History Main / FinaleProductionUpgrade

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'': When it was first released in 1988, the Famicom was beginning to lose ground in Japan to the PC Engine (aka the Platform/Turbografx16), and Sega was ready to start MediaNotes/The16BitEraOfConsoleVideoGames with its Mega Drive (aka the Platform/SegaGenesis). ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' was meant to be the last word of what the 8-bit hardware was capable of, presenting a sprawling adventure with dozens of levels, powerups, tons of secrets, and some of the best graphics the NES had to offer. Indeed, it was the last game Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto and his EAD team designed for the system, before beginning work on the launch lineup for the [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]],

** One of the UsefulNotes/Atari2600's last games was ''Xenophobe'' (The actual last official game was ''VideoGame/{{Klax}}'' in 1990), a game that took full advantage of the system’s scanline-coloring abilities, detailing them more than ever before.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'': When it was first released in 1988, the Famicom was beginning to lose ground in Japan to the PC Engine (aka the UsefulNotes/Turbografx16), and Sega was ready to start UsefulNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames with its Mega Drive (aka the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis). ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' was meant to be the last word of what the 8-bit hardware was capable of, presenting a sprawling adventure with dozens of levels, powerups, tons of secrets, and some of the best graphics the NES had to offer. Indeed, it was the last game Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto and his EAD team designed for the system, before beginning work on the launch lineup for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]],

** The very last official game for the UsefulNotes/Commodore64 was ''VideoGame/MayhemInMonsterland''. This takes the graphical and musical capabilities present in the system and turns them up to 11. The game boasts color-efficient and detailed sprites, palette shifting, layered [[MotionParallax parallax scrolling]] in some scenes, and humongous worlds on the level of Sonic and Mario, thanks to a [[GoodBadBugs bug]] discovered in the VIC-II chip.
** The UsefulNotes/SuperNES ’s final years with first-and-second-party games boasted graphics, sound, stories, worlds and gameplay that pushed the system to its limits, both in peripherals (i.e. Super FX 2 chip), and in stock hardware:
*** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'': When the first game launched in 1994, 32-bit consoles such as the Platform/PlayStation and UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn were on the horizon, and Nintendo and Rare made the games with the intention of showing that even their aging 16-bit console could still host visually impressive games. The games' graphics were entirely created using pre-rendered 3D graphics to show people that they didn't need to buy new hardware to play an impressive looking 3D game. The games' success [[SubvertedTrope subverted this trope]] since it gave the SNES a boost in popularity that allowed it to hang on for a few more years, resulting in some of the later games in this list pushing the boat out even further on what the console could achieve.

*** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'': Although not a finale to the Mario series at-large, this can be considered Nintendo's big swan song for the console, as 32-bit video game systems such as the Platform/Playstation1 had already been released, and Nintendo's next big product, the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, was in-production and highly anticipated. The game boasted large, expansive worlds, an array of unique enemies, colorful graphics, a memorable soundtrack, and its main selling point, backgrounds AND sprites and objects that could be distorted, scaled, rotated, shaped, and even turned 3D, with the Super FX-2 Chip. Even the ending soundtrack evokes an orchestral feel. For its time, the game was also the last 2D ''Super Mario'' game (and thus the last one from the old-school era that started in 1985), as Nintendo would then focus on 3D ''Mario'' games and [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros1 the next 2D platformer]] wouldn't arrive until 11 years later.

** Like the Super NES, by 1996, the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis was already on its way out the door, even more so (as it was 8 years old by this point), and yet, by 1995, into the next year, several games that posited the system's best capabilities were showcased and sold:

*** ''VideoGame/ToyStory'': featured graphics that would not look out of place on what was already its successor, the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn: HUGE sprites, smooth animation, 3D-looking graphics (In Andy’s room, and Pizza Planet), ACTUAL ray-cast 3D graphics with “''REALLY'' inside the Claw Machine”, and in “Day-Toy-Na”, and clever programming to break the Sega Genesis’ normal color limitations!

** ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' was this for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, featuring some of the best graphics and animation on the system, as well as other production values that weren't common on the console, such as full voice acting.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' were created with the intention of being the biggest and best-looking games for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube and UsefulNotes/WiiU, respectively. However, Nintendo decided to release them on the successor systems of the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch as well, which combined with the low sales of the older consoles, led to both games gaining more notoriety as launch titles for the newer consoles instead.

** ''VideoGame/Halo3'' released on the UsefulNotes/Xbox360, while its predecessors released on the original Xbox, resulting in a significant graphical bump.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' launched on the Wii after the first two games were made for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube. While the Wii didn't have the same jump in graphical capabilities that its competitors did, this did make ''Metroid Prime 3'' the best-looking ''Prime'' game. Aside from that, ''Prime 3'' features a noticeable increase in scope in comparison the previous two games, which took place on a single planet while the third game took place on multiple ones; while each of the planets in ''Prime 3'' planet weren't as big as those of ''Prime 1'' and ''Prime 2'', it does make the game feel more expansive. It also had full voice acting, which was rare in Creator/{{Nintendo}} games at the time.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' was originally planned for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, presumably as a sprite-based game; however, series creator Yoshio Sakamoto wanted the GrandFinale of the mainline ''Metroid'' arc, which started all the way back in the [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} first game]] in 1986, to up the ante in terms of presentation, and thus he put production of the game on hold for two console generations until he decided to produce it as a high-definition, TwoAndAHalfD game for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

*** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'': When the first game launched in 1994, 32-bit consoles such as the UsefulNotes/PlayStation and UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn were on the horizon, and Nintendo and Rare made the games with the intention of showing that even their aging 16-bit console could still host visually impressive games. The games' graphics were entirely created using pre-rendered 3D graphics to show people that they didn't need to buy new hardware to play an impressive looking 3D game. The games' success [[SubvertedTrope subverted this trope]] since it gave the SNES a boost in popularity that allowed it to hang on for a few more years, resulting in some of the later games in this list pushing the boat out even further on what the console could achieve.

*** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'': Although not a finale to the Mario series at-large, this can be considered Nintendo's big swan song for the console, as 32-bit video game systems such as the UsefulNotes/Playstation1 had already been released, and Nintendo's next big product, the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, was in-production and highly anticipated. The game boasted large, expansive worlds, an array of unique enemies, colorful graphics, a memorable soundtrack, and its main selling point, backgrounds AND sprites and objects that could be distorted, scaled, rotated, shaped, and even turned 3D, with the Super FX-2 Chip. Even the ending soundtrack evokes an orchestral feel. For its time, the game was also the last 2D ''Super Mario'' game (and thus the last one from the old-school era that started in 1985), as Nintendo would then focus on 3D ''Mario'' games and [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros1 the next 2D platformer]] wouldn't arrive until 11 years later.

** Similarly, ''VideoGame/GodOfWar3'' launched on UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, instead of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 like the first two games.

** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' launched on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne, as opposed to the first two games that were first designed for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and UsefulNotes/Xbox360, and had as the requisite bump in graphics.
** ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'', which is the GrandFinale of Nathan Drake's story if not the ''Uncharted'' series as a whole, came out for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 instead of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 that hosted the prior games, allowing the series' famously high production values to be taken up a notch.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' is the finale of the "Darkseeker Saga" started by the first game, and, unlike prior games in the series which were on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 or handhelds, was built for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne, allowing its graphics and other production values to vastly surpass all of its predecessors.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3'' launched on the Wii after the first two games were made for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube. While the Wii didn't have the same jump in graphical capabilities that its competitors did, this did make ''Metroid Prime 3'' the best-looking ''Prime'' game. Aside from that, ''Prime 3'' features a noticeable increase in scope in comparison the previous two games, which took place on a single planet while the third game took place on multiple ones; while each of the planets in ''Prime 3'' planet weren't as big as those of ''Prime 1'' and ''Prime 2'', it does make the game feel more expansive. It also had full voice acting, which was rare in Creator/{{Nintendo}} games at the time.