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Mario Kart 8 is beautiful.

Toparaman

Banned
I just got the game, and oh my fucking dog. This is the best-looking game I've ever played. It's like dreaming with my eyes open. My only complaint so far is that a few of the stages should have less bloom.

And to people complaining about jaggies: calibrate your display. I game on a monitor, and jaggies are way worse on the vast majority of PS3 games. It's barely noticeable in MK8.

From Mario Kart Wii to this...holy fucking shit. I can barely believe my eyes. Mario Kart isn't supposed to look this good.
 

HUELEN10

Member
It looks good, but nothing mind-blowing; there is a lot of clipping and bad color-banding issues. At the end of the day though, it looks better than most of the other entries, so enjoy it. It's all about the gameplay though, and if you think it's good, then that's great!
 

Robin64

Member
Yea, it is. There's nothing too amazing about it on a technical level, but Nintendo are masters of working with what they have and Kart 8 proves that point. Beautiful to look at. Oh yea, and all at 60fps too.
 
Our first time through most of the tracks my wife and I were slack-jawed and going 'oooooooooooh!' 'ahhhhhhhhhh' and 'woooooooooow' like kids at a fireworks show. It really is a beautiful game.
 
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 a calibrated monitor as well. You can't calibrate out jaggies really. I was pretty shocked at how jaggy it looks when I first played it, but I guess I'm used to it now.
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
Positivity is beautiful. People will come in here and try to squash your happiness, but you hold onto it good sir. YOU HOLD ONTO IT LIKE RADIANT BUTTERFLY YOU ARE.
 
I have a calibrated monitor as well. You can't calibrate out jaggies really. I was pretty shocked at how jaggy it looks when I first played it, but I guess I'm used to it now.

I think it depends on your display. The store demo I saw was pretty jaggy, but when I play at home it looks really smooth.
 

NTom64

Member
It's pretty gorgeous, yeah. The animation of the characters is amazing too (and no I'm not just talking about Luigi here).
 
My display is fully calibrated. The jaggies don't truly bother me, but the colors seem more muted than they should be? I think it's a side-effect of the lighting they decided to go with, but I always think the world should look more vibrant than it does
 

Jito

Banned
The game is indeed a looker but the jaggies are pretty noticeable and get worse on splitscreen which I play more than single player. Nintendo need to learn to use less bloom as well, we get that you've finally reached HD but don't over do it.
 

Noogy

Member
I think it looks fantastic. There's some breathtaking moments, like flying through clouds or seeing Peach's castle upside down. Some really nice design complimented by decent tech.
 
Yeah, and water is wet :p
Game is gorgeous and packs lots of fun.

My display is fully calibrated. The jaggies don't truly bother me, but the colors seem more muted than they should be? I think it's a side-effect of the lighting they decided to go with, but I always think the world should look more vibrant than it does

Have you already set your display to Limited RGB?
 

Painguy

Member
The game looks very good. Only is color banding as some other poster pointed out. It's not noticeable in most levels tho.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Playing other games and then going back to MK8 is always pretty shocking. The game really is exceptionally beautiful.
 
Nintendo art style. It's less about technical graphics settings and more about character design (mixed with the smart lighting and 60 fps).
 
It's a great game and it's wonderful to see what Nintendo can do in HD. But this is just more NintendoGAF self felating isn't it? I doesn't come off as genuine to me. Sorry, but that's how I feel.
 

Vidpixel

Member
The great art style and attention to detail that are trademarks of nearly every Nintendo product really help elevate the game's presentation.
 

geordiemp

Member
It's a great game and it's wonderful to see what Nintendo can do in HD. But this is just more NintendoGAF self felating isn't it? I doesn't come off as genuine to me. Sorry, but that's how I feel.

Well at least its different to I bought a WiiU today, tell me some games variant we get daily.

On topic although 720p it does look nice and holds 60 FPS which is very good.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
The game is beautiful indeed. And more impressive than the look are all the little details that are present everywhere, like fireworks, crowd, disco balls, wheels getting dirty, characters getting wet etc. A lot of things happen on the screen beside the racing track itself. All carefully crafted.
 

random25

Member
It's really surprising considering the MK team was always solid, but never spectacular on the graphics front.



Donkey Kong? LOL. Come on now. Admittedly, the game improved quite a bit by release time, but it's far less impressive than MK.

To be fair, DKCTF really looked amazing on its own right.

MK8 is looks so good and feels so alive. Definitely an eye candy.
 

