200 in compute) with the SNES generation to PS1 generation closely behind (at around x100 compute). The PS4 generation to PS5 generation jump was the smallest (at around x5 compute).

[@sandman8920]

I’ll never forget the day I played Tony hawk 3 for the first time! It was incredible going from the n64 to seeing that on the GameCube was mind blowing 🤯

[@HappyDrunkGamer]

I think part of the issue with recent generation jumps is that many games have had to be cross gen or support a wide array of hardware, Horizon Forbidden West or Forza Horizon 5 both look amazing on PS5/Series X respectively, but its mostly a refinement, pushing out details, increasing resolution, not fundamentally looking like a next gen game over the previous consoles as the underlying tech is still last gen. But as you pointed out the jump from the PS1/Saturn/N64 to DC/PS2/GC/Xbox in terms of polygon counts allowing developers show faces correctly is really the key, that opening scene in Shenmue where you can see actual emotion on the characters faces still blows me away, and the jump between RE1 on the PS1/Saturn vs the Gamecube version...... WOW. The fact is that game still holds up even today it was such a huge leap. One question I would pose though, I have recently gone back through and played Detroit Become Human and as its not an open world game it has a level of graphics that most PS4 games could not reach. Do you think part of the issue is that because of many games being open world, they do have to pull back on graphics etc, that actually graphics in the constraints of more linear games, actually have seen a bigger jump? For example the faces in Horizon Forbidden West have incredible animation and vs Zero Dawn they are a generational leap, however, because I like many others have played games like Detroit Become Human, it doesn't jump out as much? I mean look at say Soul Calibre on Dreamcast vs Shenmue, or MGS2 vs GTA3 on PS2, is this part of the issue? If you compare GTA 3 to GTA 4 I would say its almost as big of a jump as RE1 to RE1:Remake in overall terms, but the issue is we had games like RE1:Remake on GC meaning that the character models in GTA 4 dont seem as impressive, because we have seen that before?

[@Lezure2010]

Agree with the visual Jump from ps1 gen to 2. After final fantasy X came out. I remember wishing they would make remakes of all the ps1 jrpgs.

[@HollowRick]

I'm still waiting for that xenogears remake with a finished second disc 😂

[@Lezure2010]

@jezzar4696 I used to always imagine a Xenogears Remake with Xenosaga 2/3 graphics and yeah a fleshed out Disc 2 campaign.👍 Come on Square. It doesn't need to be a total rehaul. Just update the graphics and retain the battle system.

[@anshul15820]

For grand theft auto series jump from 6 gen to 7 gen was substantial we got gta sanandreas for ps2 and gta v on ps3 that is just unbelievable.

[@adam145]

Resident Evil Remake on GameCube is the most baffling I've ever seen in my life. 6 years to go from walking polygons to characters that look very realistic even to this day if someone updated their shaders.

[@Lightspeeds]

Not to me, mostly because I played Code Veronica first.

[@adam145]

@@Lightspeeds Code Veronica felt too flat to me. Backgrounds were a bit too sparse and didn't quite match what Silent Hill 3 showed on PS2 later.

[@amysel]

The thing about jumping to 3D is that you're essentially comparing 2 different types of graphics entirely so its hard to compare directly. SNES games like Yoshi's island or Mother 2 still looks georgeous even when comparing it to 2D games of today. But comparing early 3D to current 3D is very different due to how complex it is. I do wanna mention that I still weirdly love early 3D and I think its super charming to see people attempt low poly games today without restrictions of the past such as using 2d sprites for certain models.

[@st0rmchild]

And early 3D consoles had really ugly graphics that were a huge downgrade from the previous generation in terms of quality. 16-bit was the pinnacle of 2D. Those graphics have stood the test of time, and people are still making games in that style. Nobody's trying to make games that look like PS1. I think the move to 3D was certainly a huge deal for gameplay, but not graphics.

[@Citanoo]

NES to SNES should have been an option. It was great!

[@The_MEMEphis]

Yeah but it was still 2d pixel art not as big of a jump from 2d to 3d

[@mothius238]

@@The_MEMEphis NES to SNES is a big improvement just like N64 to Gamecube or Ps1 to Ps2, it's not need to be a 2D to 3D to be a big jump or invalidate the improvements ...

