Scott McCloud talks about it a bit in Understanding Comics when he talks about the "universality" of cartoony imagery: http://www.kylechipman.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/u...

When it comes to certain kinds of art experiences I think too much fidelity gets in the way of the expressive power of the medium.

As an indie or hobbyist game dev it is way easier to create pixel art assets than higher resolution assets... never mind 3d. That's really powerful when combined with the universality component.

Sword and Sworcery, Fez, Moonman, vvvvvv, Corrypt ... lots of great pixel art goodness out there right now.