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Mario Kart 8 is beautiful.

Today I learned that lighting lends absolutely nothing to the style and look of a game.

This games lighting alone differentiates its look from other Mario Karts pretty well. It's not just indicative of a power bump, it helps to give the game its bright, poppy, often watercolory look, and no, the other games don't look quite the same. Same goes for the clean, sharp geometry. Stylistically it's not the same, especially when you factor in stages that go heavy into the anti-grav gimmick. Have you played the same game I have? Would you care to make a few image comparisons so I can see what you mean? You've well and truly lost me.

Lighting has nothing to do with the style. The Wii wasn't capable of that kind of lighting. Anti-grav gimmick has nothing to do with style.
MK.jpg

mario-kart-8-header.jpg


Obviously the lower resolution doesn't help, but it's the same style (obviously) with more processing power. Obviously there are more details and things that the Wii was incapable of pulling off.
 

zruben

Banned
Lighting has nothing to do with the style. The Wii wasn't capable of that kind of lighting. Anti-grav gimmick has nothing to do with style.

Obviously the lower resolution doesn't help, but it's the same style (obviously) with more processing power. Obviously there are more details and things that the Wii was incapable of pulling off.

you should try to compare actual game screenshots... not screenshot vs promo art.
 
You're not even trying with these halfass oneliner responses. That image comparison is a joke and to a discerning eye would only back up what I've been saying. And the Anti-Grav gimmick has a lot to do with style when it influences the track designs and the types of places these tracks can take you within the context of their design.

seriously, here's an actual screenshot from the game

71BBPUMc4iL._SL1280_.jpg


against

MK.jpg


and if you think that's stylistically identical or even only a power bump away from being identical then jeez I think you're just being cynical for the sake of it

it's similar! They've both got karts and colors and Mario and castle and shit

but there's plenty of artistic differences there that end in two very different looking products despite some surface similarities

and that's well before we get into any of Mario Kart 8's more bombastic courses.

Have you played the game?
 
you should try to compare actual game screenshots... not screenshot vs promo art.

Sorry, the game doesn't look significantly different from that does it?

2529082-mario+kart+8+-+love+that+150cc+-+2014-05-08+09-40-3302.jpg

Better?

@xtalarge- One liner responses? Excuse me? You asked for a comparison I gave you one. It doesn't show any changes in style beyond what is added with more processing power.
Yes I have played the game. It's the exact same style since Mario 64.
 

Redrop

Member
Lighting and geometry? That's just the extra power. Stylistically it's the same.

The improved technical prowess of the console allows the "style" of Mario Kart to flourish. It's a "greater than the sum of its parts" kind of thing. Obviously Mario looks like Mario, but the gestalt of the game is blissfully majestic, and its contrast to previous iterations in the series is huge.
 

zruben

Banned
it's hard to make justice to Mario Kart 8 just with screenshots.

the graphically "wow" moments of the game usually hit you in motion, with the combination of gameplay, music, animations, details, lighting effects, etc.

maybe videos are a better way to show that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h16c0YIWlXc

no offense veritassin, but it sounds like you haven't actually played the game.
 
The improved technical prowess of the console allows the "style" of Mario Kart to flourish. It's a "greater than the sum of its parts" kind of thing. Obviously Mario looks like Mario, but the gestalt of the game is blissfully majestic, and its contrast to previous iterations in the series is huge.

Of course it allows it to flourish, doesn't mean it's significantly different at its core. You would hope that a new mario kart on a new next gen system would look better than the one on the previous console.
 
Usually when I'm thinking 'image comparison' I'm thinking something like a varied selection of screens at native resolution (or something near it) compared, not a single screen compared against promo art


I just don't see how it could be argued that these games are identical stylistically. They're so not.

Yes I have played the game. It's the exact same style since Mario 64.

And if you honestly earnestly think that then this discussion is utterly pointless and I'm totally out of here

LMAO
 

Druz

Member
Beautiful game, but it makes me rage so hard. I dislike the cheating AI. Need to have those battle arenas added and more maps too.
 
Usually when I'm thinking 'image comparison' I'm thinking something like a varied selection of screens at native resolution (or something near it) compared, not a single screen compared against promo art



I just don't see how it could be argued that these games are identical stylistically. They're so not.

I'm sorry but the promo art just looked a little better than the in-game shot you provided. Thanks for all the comparisons that really illustrate my point though.

