Hollow Knight not only looks and sounds gorgeous, but the gameplay is top-freakin-notch and the scope of the game is unexpectedly huge given that three people and a musician worked on it for three years.
One of my favourite games is a 2D hack 'n slash for the Wii, called Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and it sports gorgeous, stylized visuals suited for Feudal Era Japan. It's unfortunate how sort of obscure the game is. Just a small sample:
Here's another good GAMEMAKER 2D game...MAN SHANTAE HALF GENIE HERO! *dies*
Edit: Shantae: Half-Genie Hero sure has incredible vector art and some other good stuff in the gameplay, no not really, but anyway, it's not really a "2D game" since it is obviously mostly rendered in 3D, but still those vector graphics are gorgeous
My take in this: Hyper Light Drifter (Made in GameMaker, bonus points!)
I was actually going to post it...but you beat me to it.I can't believe that nobody has posted CupHead in this thread...
Eh. It does its gimmick very well, but I don't consider 30's cartoons amazing looking. Animation's come a long way since then.I can't believe that nobody has posted CupHead in this thread...
It is one of the most visually amazing games I've seen. The animation is gorgeous and the way it mimics 50's style cartoons is stunning...