Elfmania

Elfmania is a 2D fighting game developed by Terramarque and published by Renegade Software in 1994 for the Amiga.

Elfmania has some stunning graphics; most of the background is animated and looks 3D, fading into the distance. The characters are well-detailed with nice touches, which showed the passion that went into designing the game, certain areas of the background were even animated at set points, and the spectators would move and blink.

There are six champions available for play, although you cannot use them without purchasing them through a complex in-game gold system. In the beginning, you start with just enough gold to hire the weakest 3, and you must slowly ramp up gold to purchase the rest, but as you win a fight and collect some gold, the price of a champion increases.

Elfmania also has a two-player system that involves an original winning system, similar to a tic-tac-toe combination. The game has an overhead map built of squares, the player can choose where he wishes to fight, and upon winning, the square is marked; a player needs six square-line of victories to win the battle eventually.

Unfortunately, despite the fantastic sounds and insane graphics, the gameplay is one-dimensional. If the developers managed to add a slight variation and some special moves to work around, this game could have gone up as one of the best beat-em-up on the Amiga.

Anyway, if you want to see some of the best pixel-art graphics that have ever been made in a videogame, you'll have to try this.