Games like Lands of Lore used 2D backgrounds that would show what is infront of you, or directly left or right of you, as you move across a grid-based area.
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It is not far from what you are asking. Although this is not a sidescrolling type of game, of course.
An interesting idea, harnessing an intrinsic characteristic of most side scrollers: they typically scroll in just one direction.
If I recall correctly Silkworm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3kN1rblzhI) had a small aspect of this; before (some) enemies appeared on the right, you'd see them flying across the background.
Games like Lands of Lore used 2D backgrounds that would show what is infront of you, or directly left or right of you, as you move across a grid-based area.
-snip-
It is not far from what you are asking. Although this is not a sidescrolling type of game, of course.
Thats totally a 3D First Person view, just using 2D sprites.
What I'm looking for is strictly for sidescrolling gameplay.
Einhander's use of foreshadowing using the background isn't completely unique, although, seen in HD (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlrUuRee7TY), I was pretty impressed; even ancient games like Out Of This World(which, if you've never played, do so, it's a classic) used that in a few spots.
That said, I can't think of any games that use it explicitly to show you the next bits in advance; that might be fun or it might just be a confusing, chaotic mess, as players would find themselves unable to decide what to focus on. Really depends on the kind of game and the pacing.