And if you honestly earnestly think that then this discussion is utterly pointless and I'm totally out of here

I do. I'm not saying it's necessarily bad, it's definitely instantly recognizable that's for sure.
 
not technically but I don't know how people can state with total resolve that MK8 is ahead of Tropical Freeze when it comes to art style

i'm omitting shitloads of beautiful and memorable moments and locations here. just a small sample from an incredibly varied game. and this is a game that doesn't look like total hell in screenshots. just saiyan

Agreed completely. The sheer volume and diversity of environments alone make Tropical Freeze more impressive overall than MK8 from an artistic standpoint imo.

I don't see how you could say that. watch a MKTV clip of characters doing tricks, hitting others with items, and passing other characters. the animations are just amazing. imo. I love the animations in Tropical Freeze as well (it's my favorite game on the console) but sometimes they seem a little too goofy and over the top.

Yes, they are good, but I don't see how DK's are goofy and over the top and MK's aren't. Plus in MK8, due to the nature of the game, you never really get to see those animations during gameplay. When people talk about MK8 and how great it looks, the majority of the screenshots and footage are those cinematic angles to show off the animations and graphics. But that does very little for me personally as that isn't stuff you see during gameplay (not that it doesn't look and animate great while your playing... It certainly does.)
 
I do. I'm not saying it's necessarily bad, it's definitely instantly recognizable that's for sure.

Eeeeh... I can sorta see what you're saying. I'm hesitant to call any of the console MKs identical in terms of style though because they all have their own fairly distinct quirks to their look. If you took MK DD and MK Wii and made them 1080p with Mario Kart 8's lighting I'd still be able to tell them apart literally instantly because of how differently characters animate, the type of saturated/gourad look on bg textures, the shapes and style of the objects around me, etc.
 

EulaCapra

Member
MK8's Mushroom Cup of all cups somehow manages to outdo most of the cups in terms of wow factor. Nevermind Thwomp Ruins, you get that fireworks and crowd reaction in Mario Kart Stadium, the colorful blend of amusement park and candy colored submersion in Water Park, and pausing at every frame to marvel at all the background details of Sweet Sweet Canyon.
 
I just don't see it. Tropical Freeze's graphics are not more impressive than Mario Kart 8. Not technically or artistically.
Yeah, surprised to see DK pop up in this thread as much as it has. It's (for me) one of Nintendo's least impressive retail HD titles to date outside of the party stuff and NSMBU
 

phanphare

Banned
Yes, they are good, but I don't see how DK's are goofy and over the top and MK's aren't. Plus in MK8, due to the nature of the game, you never really get to see those animations during gameplay. When people talk about MK8 and how great it looks, the majority of the screenshots and footage are those cinematic angles to show off the animations and graphics. But that does very little for me personally as that isn't stuff you see during gameplay (not that it doesn't look and animate great while your playing... It certainly does.)

yeah that's a good point. and idk, there's something about the Donkey Kong animations that just seem a little too obvious, if that's the right word. like you'll hit an enemy and they'll get big googly eyes and turn to the screen before they die. stuff like that. I'm not even sure if that actually happens in the game, I'd have to not be at work to give a better example haha but I think you can kind of see my point from that.
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Mario Kart 8 is the most beautiful and interesting looking game released this gen for me. It isn't even a contest really. I stopped playing video games for almost eight months because everything looked boring to me. I had zero intentions of ever getting a Wii U. Was always set on a PS4. Mario Kart 8 comes along and its beauty just grabbed me and hasn't let go. It's the only game I play right now and it never gets old (the gameplay OR the visuals).
 

unbias

Member
Ya, the game is great looking. I did notice though, that depending on what TV I play MK8 on I see a hell of a lot more jaggies. When I play MK8 on newer my 240hz TV's the game looks great, with the jaggies being very minimal, when I play it on my older regular 1080p TV the jaggies are bad looking. I mean, I realize a good HD TV can make a fairly large difference, but never in a game before post 16 bit games, did I notice such a large difference, where the quality of the TV mattered.
 

Redrop

Member
Of course it allows it to flourish, doesn't mean it's significantly different at its core. You would hope that a new mario kart on a new next gen system would look better than the one on the previous console.