[@The_MEMEphis]

@@mothius238 yeah but the whole debate here is which generation is the biggest jump not what generation is a big jump because every generation is a big jump

[@JustinTheClaw]

I have been saying for the past decade, that video game graphics peaked with the sixth generation. The fifth generation discovered 3D, but the sixth generation refined it, and every generation since has only improved incrementally. The same goes with gameplay. Most sixth generation games are still very playable today, especially on more powerful hardware, but fifth generation games are full of that early 3D jank that old folks like me get nostalgic for, but most younger gamers can’t wrap their head (or hands) around.

[@GiancarloThomazSenoni]

2D to 3D is such a massive jump, the Game Cube refined severals of the flaws of early 3D games on N64/PS1 2:59

[@liammcnicholas918]

Metroid Prime looks amazing, and it’s over 20 years old. Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy 7, Mario 64, and MGS by comparison look pretty ridiculous now, and yet these are considered masterpieces. Metroid Prime has aged a lot better.

[@traviscunningham7062]

What about the 3Ds version of OOT?

[@liammcnicholas918]

@@traviscunningham7062 It looks good, but it has a lot of the original game’s DNA left over

[@the1ucidone]

Robocop on the PS5 and PC has made me rethink the future of video games. There were many many moments when I played Robocop that I felt like I was freaking Alex Murphy, that I was the man himself Robocop. The graphics are so stunning but even more than that just being a cop and living in that world was a true escapist experience. Going through the precinct and dealing with the public woes or giving tickets to a bad parking job. I mean, if you haven't experienced it yet then you need to. Plus the combat and shooting is so awesome. You're a big tank that just kicks ass and it was pure bliss.

[@M1XART]

After 2000/2001 there really was biggest jump on 3D -gaming, but why? Actually, it's because there was no jump on resolution. GameCube games did run on same 640*480 resolution as Nintendo 64 Expansion Pack enhanced games. But this really opened doors to have virtually infinite use of polygons, especially on character models. Also 60fps was actually easy to achieve, as those consoles were "over-powered" for 480i. I think it was great to see that happen. Just for characters sake and for high texture - quality all around. Unlike on PC during early nineties, when it was all about resolution, not so much about texture mapping. Those games looked bland. Sadly, on XBOX360/PS3 generation we were back to barely 30fps gaming. Textures also are sometimes inferior even these days than on Dreamcast. But you can always point your finger on those flat screen displays. After all 640*480 is only 307200 pixels, while 1920*1080 is 2073600. Thats 6,75 times as much pixels to draw. Now, imagine someone creating XBOX 360 -game on 640*480P. -It could have so many polygons and special effects that graphics would look like a real film-footage. Great example of something similar, is Panzer Dragoon Orta on original XBOX. It runs below 480i, but o' boy it is smooth and full of life. Don't get me wrong. I'm really into high resolution gaming. But i would not had sacrifice framerate, textures and special effects just to run game on 4K or 8K or something. As for handheld gaming, 3DS is still freaking amazing.

[@kevinbrennan117]

Been waiting for a video like this and I totally agree with the PS1 - PS2 era jump. One side note 5:34 - the backgrounds in RE1 remake are actually also pre rendered but with a lot more detail and moving parts. Incredible!

[@stevenwarner9156]

Strongly agree. I lived through seeing 3D become normalised over 2D games with the 5th generation of consoles, and it was a massive leap forward, but the 3D was still very obviously impressionistic. The 6th generation was a massive leap in giving us detailed 3D worlds you could get lost in. The training wheels were off, and devs practically learned to fly in the 6th gen.

[@BobbyHo2022]

I liked the 8bit to 16bit era. That impressed me the most. But I was only 10 years old when that happened. But SNES to Playstation was crazy too.

[@48hourrecordsteam45]

That was a huge leap.! From little tiny characters with bleep n bloops sfx, Just play double dragon on nes & play streets of rage 2 on 12:41 I was no super amazed by PlayStation or n64… Everything looked like rice grains jumping up and screen😖.. Metal gear solid & gran turismo felt like a pinnacle When I saw Dreamcast it was amazing

[@JorgeTrueno]

I'm now replaying OG Metroid Prime and that's a near perfect game, it's crazy how good it looks and how smooth the controls are for an early NGC game.

