Hey guys, I'm currently looking for some examples of great parallax scrolling in games. In case you don't know what it is: it's when the background (and sometimes foreground) consists of several layers that scroll at different speeds to create an illusion of depth in 2D games. Here's some examples:
Shadow of the Beast
Rayman
Turrican 3

Now, these examples aren't mindblowing and sadly they are the best ones I could think of. I'm particularly looking for great examples that also include prominent vertical scrolling (like many layers of clouds or many rows of buildings, maybe also flying/floating stuff - something like that) and preferably *not* extreme low-detail 8-bit retro graphics. Maybe some of you remember games that blew you away with effects of this kind?

There were some NES games did that but I never knew what it called. It was back then very primitive (obviously) but it still blew me away.

I'm pretty sure the Trine games do it.

I think the paralax effect was put to good use in DIABLO II ... That game also featured a boss fight taking place on a hilltopwith good paralax use.
The intro to the insane anime series PARANOIA AGENT features some impressive paralax effects.

Here's a topic on another forum with five pages discussing the same thing, might contain a few good examples.

I can't think of anything else tan shadow of the beast because I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE THAN SHADOW OF THE BEAST.

Wow, now this is a discussion wayyyyyyyy from my past

This goes back to the days where Raster Interrupts was freely used in young teens play grounds.

Anyway

Arcade games used Parallax techniques from the early 80's games. Because arcade games used the technique a lot just like most animated houses, it was not too long before home computers used it

Extensive use of Parallax can be found in Commodore 64 games, it even had a game called Parallax from I believe Ocean Software. (Also check out StarPaws as an old old game that used at least 4 parallax layers at super side scrolling speeds)

You then move on to Nes, Snes and Megadrive where beat-em-ups and side scrolling RPG games used the technique to great effect. Check the side scrolling platform game Castlevania IV for this technique which also adds depth to the gameplay by moving in and out of the parallax effect.

In the end I could go on and on and probably name hundreds of games, but the fun is checking YouTube or playing them yourself.

Enter The Realm on the Acorn Archimedes was possibly the first game I remember playing that advertised its parallax scrolling backgrounds as a plus point to the graphics. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuVuIadIoPE (gameplay starts at about 2 minutes in).

EDIT: Just checked and it appears to have been released in 1991.

Maybe some really old South African gamers can comment on Toxic Bunny. I need help remembering details about the game as I played it so long ago. It was a DOS game released in 1996.

It was important to us in its day as it was produced by a South African studio called Celestial Games.

I always liked and ofcourse [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLs4eyhnRIQ]Agony

Dang, indeed. I thought of Rayman but not of the last two Rayman games. There's bound to be some perfect examples in these two. Thanks for the reminder. Actually they don't. In Trine the graphics are all in full 3D rendered in real-time, only the game mechanics are 2D. Frankly I always wondered how they did the effect in Diablo II exactly. It's a bit more than parallax scrolling, though, since it's not just layers being scrolled at different speeds, I think they actually deform the ground textures and reposition all interactive elements and obstacles to create that 3D effect. Didn't think of checking out cartoons. Thanks for the suggestion. Thanks, will take a look.

On PC Jazz the Jackrabbit 2 comes to mind, especially as it did it in hires.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTZOrw7unKk

On Amiga, I am sure there are bundles of examples, but for some reason I remember Starray specifically from its smooth parallax scrolling, even if it was mainly restricted to the lower part of the screen (ground).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8PAsIVo8TQ

Haha. Fun fact: my brother and my dad let me play the game when I was three years old. It's kinda disturbing that they didn't think that game may be inappropriate for a child that age. It left some scars and I also have trouble thinking of anything else. At any time. Seriously. I'll probably think of Shadow of the Beast during my wedding or when I'll be holding my child for the first time.

The Donkey Kong Country /Super Donkey Kong trilogy on the SNES/SFC was brilliant for this. There were countless examples of creative use of parallax throughout the stages in all three games, but what a lot of people remember were the first jungle stages with what looked like rows and rows of jungle and trees in the background and the super awesome later on in the game, which uses parallax to shift backgrounds so that it looks like a snowstorm is progressing. Some other great examples include the boss battles in the original with all the piles of bananas in the background, the haunted ship in the sequel that uses a nifty water layer and backgrounds to make it look like you're exploring a 3D sunken ship and the waterfall stages in the 3rd game.

Super Castlevania IV made use of it on nearly every stage, but it was somewhat more subtle about it. Seiken Densetsu 3 (despite being an overhead game) also had a lot of this and it was gorgeous. Sonic 2 and 3 also had some good stuff going on in this department.

If you have a 3DS, you might check out the 3D Classics series from Sega, as due to the nature of the system being able to present 3D backgrounds, the 3D upgrades make a lot of those old games pop out like they were parallax all along. It's really a brilliant effect.