Nibel

Member
The almost CG-look is one thing, but what I love the most is the sheer amount of details they've put into this, from various animations to specific special effects. It really is a looker, especially when you play alone @ 60 FPS.
 
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.
 

Mohonky

Member
I have a calibrated monitor as well. You can't calibrate out jaggies really. I was pretty shocked at how jaggy it looks when I first played it, but I guess I'm used to it now.
Plasma's are inherently not as sharp as an LCD and tend to be 'softer' so I guess what you are playing on can have some impact, not huge, but enough.

But as always a good art style imo is superior to whatever tech you throw can throw out. I go between PC and Wii U and dont find the transition jarring at all which I think speaks volumes about what you can do with a solid art team. Particularly at this time when PS4 and Xbone audiences are at one another and developers throats with pixel counting and parity bullshit, you can spend more time with a game and just enjoy it. Hell Wind Waker is a 10yr old game, all they did was render it in a higher res, throw in some new lighting and bam, gorgeous title.
 

Blu(e)

Member
Been playing this recently and it looks amazing. While playing, I thought it must be pretty awesome to live (Mushroom Kingdom?) there.
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
My favorite part is when starting the Mario Circuit course and you see the track moving into position. Like normally it's flat with the ground, but when it's time to race, they activate the hydraulics and move it into position like a carnival ride.
 

f@luS

More than a member.
I just got the game, and oh my fucking dog. This is the best-looking game I've ever played. It's like dreaming with my eyes open. My only complaint so far is that a few of the stages should have less bloom.

And to people complaining about jaggies: calibrate your display. I game on a monitor, and jaggies are way worse on the vast majority of PS3 games. It's barely noticeable in MK8.

From Mario Kart Wii to this...holy fucking shit. I can barely believe my eyes. Mario Kart isn't supposed to look this good.
My 65" panasonic plasma is amazingly calibrated. And MK is a jaggy fest imho. Totally ruin thé overall look
 

Mohonky

Member
It's a great game and it's wonderful to see what Nintendo can do in HD. But this is just more NintendoGAF self felating isn't it? I doesn't come off as genuine to me. Sorry, but that's how I feel.

I find its more interesting that Wii U gaf is just more 'content' with enjoying games for them being games. Nintendo isnt direct competition with Sony or MS as such, so there is no parity arguments, no pixel counting, no screaming about developers being lazy shits; game discussions are just about the games, the gameplay and discussing the visuals of a game purely from the way the art is used to overcome or work within the technological boundaries. Its not a massive shit fight of who has the latest and greatest im remdering techniques.

You can goto threads where people are so up in arms about parity, or developers being lazy for whatever reason and see users say they wont by product x becaue developer y isnt doing enough in their opinion to push their consoles technology to the limit. Its like the gameplay itself has gone to shit because 'console wars'. Or console x sold more, therefore I can enjoy the games more or something.
 
It's a great game and it's wonderful to see what Nintendo can do in HD. But this is just more NintendoGAF self felating isn't it? I doesn't come off as genuine to me. Sorry, but that's how I feel.

Isn't this sort of what these threads are always about? RE: The Last of Us threads.

Mario Kart is a stunning game. Lighting, animation, environment design and attention to detail are top notch.
 
It's a super pretty game; it's art direction is absolutely superb.
Funny thing is, it never once crossed my mind that Mario Kart, of all of Nintendo's franchises, would be the best looking game on the WiiU. And that's honestly pretty crazy to me seeing as 1st party stuff like 3D World, and Tropical Freeze look pretty fantastic from a visual perspective.
 

Toparaman

Banned
It's a great game and it's wonderful to see what Nintendo can do in HD. But this is just more NintendoGAF self felating isn't it? I doesn't come off as genuine to me. Sorry, but that's how I feel.

It's genuine. It's very rare that I'm this blown away by a game on a visual level these days. I'm shocked that Mario Kart of all things did it for me. I knew it was a great looking game, but even then I wasn't ready.

I have a calibrated monitor as well. You can't calibrate out jaggies really. I was pretty shocked at how jaggy it looks when I first played it, but I guess I'm used to it now.

Interesting. Maybe I'm wrong then. GTA V (PS3), for reference, looks very rough on my monitor, but MK8 looks fine. Wind Waker HD actually has more jaggies for me, despite being native 1080p. I think Wii U's internal upscaling might be really good. Is your Wii U set to 1080p?


Anyway, I should really go to bed, but I just had to post my reaction. I haven't had an oh-wow gaming moment like this since playing SSB Melee for the first time in 2001.
 
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