20 GAMES that PUSHED the LIMITS of the Hardware 

✅Please consider Subscribing: ru-vid.com ✅or Supporting my work through Patreon: www.patreon.com/ItsaPixelTHING

I remember when Donkey Kong Country was release , Nintendo advertised the game as it had 32 bit graphics without needing an add on , referring to Sega 32X.

I don't care what PS2 fans said back in the day. The only good thing that console had over the DC was the DVD player and a few types of effects it handled quite well. The DC had better resolution and it was easier to program for and the last game here shows how that console was 5-7 years ahead of its time.

I use "LET'S GO MR DRIVER" with that exact voice unironically at least 3 times a year.

Resident Evil 4 2 pushed N64 more than any other game on it. Check out the documentary about the 6 people who refused to give up even when the port were impossible.

Otogi 2 is beautiful, but Conker and Riddick have impressed me more. Star Fox Adventure on Game Cube is also impressive.

Even though the Sega Saturn is essentially using2D transformed rectangles - the texture mapping is so much better than the PlayStation's dedicated 3D hardware. No wobbly drunk textures on Sega's machine.

Bravo video. Miss all gem games. Hard work of all programmers should respected.

That intro on Lionheart, the general great use of colour and fantastic pixel art. Such a great game.

I remember the original reason why I got a PSX was I was heavily into fighters at the time.. I tried desperately to get Street Fighter Alpha 2 on SNES but for some reason it didn’t work out.. I knew they weren’t gonna continue to push the limits of that system..

You should have mentioned Elite for the BBC Micro and also the ZX Spectrum version. The game ran so well and was so far ahead of it's time. One of the few games to get a retrospective 10/10 from Edge magazine.

Great video, some real forgotten gems here, very impressive - i know what my emulators will be firing up over the weekend, thanks!

Fantastic video ! I didn’t know about all the different systems. When you came to the Amiga , I thought it would be Wing commander , Legends of valour , Citadel or Frontier. I was so wrong , hahaha. Have a great weekend.

Mayhem in monster land , Jesus that was impressive, it was absolutely stunning

No PC? Well I got one for ya. DOOM 3, released in 2004, at its ultra settings required 512MB of VRAM. No card existed with that much VRAM. I'd say the average PC gamer had 128MB (med settingsin DOOM 3), most had 64MB (lowest) and the die-hard PC gamer had 256MB. That would be like having a RTX 4090 at 1080p, and needing a 4090 Ti or perhaps a 5070 Ti, something we won't see for at least a year and a half from now.

The Settlers on amiga 500, split screen multiplayer with that kind of game mechanic and graphics.

So glad you run the 3D games at their native resolution, and without the bilinear interpolation of the textures. So many RU-vid channels run on emulators with all the graphical enhancements turned on. Seeing how the games really looks is so much better. Only thing that would improve, is carefully filming a CRT showing these games (Chinney Vision has done that before, with the Batform Forever demo on the CPC).

what, Sin and Punishment ?? dude DK64 and Conkers Bad Fur Day (amazing lightning) with a decent framerate, or Perfect Dark but with an underwhelming framerate were actually pushing the N64.

Morrowind on original Xbox, that game pushed the limit so far that during game play the system would actually restart during some loading screens to clear cache.

Gran turismo was a monstrous technological achievement for Playstation in its day but if I had to choose a game that pushed the system to its technical limit it would be between Tobal 2 or Ridge Racer Type 4. On Commodore Amiga I agree with the one chosen but I think Ruff 'n' Tumble would deserve at least an honorable mention

Great video fella , lots of superb games on this list. Grand turismo 2 one highlite for me Suprised not to see doom 3 or riddick on the og xbox though

Wow! Solaris looks awesome! I have this game and I realise i've never played it.

SNES - Rendering Ranger PSX = Vagrant Story (or MGS) Gamecube - Rogue Leader

Genetic Species on the Amiga would haev been a good inclusion. Nice lighting effects.

I would have chosen Zelda Twighlight Princess for the GameCube selection.

Personally I think that 3D Starstrike 2 on the zx spectrum pushed the limits. It had filled in 3D graphics which isn’t the first but it was certainly the fastest.

