Thread by @Richmond_Lee

Chinese developers are doing amazing things these days! (They have been for a while, but it's hard to ignore now!)

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1393914799457775620?s=19

Companies have been throwing around this idea of "console quality on mobile" for a while now. But it's Chinese devs like miHoYo that are actually delivering on that promise. The amount of polish going into Chinese mobile games is exploding now. This One Piece game looks amazing!

The effect of Genshin Impact on the Chinese games industry isn't going to be a bunch of Genshin clones. It's going to be increased expectations of polish on ALL mobile games across the board. Better graphics, better story, full voice acting and of course better gameplay too!

Two easy bets to make:

1) The 2020s will see the continued rise of Chinese games internationally.

2) They will be met with a lot of xenophobia initially ("they just copy!" "It's just a generic mobile game!" etc) but they'll eventually win people over with undeniable quality.

The traditional leaders in videogames are Japan and North America. East and West. China has over a billion people who grew up with media from both, have been outsourcing for both and closing the knowledge gap for 20 years now. The 2020s are their time to finally shine.

I should note: I mean Chinese games across the board not just mobile. Console and PC etc too. Hell I bet they make some awesome board games too!

Here's another example! Yes it's a Metal Slug game on mobile. Yes it's 3D, but holy cow, it looks wayyy better than you'd think! This was made by people who love Metal Slug! This isn't a cheap cash in, this has actual respect for the property and fans!

As for the point of making Metal Slug in 3D? I don't get it. Nothing can beat the pixel perfection of the original. But this is a really damn impressive exercise none the less!

You know what? It simply looks like a fun action platformer. And it's just easier to assemble a team that can do this in 3D than pixel art. I can live with that! This isn't a remake, but a continuation of Metal Slug!

I'm really impressed by how many lessons they're successfully applying from the classic 2D Metal Slug games. This new Metal Slug has really nice visual clarity that a lot of 3D games are lacking in! It's not just fun to look at, it's better for gameplay!

I bet this team did a lot of work on MOBAs before making Metal Slug Mobile. MOBAs benefit hugely from taking lessons from pixel art games.

It's a testament to the incredible art direction of the original games that the really distinct looking levels are remasters of the OG games while the new original levels are more generic looking. They could be from Rayman or any other platformer. They still look great tho!

New levels look a lot more sprawling than past Metal Slug games. They still look really fun though! And that's the most important thing! I hope this game is good and does well! Exciting to see the spirit of Metal Slug being successfully carried on into the future!

Sorry for being so nitpicky. I mean absolutely no disrespect to the devs. They're doing a better job translating SNK stuff into 3D than SNK historically has! I just bring this stuff up because it fascinates the hell out of me.

https://twitter.com/Richmond_Lee/status/1394524365660725254?s=20

The original Metal Slug games have AMAZING art direction. I'm talking about real GOAT stuff. They continue to mesmerize people decades later. And though it's easy to literally find every sprite and tileset from the games, understanding the secret sauce remains incredibly elusive!

Take any screenshot of OG Metal Slug, remove all the characters and you still know right away "that's Metal Slug!" It has such an incredibly distinct style, but try to describe it with words.

-detailed
-cartoony
-painterly

Those are generic terms! EXECUTION is what matters!