Retro Diffusion
Ranked 21 of 22 image generation models by recommenders
People recommend it for clean pixel art with proper palettes, no mixels, and sprite sheet animations, though some say it shows its age for its era.
People recommend it for clean pixel art with proper palettes, no mixels, and sprite sheet animations, though some say it shows its age for its era.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Clean pixel art with proper palettes
“worked pretty well for its era - no mixels, proper palettes, etc.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “A practical guide to AI image generation, from diffusion to agents” “This should give the building more realistic pixel art look.”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Shows its age for its era
“It felt like it was trained on more natural language, so prompting it was quite nice for that era.”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Super Dario” “worked pretty well for its era - no mixels, proper palettes, etc.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “A practical guide to AI image generation, from diffusion to agents”
Other image generation models people recommend
The four most recommended other image generation models, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano Banana | 265 | 159 | 63% | 12 | 6 mo5 owners | — |
| gpt-image-1 | 79 | 79 | 50% | 12 | — | — |
| FLUX.2 | 66 | 51 | 56% | 10 | — | — |
| gpt-image-2 | 63 | 26 | 71% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Retro DiffusionThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“worked pretty well for its era - no mixels, proper palettes, etc.”
“It's better to use a specialized model for that”
“have put a lot of work into generating sprite sheet animations”
“It felt like it was trained on more natural language, so prompting it was quite nice for that era.”
“It's a tough problem but Retro Diffusion is making some incredible progress”
“This should give the building more realistic pixel art look.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.