2D-assets in 3D-view

[Vipershark]

This is an example of a character in 360° angles I am talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqRHdH_4PK0&t=2m27s

Has it ever been attempted on a small scale, historically speaking?

All this is is a 3d model with a toon texture/shader
It's not "2d" at all.

The animators go in later and fix up the frames to make it look as though it's all done by hand but each of the wildebeast you see (during the stampede at least) are that 3d model, which is what the guy pretty explicitly says in that video.

To answer your question though, you might want to look at Guilty Gear Xrd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lz1lql4TBw
The fighters might look like sprites but they're all 3d models.

Another example would be King of Fighters 13, but it's a bit more intensive than what you're asking. All of the characters were made as 3d models and then each frame was hand-sprited so while it's technically 2d, it was derived from a 3d source.