Spriting

First: Happy Super Bowl day!

Second: I was replaying Apollo Justice when I was again struck by one of my favorite parts of the game:  The Sprites.

So, what are sprites?

Sprites are basically pictures.  Each picture is programmed to appear when doing certain things.  They all string together to create something in motion (much like hand drawn animation)

While this is neither better or worse then 3D animation used today, I happen to prefer Sprites.  They seem a bit more impressive to me.  While they may not visually wow, you do have to see how smooth and detailed they have become.  Let's look at the first Castlevania.

This is a sheet of Simon Belmont's movements from the first game:

And here he is in action:

The opening is impressive, especially for an NES.  Look at those backgrounds.

Now, let's look at the most recent sprite based entry:  Order of Ecclesia.
Here is a sheet for Shanoa:

It's much bigger, isn't it?  I want you to look specifically at her hair and her clothes.  The two constantly move when she's in motion... or when she's not.  She also has much more animated abilities.  Simon failing only has him on the floor.  With Shanoa, we get to see her knocked around and get back up.  Okay, let's actually watch her in motion.

See how much smoother she is then Simon?

I'm not denying that 3D has it's place, but there is something really special about Spriting. It just has this really special quality to it, and it's nice to see how far we've gone.  Do you like Spriting?

(I got the sprites from Spriters Resource Here  It's a useful tool, and just interesting to look at if you want to see all the detail that goes into spriting. Check it out!)