[@michelobtheassortedmanatee818]

I still think Super Smash Bros. Is the best example of this phenomenon. Despite Smash 64 and melee both being rushed games only a couple years apart both release and development wise the contrast is so stark. Blocky reused abstractions of characters with loud compressed noises to smooth, shiny and refined characters not too different looking then the box art for once and clean animations alongside beautifully orchestrated musical renditions. Brawl, although having over double the time to make is more just… different looking then it is an obvious improvement. And the games after that would clearly reuse sounds and models then onward.

[@koffing2073]

Most impressive jump was going from consoles to PC, it had high resolution monitors much before HD TVs, 60 FPS and custom graphics.

[@facum3555]

the jump from gta san andreas to gta 4 was insane, 4 years and the difference is absolutely insane

[@itsmatt517]

To be fair to Mario World, it did have quite a lot of up and down as well

[@traviscunningham7062]

And A Link to the Past?

[@zobizobstudio]

Right after my Playstation 1 my parents bought me an Xbox with Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. You cant even fathom the gap between a 1994 tekken 3 compared to dynamic lightning, insane game physic, insane AI in a real time wide Opened level from Splinter cell !

[@kirby0louise]

The Xbox 360 was awesome technology. Literally every single modern GPU owes part of itself to technology developed for the 360.

[@ahmedp8009]

How so? it was Power PC. Also, Multi-Core/Thread CPUs existed prior to that so it was inevitable to go that route. Besides, I would argue PS3 CPU is what really pushed developers to learn how to program on multicores CPUs.

[@kirby0louise]

@@ahmedp8009 Uh no? The GPU is not PowerPC. And the PS3 with its asymmetrical core (if you can even call SPEs cores lol) design is not what pushed devs to learn multithreading, as it was an enormous pain to code for. The 360 had the very first unified shading GPU. Every modern GPU adopts this design because it's much more efficient than the old split vertex and pixel pipelines on the PS3/Wii/older GPUs

[@ahmedp8009]

@@kirby0louise My mistake, I read GPU as CPU for some reason...

[@johnbrent7644]

How does every modern GPU owe itself to the 360? I’ve never heard of this before and it sounds cool!

[@kirby0louise]

@@johnbrent7644 Xenos (360 GPU) was the first ever GPU to feature unified shading. Rather than having shaders that can either only process vertex shaders or pixel shaders, they all can run both tasks. It's a massively more efficient design than pre-unified shader GPUs You might also know them by the name "CUDA cores" which is Nvidia's term for unified shaders

[@KomradeCPU]

One interesting aspect from the first jump to 3D was that, since there were still considerable limitations the developers had to be very creative in their solutions, specially considering the gameplay as you already knew how much you could push on graphics. That created some kind of building block such the refinement 3D era that came after could properly realize those well thought ideas, providing so many masterpiece games. Let's not forget pc as well, around that era there were some pretty incredible companies doing their best, with also many console games ported so having a pc for gaming was getting more popular; steam as well, multiplayer games as a whole. What a journey it was.

[@bigduke5902]

SNES to PS1 was slightly bigger.

[@CenturianEagle]

I like how you showed that beginning part of ffX when you said they likely won’t have that wow moment again. I remember that, Christmas morning loading it up was so crazy!!! I was sad they didn’t have a world map in that game, and I kept waiting for it happen the same way ff7 did (where you play in one big area for along time and then all of the sudden BAM! A huge world map opens up and you realize the game has just begun 😢, good times. Damn that game was good, the way you stand at the exit to midgar for a bit and your party talks to eachother and stuff before they leave for the world map, so amazing

[@HollowRick]

Yeah I think he's a little bit too young to appreciate how much other leap final fantasy 7 was at the time

[@TaliesinMyrddin]

Graphics have gotten so good it's now become about load times and the speed of showing the graphics, more than the fidelity of the graphics themselves. My biggest wish for a game is a game like Oracle of Ages or Chrono Trigger but looking like FF7R, where you jump between two time periods (or more) in real-time - a whole, explorable world that instantly snaps between time periods in mere seconds no matter where you're from

[@blairlohnes8103]

As someone who's gamed on PC since 1995. I kind of feel like I missed out on this experience. Games were always pushing hardware limits, but you were also always having to upgrade every year. I'm actually kind of glad things have kind of leveled off. It was definitely a crazy time to be alive and watch computer power double every six months or so, but holy crap was it hard to keep up. With current handheld PC's out on the market, it should give people a good indication of what kind of graphics they should expect from the next Nintendo system, albeit maybe trimmed down a little to keep the price affordable. Handhelds are definitely in a really cool spot at the moment and I'm excited to see where this all goes. Great video!

