Title, lol. Maybe a super speficific question, but in your opinion, what are the 2D Platformers with the most beautiful backgrounds? I LOVE the ones on Shovel Knight, I was playing it and couldn’t help but stop and admire them for a bit. Their use of colors and parallax is amazing, and it (maybe underrated-ly) looks amazing with the 3D effect on the 3DS. Going backwards, I think that Megaman, while at its most popular during the Megaman 2 and Megaman 3 era, really upped the quality of their backgrounds by Megaman 5 and 6, with 6 in particular having some really beautiful ones that compliment the levels perfectly and even if they are all on the same “graphical level”, those later NES entries really look much better compared to the previous ones.
What are your opinions?
The Messenger, because it has a lot of detail in its backgrounds that sometimes even relates to the lore/stories told ingame.
Also, La-Mulana (remake) has some real nice background art for the ruins, some are based on different historical periods or beliefs. For example, Temple of the Sun is based on Egyptian gods, Chamber of Birth has Hindu influence etc. The background is often a hint or even a tool to solve puzzles, plus you can scan murals and decorations for some info on what is depicted.