Java 2D out of the box is a good API, but will not have the things you need for game programming. It is lacking input and sound. As for 3D, you can use JOGL with OpenGL, but I would suggest using a 3d party library.

http://www.slick2d.org/

http://www.lwjgl.org/

http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/

Depending on your requirements, one of the above libraries should suit you just fine.

If you want to do the input and sound yourself, check out

http://jogamp.org/jogl/www/ - OpenGL for graphics

http://jogamp.org/joal/www/ - OpenAL for Sound

https://java.net/projects/jinput - JInput for Input

This is what LWJGL is doing behind the scenes if you wanted to learn it all yourself.

Hi,

Java APIs have been used to create world-class games and simulations. The graphics area where you have a question is one of the strong areas of this development. In my opinion it often results in a perfect match of performance and quality graphics. The shadows, anti-aliasing, shading, bump-mapping, sounds, collision detection, damage model, and input configuration are all strong areas. It tends to lend itself well to realism and departing from fantasy environments, but I have seen some fabulous fantasy games made in this genre. Cross-platform, OS and hardware, is built into them which is another consideration for some developers.

About image file formats, bitmaps are a good choice when performance is not an issue, but otherwise with performance critical games then JPEG would be a better choice. Lossless images add to a big demand in performance in scenes where there are many of them. For performance demands, then also include shading and in particular bump-mapping.

A good Java API will make all of these choices available to you. Third party libraries with well designed editors are another matter for choosing an API, such as terrain editors.

By the way, take a look at jMonkey:

http://jmonkeyengine.com/

http://jmonkeyengine.com/showcase/

If you look at all the variety of games being made, then you see that almost anything is possible.

Java2D has a number of issues for game development that you can read more about in the javagaming.org forums if you really want ot. Slick2D was the go-to library for a while in the world of 2D Java game dev, but it isn't anymore. libgdx is where all the action is. It's a brilliant library that allows you to get your game on a number of platforms that pure Java doesn't. Plus, it uses the modern programmable pipeline of OpenGL under the hood. The guy who developed Slick2D is making his newest game with libgdx.

If I were starting from scratch right now with a 2D Java game, libgdx would be a no-brainer.

Community support for the beginner may be more important than the game engine itself.