The core design is similar to the Mario pedigree/culture that Nintendo has successfully illustrated through three decades. But being visually consistent doesn't prevent distinction elsewhere. Hence the reason that players recognize differences as *apparently* subtle as LoZ: OoT to MM. A number of factors, including the world design, narrative design and visual quality all contribute to the distinctions, and it is completely fair to say one is stylistically different from the other.
 

Toparaman

Banned
Calibrate out the jaggies. Holy shit I have heard it all. Thanks for the laugh

Having the sharpness and contrast too high definitely accentuates jaggies.

It's weird to me that out of all the jaggy-as-hell AAA games out there, MK8 is getting singled out. GTA V and TLOU are much worse on the jaggies front.

(To be fair, I've only played for about 30 min, so maybe it'll be more apparent as I play more.)
 

Squishy3

Member
I recently picked it up and it is really beautiful in motion. Obviously when you zoom in/pause it you can see that a lot of the assets/textures are pretty standard, but the lighting, design + style make up for that.

If only it was 1080p - my biggest complaint is the jaggies.
I know this post is from the first page, but making it 1080p wouldn't magically remove the jaggies. There's just no AA solution at all.
 

jblank83

Member
A good looking game is good looking, whether it's on Wii U or PS4 or DS or Atari 2600.

That there are rendering techniques available on greater hardware does not preclude lesser hardware from producing pleasing visuals. If the highest technical standard was the only venue in which visuals could be called "good", then anything less than a Radeon R9 290 would be garbage. That includes PS4 and Xbox 1, whose GPUs pale in comparison to such a card. The numerous resolution, framerate, and rendering compromises seen in PS4/X1 games already this generation show as much.

Obviously that's a ridiculous viewpoint, though, and Mario Kart 8 looks good, as do other Wii U games (and 3DS games, and DS games, and Atari 2600 games).
 
Yeah, surprised to see DK pop up in this thread as much as it has. It's (for me) one of Nintendo's least impressive retail HD titles to date outside of the party stuff and NSMBU

Because for many, art direction trumps technical proficiency and it is easy to see why people drool over TF's art direction and animation.
 

Toparaman

Banned
Actually, maybe it's the PS3's lack of internal upscaling that makes GTA V and TLOU look much more aliased than MK8 for me. Monitors usually have bad upscalers.
 

Zarovitch

Member
Actually, maybe it's the PS3's lack of internal upscaling that makes GTA V and TLOU look much more aliased than MK8 for me. Monitors usually have bad upscalers.

Maybe because GTA and TLOU have more geometric forms and details.
You risk to see them more often. I think.
 

Arkam

Member
Mario Kart 8 is, in my opinion, the best looking game currently available on any console. Next-gen, current gen, nothing on store shelves right now has wowed me the way that Mario Kart 8 did during those first few tracks.

I have to agree on this one. Yea I CAN see that it is technically inferior to a lot of games, bu DAMN does it look pretty! Been playing it a lot since release and still constantly impressed during replays.
 

Synless

Member
The game is flatout fucking gorgeous. No amount of "bu bu but it has no AA" or "it's only 720p" comments are going to change that. All of my friends who all have the new current gen systems or myself think this game is impressive.

60, with the occasional skipped frame.
 
Having the sharpness and contrast too high definitely accentuates jaggies.

It's weird to me that out of all the jaggy-as-hell AAA games out there, MK8 is getting singled out. GTA V and TLOU are much worse on the jaggies front.

(To be fair, I've only played for about 30 min, so maybe it'll be more apparent as I play more.)

I wasn't talking about GTA v or TLOU but now that I am I'd say tlou remastered looks jaggy free on my 42 inch penny plasma and my huge as shit benq w1070 projected image and I'm sure GTA V will be jaggy free on my PC with said displays.

I don't remember how jaggy those games were on ps3 however. I beat them both but the fps was bad enough that the jaggies didn't really mean shit.

Before I get shat on the jaggies don't ruin MK8 or distract at all from the dope ass gameplay. It's fun. It's just that I found that comment about calibration hilarious is all.
 

Toparaman

Banned
Maybe because GTA and TLOU have more geometric forms and details.
You risk to see them more often. I think.

This too. You see this phenomenon most prominently when comparing Wind Waker to TP or SS (all at non-emulated 480p, of course). I also observed this when playing the MGS HD collection. Jaggies are less apparent when there's less details to mangle.
 

fred

Member
Whilst these gifs are very impressive, only webm thingies do the game any justice.

I'd say that Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World and Infamous Second Son are the three best looking games released so far this generation.
 
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