[@superdave9]

Growing up in this era was truly special

[@tor2919]

Also I’d say the jump from SNES to NES was pretty insane. Certainly top three. Biggest developments: 1. SNES to N64 2.NES to SNES 3. N64 to GameCube

[@mihau5037]

I will always say that SNES games look better than N64 games. Super Nintendo titles had more style and thought put into their visuals. You can appreciate the elaborate spritework more than the early 3D models of a 5th gen console.

[@lol-ih1tl]

Star Fox is the exception though

[@mihau5037]

@@lol-ih1tl Fair enough

[@jaretco6423]

Agreed. Nothing against the N64. But I feel like visually and presentation wise, the SNES looks better than alot of the N64 games. I even enjoyed there gameplay perspective more than most of the N64 ones.

[@FletcherReedsRandomness]

Something I don’t see many people talking about is the during-generation advancements. Compare Super Mario 64 to Conker’s Bad Fur Day, or Grand Theft Auto III to Shadow of the Colossus, or Sonic 06 to Sonic Generations. As more developers get used to the hardware, they can really take advantage of everything that hardware can do and push it to its limits. To me, that’s just as impressive as generational jumps.

[@lol-ih1tl]

Or the jump from Splatoon 2 to Splatoon 3.

[@cauldronofstardust]

This is an excellent point. It’s easy to distinguish early PlayStation games (95/96/97) from the later ones (98/99/00) because-as you said-developers had more time to familiarize themselves with the consoles, & the tricks they could utilize that could get the most out of them.

[@ThomastheDankEngine8900]

Fifth to sixth gen was a huge graphical leap

[@JTSuter]

It was easily the jump from SNES to N64. No question about it.

[@valkoinendev]

I Would say the jump into VR was a massive mind blowing experience.

[@gamerrap23]

Agree! The first time I tried VR in my PS4 it was mind blowing!

[@airoplane10]

I’ve seen the transition going back to the second generation. Around the turn of the century I worked at a CD store where we would get literature about all kinds of media including video games. We received a brochure previewing games that are being released for the PSX, and the soon to be released PS2. They had screenshots of games for both systems side by side, and it was immediately clear to me how much better quality the next generation of consoles was going to be. I wasn’t much a fan of the fifth generation, and my smallest game libraries are for consoles from that generation. The PS2 was also the first console I remember being released where it caused chaos.

[@JCM311]

To me, there’s really no difference other than slightly better resolution and frame rate, from this generation compared to the last. At least so far. I remember when I got my PlayStation 2 , I was so amazed compared to my Nintendo 64.

[@theotherotherBrian]

Agreed. I have a PS4, and am holding out as long as I can on getting a PS5. I just don't see the improvement.

[@saricubra2867]

@@theotherotherBrian Those consoles are overshadowed by PC by a lot.

[@GamebooAdvance]

The only thing to give me the "Wow this is what the next generation of gaming is gonna be like??" since the gamecube was playing through Half-Life: Alyx for the first time

[@rpgfoods1457]

I always felt that the hump to HD was the most impressive because of the clarity it added to game play, you no long had to get right up next to an object to see details. It also feels incredible easy to go back to games from the 360 PS3 era. Wail PS2 and OG Xbox are harder to go back to.

[@lol-ih1tl]

The Jump to HD however hindered game performance leading to many games running at 30fps.

[@rpgfoods1457]

@lol-ih1tl Really? I didn't know many consol games ran more than 30 fps, during thay time period. Of course I was a kid when the 360 and PS2 came out.

[@Chelaxim]

​@@rpgfoods1457There are some late era PS2 and 360 games that feel very modern.

[@Chelaxim]

​@@lol-ih1tl30 fps is generous for that gen LMAO.

