On June 5, Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 will finally land on just about every major gaming platform, including the brand-new Nintendo Switch 2. For longtime fans, it’s a big moment. For everyone else, it might be a little puzzling.
Here we are in the middle of 2025, with photorealistic games, AI-powered NPCs, and ray-traced lighting that practically sweats off your monitor – yet one of the most anticipated titles of the year looks like it could run on a CRT television. Flat sprites, chunky animations, limited color palettes. And people love it.
If you’d shown Deltarune to a PC gamer in 1998, right after they plugged in a 3dfx Voodoo card and booted up Unreal, they might’ve thought it was a joke. That card alone transformed gaming visuals almost overnight, turning pixelated edges into smooth textures and motion-blurred beauty. Pixel art? That was something we were trying to escape. Fast.
But now, it’s come full circle. Pixel graphics aren’t a workaround anymore. They’re a creative decision. A visual language with its own rules, mood, and emotional pull. So how did we get from trying to kill off pixel art to celebrating it again?
Back When Pixels Were the Only Option
If you grew up in the early 1980s, on the ZX Spectrum (that’s me!), Commodore 64, or Amiga, you know pixel art wasn’t just an aesthetic. It was survival. Developers squeezed out every ounce of performance from these limited machines. Sprites were tiny. Colors were restricted. But despite all that, the creativity was off the charts.
- Jet Set Willy (1984) was barely legible but undeniably fun.
- Turrican (1990) showed how far you could push fluid motion with sprite-based characters.
- Shadow of the Beast (1989) turned the Amiga into a side-scrolling art gallery.
Once the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive hit, pixel art matured. Sprites became more expressive. Animations got smoother. Environments felt deeper. And the so-called “Golden Era” of pixel games took off:
- Street Fighter II (1991): Oversized sprites, massive personality.
- Doom (1993): 2D enemies in a faux-3D space that defined the first-person shooter.
- Chrono Trigger (1995): Emotional storytelling through detailed pixel characters.
- Metal Slug (1996): Explosions, squishy animations, and the most expressive grunts ever drawn.
At the time, pixel graphics weren’t the point of discussion – they were just the medium. The conversation was all about gameplay and creativity.
Then 3D Happened
In 1996, the 3dfx Voodoo card dropped, and suddenly we had colored lighting, z-buffering, and texture filtering. That single piece of hardware turned pixel art from the industry standard into a visual relic. Games like Quake and Unreal didn’t just look different – they felt different. There was depth, shadow, space.
Even console devs jumped ship. The Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Dreamcast all pushed hard into polygons. The PS2 took it even further. By the early 2000s, pixel art was unofficially “dead.”
It wasn’t until later that we realized what we gave up in the process.
The Indie Movement Changed Everything
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, small studios and solo devs started to bring pixels back. Not because they had to – but because they wanted to.
Modern engines made pixel-based design accessible again. GameMaker, Unity, and later Godot offered easy pipelines for sprite animation and tile-based design. And players? We were hungry for games that focused more on feel than fidelity.
Enter:
- Undertale (2015): Goofy visuals, genius writing, unforgettable characters.
- Celeste (2018): A tight, responsive platformer wrapped in a soft visual style with hard emotional weight.
- Shovel Knight (2014): A retro tribute that didn’t feel old at all.
These weren’t nostalgia bombs. They were modern games using old tools to tell new stories.
Pixels That Punch: Modern Games That Go Hard
Now we’re in the thick of a pixel renaissance. And it’s not all gentle stories and emotional journeys. Some of today’s sharpest, loudest, most over-the-top games are doing it with sprites and 2D backgrounds.
- Ultrakill (2020 to present): A neon-soaked FPS where speed is everything and blood is the reward. It looks like Quake on steroids and plays like a caffeine overdose.
- Nightmare Reaper (2022): Think Hexen meets Borderlands, but with pixel violence and procedural loot.
- Deltarune (2018 to 2025): Funny, heartfelt, chaotic. Toby Fox took everything good from Undertale and scaled it up without losing the pixel soul.
- Pizza Tower (2023): A chaotic 2D platformer inspired by Wario Land that feels like it escaped from a forgotten ‘90s cartoon.
What makes these games pop isn’t just the pixel art. It’s the energy behind it. The animation, the timing, the level design – all tuned to a kind of old-school rhythm with modern instincts.
Why Pixel Games Still Hit
Here’s the thing: pixel art doesn’t compete with high-end 3D anymore. It sidesteps the fight entirely.
- It loads faster, runs smoother, and still looks great on a 4K screen.
- It lets devs focus on gameplay and feel instead of asset bloat.
- It speaks a language players already know: blocks, edges, sharp colors, and clean motion.
Plus, it just works. Pixel art gives your brain room to fill in the gaps. It hits that sweet spot between minimal and expressive. That’s a tough balance, and pixels nail it more often than not.
Not Just a Trend
This isn’t just nostalgia doing laps. Pixel art has proven it can do more than call back to the past. It can tell modern stories, fuel fast-paced action, and hold its own against high-budget blockbusters.
You don’t need 60 million polygons to feel something. Sometimes, all it takes is a blinking heart on a black background, or a shotgun blast made from 20 chunky pixels.
And if the excitement around Deltarune this week is anything to go by, pixel games aren’t going anywhere.
FAQ: Pixel Games in 2025
- Q: Why are pixel games still popular in 2025? Because they offer clear visuals, expressive design, and strong gameplay without relying on cutting-edge hardware. Also, people love the style.
- Q: Are pixel games just for indie devs? Not at all. While most big studios don’t lead with pixels, successful titles like Octopath Traveler show that the look works even in larger productions.
- Q: Is Deltarune free? Chapters 1 and 2 are free. Starting June 5, 2025, the Chapter 1 to 4 bundle will be sold for around $25.
- Q: What hardware do I need to run these games? Most modern pixel games are lightweight and can run on basic laptops, Steam Decks, or even older PCs.
- Q: Do kids actually play these or is it just older gamers being nostalgic? Both. A new generation of players is discovering pixel art without any baggage. They just think it looks cool – and it does.