I had thought you missed out part of the title, as I couldn't see which system was having it's hardware pushed to the limit, but I see now you mean multiple different systems that were pushed to the limit. Usually these sort of videos on a singular system so it's an interesting way to go about it. 0:52 - Starting off with a deservedly well known one here with Monster Maze. It impresses me what developers managed to do with the ZX Spectrum, let alone the even more humble ZX81. The look of the dinosaur monster with the markings on it's teeth feels iconic and is the first game that comes to mind if I think of the ZX81 (and I've never even played the system). 3:11 - I did not notice that at first but yeah, no flickering. Interesting that your Master System example here is one that popped up so early in the system's life. Cool to have the explanation as to how they pulled it off with the system. 7:04 - Wait, the Amiga 500!? I thought this was on the A1200/CD32 with how pretty it looks. Wonderfully smooth in motion and the details are amazing. 8:15 - Another one of the games I've heard talked about often in terms of pushing a system's limit. Mayhem in Monsterland visually reminds me a lot of Kirby's Adventure on the NES and the protagonist design here is great; shame more games starring this guy didn't pop up. 10:34 - Yeah, holy heck, I did not realise these 3D Into the Screen games of Cotton popped up as early as the Mega Drive. Quite a sight to behold. 14:29 - Certainly high praise to receive. Sin & Punishment was one of the games I purchased before the Wii U eShop closure, an as a fan of rail-gun games, I look forward to getting around to playing it at some point. 18:52 - The smoke of the explosion effects the trees as well? That's awesome. Such a fun little detail. Fantastic showcase!

Sega Master System was a console ahead of it's time, it was far superior to the Nintendo Nes in many points . Playstation 1 ( PSX ) had great games yes but for such a console i still cannot figure how alot games were so low in graphics and blocky which somehow The Dreamcast was better . Todays consoles cannot be compared to those from the past since they use too advanced technologies . Same goes for PC's from before Windows XP and after Window XP era too much has changed . Space Harrier is exact similar as Afterburner . Somehow Thunder Blade on the Master System had materials from Space Harrier too . I love how older devs, designers made games with passion and love , yes there were some mistakes and errors but they were justified . Something that today has completely vanished since it's the money that counts only as the gameplay comes second and the graphics first sadly in many AAA-games and some Indy-games . Many big video games publishers that were once great EA , Ubisoft , Bethesda, Id.Software, etc... are today greedy are no more a bunch of friends anymore and only offer quantity over quality games they don't care anymore .

Xbox could have also Riddick or Unreal Championship 2 instead of Otogi 2. But Dreamcast should be either SoulCalibur or Shenmue. Btw excellent Sega Master System, SNES, Playstation and GC Choices

Doom for Super NES is also a limit pusher

Good choices mate. Except GBA. Vrally would have been my choice. Excellent video as always

Chapters nice addition!

I remember that Gran Turismo was amazing for the time, but then the sequel just looked like a mess of pixels. Don't know what went wrong there.

Great video, liked and subbed!

whether it be console, 8/16 bit pc or current gen 32/64-256 bit gaming pc's we have to have an upgrable solution so we don't over compensate what the tech limitations of cd, dvd and blue ray capacity media.. ram makes and breaks a system and the lack of ram tends to make the games handle poorly raising ram clock speed might correct some fps gamin flaws though with the stalled ram capacities of 8, 12, 16 and 24 GB i think modern re-releases are sein minor improvement though in the longer term your wasting system ram to compensate for the lack of gpu ram

3D Monster Maze is a good game but it did not push the limits of the hardware. As for Joffa, yes... he pushed the limits.

How about forty niner for the ZX81, sprites and hirez graphics. Or Buzzsaw / Old tower / Gluf for the ZX Spectrum with full colour sprites and no colour clash. 😀

Adoro ver este tipo de vídeos brutal ver limites cada maquina etc ..:)

Wow, lot's of interesting stuff in here.

Lionheart looked amazing m it was almost a megadrive game

DooM 3 on the original Xbox is another one.

Thunderforce 4 actually used exploits in the hardware of the megadrive and its if you ask me one of the best side scroller shooter ever

Starwing on the SNES

Cool

no turrican 2 c64???????

Id say for xbox 360 it would be halo 4 and for ps3 the last of us

I,ve seen graphically much better games on the nes,snes,gamecube,N64 and ps1 etc,,, But solaris on the atari 2600 is definitely a hardware pusher.

Tem piada que nunca tinha pensado o quão o Space Harrier era bom (e puxado) para a MSII. Passei horas e horas na minha infância a jogá-lo. GT2 realmente era demasiado para a PS1, quase parecia impossível correr lá.

light crusaders on mega drive. diablo before diablo. and sparkster game md version better visuals and music than sonic games. for modern era battlefield 3 battlefront 2015. ac unity.

Why does this guy sound like he's putting on a bad, comedy Russian accent? No one actually sounds like this.

Also Agony (1992 video game) on the Amiga, that looked and sounded fantastic, and could also be played on the Amiga 500, pushed the hardware to it's limit.