[@The_MEMEphis]

​@@rpgfoods1457most PS2 games ran at 60 the 360 is a generation ahead that's the PS3 which that generation was mostly 30

[@drakewarnock1239]

I think the reason why the jump from PS1 to PS2 eras was so huge was because with the PS1 and N64 developers didn't really know how to make 3D games yet. Hell FF7 doesn't even have textures, but FF9 almost looks as good as a PS2 game (in the cutscenes, anyway). So the combination of better hardware and developers having some trial and error under their belts led to a massive change in overall quality.

[@giulytsme]

I always imagined the next big jump beeing VR! But... for now there is not much market there

[@Soulintent95]

Gamecube was a really impressive jump. I have an upscaler and my god, gamecube holds up amazingly. The games with stylized graphics damn near look like they could have come out fairly recently.

[@sonyx4500]

Yep. N64 to Gamecube was the biggest jump i ever experienced

[@Soulintent95]

@@sonyx4500 for me the most impressive jump was classic doom. Im still impressed by that game. But n64-gamecube is a close 2nd for sure. Like i said, some of the games still look like they are somewhat new with an upscaler.

[@Faceplay2]

Honestly, the biggest jump I ever remember was easily from the PS2 to the PS3 at the time the graphics truly felt like real life I was like completely blown away

[@wurzelbert84wucher5]

I didn't like the graphics of PS3 era games, especially the color palettes felt so off and together with the bad lighting it made everything so muddy. I really liked the jump to PS4 style games later on again, but PS3 is the "dark age" in terms of graphics for me ;)

[@Faceplay2]

@@wurzelbert84wucher5 I’m not talking about how they aged over the year I’m talking about when it came out. I remember being a little kid and being blown away how good resistance, and the game motor storm looked . I think I was like 9 then. I grow up with the N64 and then the PS2 so I could notice the jump up. Also again look at metal gear, solid three versus four basically look like real life at the time. Also, it wasn’t just me that thought this most of my friends when we talk about gaming thing pretty similar things from that time.

[@mycomputergl0wsblu]

I agree with you man, from PS2 to Xbox 360/PS3 was absolutely mind blowing. Thats when consoles started to reach near PC level graphics. I recall visiting my friend who had just got an Xbox 360 and after playing it for a bit, I could never play my PS2 the same again.

[@GiancarloThomazSenoni]

11:49 cant wait to play the next 3D Mario looking like a Pixar movie

[@DoctorMinjinx]

Is it weird to say I actually feel like 8th gen to 9th gen is a more noticeable jump than 7th to 8th? 9th gen has had a lot of dual releases holding it back, but I've actually felt more impressed with it than 8th gen tbh. GTA VI is blowing me away (assuming the trailer is reminiscent of what the game will look like) Early on, 8th gen games really felt unimpressive visually, it wasn't until like 2015 with the Witcher 3 I truly felt like I was playing a next gen game. Maybe I'm not thinking hard enough? I don't know I just kind of feel this way.

[@MG-wk2eh]

GTA 6's trailer didn't impress me graphically. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations, but it is just nowhere near as impressive (in relative terms) as the first GTA V trailer from 2011.

[@thedrunkmonkshow]

What's often not considered too is that back in the day, especially on consoles, is that the graphics technology was always several years behind what were considered contemporary or advanced at the time. The NES hardware was originally designed in the early 80s and released in 1983. By the time the masses outside of Japan got introduced to it was around 1986. Same thing with the Genesis and Super Nintendo in that the Super Nintendo began development back in 1987 and was supposed to get released in 1989 but got pushed back to 1990 in Japan and in 1991 for the US. Both the Saturn and Playstation tech was early 90s but came to the masses by mid 90's. Even when we got to the N64, that was watered down Silicon Graphics hardware and many corners were cut to reduce cost. Once the late 90s came around there was a dramatic price drop on video tech to where the consoles finally caught up to what the standard and Arcade graphics actually were.

[@lol-ih1tl]

One negative change in the jump from the 6th generation to 7th generation was performance where 30 fps was the norm for most 7th generation games instead of 60fps.

[@TNewton001]

I remember the first time I saw Soul Caliber on Dreamcast. It was the first time seeing anything on Dreamcast after years of playing PlayStation. My jaw was on the floor.

[@zerg47]

PS1 was better than PS2