The Beauty of Parallax

Let's look at how much prettier games look thanks to some moving background layers called parallax scrolling!

Music used:

0:02 - Streets of Rage: Stage 1
0:33 - Smash Hit: Checkpoints 0-4
1:04 - Ambassadors of Funk: Super Mario Land
2:21 - Anthony Lofton & Mustin: Mario Bay Breeze
4:48 - Street Fighter 3rd Strike: Character Select
5:39 - Castlevania SotN: Marble Gallery
6:00 - Shovel Knight: An Underlying Problem
7:02 - Smash Hit: Checkpoints 0-4
8:02 - Deejay Verstyle: Fight at the Fair
9:48 - Super Mario Land 2: Macro World

Please consider supporting the channel through Patreon to help improve the quality of research, editing, footage capture, animation and overall production of each episode:

[VideoGameAnimationStudy]

GAMES SHOWN:


0:03 - Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
0:06 - Muramasa: Demon Blade
0:08 - Symphony of the Night
0:11 - Hollow Knight
0:15 - Cuphead
0:18 - Metal Storm
0:20 - Super Metroid
0:22 - Yoshi's Island
0:26 - Shovel Knight
0:28 - Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap
0:34 - Mega Man 7
0:36 - Kirby's Adventure
0:39 - Super Mario World
0:42 - Ori and the Blind Forest
0:44 - Shadow of the Beast
0:56 - GRIS
1:00 - Axiom Verge
1:30 - Mega Man 2
1:36 - Duck Tales
1:38 - Adventure of Link
1:43 - Shinobi 3
1:50 - A Link to the Past
1:56 - Mega Man X4
2:02 - Alien Hominid
2:09 - Red Dead Redemption
2:12 - Bomb Chicken
2:15 - Flinthook
2:38 - Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap
*2:42**: Indivisible*
2:47 - Inmost
2:51 - Hyper Light Drifter
6:49 - Strider 2
7:39 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
9:19 - Pulseman
9:54 - Limbo
9:58 - Mighty Gunvolt


Repeats not listed, nor ones titled in-video.

[Larry]

Fun Fact: The Japanese version of Sonic 1 has more layers of parallax than the Western versions (it's technically a patched game as they fixed a few bugs like the spike glitch)


But the Jim Power SNES game with the weird scrolling I believe was supposed to give a 3D effect, the game came with a pair of 3D glasses.

[MelvaCross]

Parallax is such an important part of platformers. And for me the best examples of good parallax scrolling are the games where you don't notice it. I never noticed that Green Hill Zone has so many layers, it just felt natural to me.
The first time I noticed parallax at all was with Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts in Stage 3. They had these massive towers that were part of the background layer which made me feel very dizzy.


I am in awe of the amount of effort you put into this video. You really went the extra mile there with the examples. Especially Green Hill Zone with different parallax effects.

[CZPC]

Thanks you for actually listing your music.

[Resuarus]

I'm always blown away by how much effort you put into the visual explainers for these. The variations on Green Hill Zone to show off different types of parallax were ace.

[greekletterphi]

Hollow Knight takes the idea of parallax to its extreme. And it's amazing.

[JoeCrafts]

The Metal Sonic fight in Mania will forever stand out to me as a gorgeous example of cylindrical parallax.

[andrewcosmicanimations]

I am currently in game development in college, and watching alot of your videos, as well as many other game analytics on youtube, have helped give me a better perspective on what I like in games and what works. I put some of this towards a level creation project, and I got compliments saying that my use of certain techniques were very advanced for a first year. So thank you for helping me with this, and keep up the good work.

[somethingoriginal]

I actually think the static background for Death Egg zone works. It really sells the sheer size of the space station

[bitwize]

Green Hill has 2 layers of parallax, and Kirby and Bucky each have 1. What's happening in these games is, the scrolling is changed when the beam hits a particular scanline, allowing the background layer to be shifted by different amounts at different vertical positions on the screen, creating a faux parallax or perspective effect. This is the most common parallax effect on games for the NES, whose hardware only supported one background layer.

[jaas]

I think parallax is not something small, it adds SO MUCH for me in games - while just being a few images moving.
Great video!

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

In the first 3 minutes of your video I was thinking "That's strange. There are no Sonic examples for B-roll footage." I thought it was weird because Sonic was the first game that came to mind once I understood what parallax was.

By the end of the video, whenever you mentioned Sonic I was like "Oh boy, he said Sonic! Here we go again!" It's all good though because I love Sonic! So the more examples the better!

[DripNZ]

Absolutely stunning video! Parallax in games is exactly the sort of topic unique to your channel. The visual guides are also really professional and smooth, great job.

[benwilliams]

Another finely crafted video, Dan! Really interesting! No racing games in there, mind! I love seeing it used not just for backgrounds but to give the illusion of 3D objects/plains closer to the foreground. It can look so effective.

[PleaseUnsubscribeHaha]

I really love the section in Kirby Super Star (Ultra) in Milky Way Wishes: the final boss involves


[Spoilers!]
a really neat shooter section where you're in one of those cylinders, but they used perspective to make it way less jarring.

[DarylTalksGames]

Some of that Shinobi animation is just... delicious. Fantastic video as always man!

[aidanwansbrough]

This was very interesting!! Thanks for the video, it's really interesting seeing how games are put together!

[HE]

Gosh, this brings me back to the time when the Sega Genesis first came out and me playing the ORIGINAL Sonic the Hedgehog for the FIRST time and seeing all of the colorful graphics and parallax backgrounds, etc. It just made the experience of playing the Sega Genesis that much more immersive!!

[brideofie]

you've given me a new appreciation for something I would usually overlook on some games, now to replay some classic and admire the effort artist's put into the background

[Twitty]

Thank you YouTube channel for recommending me this video. I subscribed 3. minutes in. Keep up the good work brother 🙏