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[FLAguy954]

First of all I'm going to get this out of the way by saying I'm fully aware that the game's image quality is reduced by lack of geometry, muddy ground textures, and a lack of AA. However, I've recently spent some time in the Pikmin 3 OT and my god, Pikmin 3 looks fucking amazing. I pretty much created this thread to give Nintendo their props for giving so much polish to a game that began development on the Wii. And also to show off some screens that impressed me in particular (warning, many screens incoming):

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

still looks like the Gamecube games









j/k

Spoiler

I'm seriously considering buying a Wii U right now..

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

I've been shitting on Nintendo a lot recently, but I do have to hand it to them: They can make a damn good looking game even on horribly underpowered hardware.

 

[MikeXXIeaf]

The game looks like beautiful art. I love it.

 

[Joohanh]

Wow, it really does look surprisingly amazing.

 

[ColdBlooder]

I've been shitting on Nintendo a lot recently, but I do have to hand it to them: They can make a damn good looking game even on horribly underpowered hardware.

Or maybe the hardware isn't as underpowered as people think?

 

[Courage]

woah

 

[MrT-Tar]

Pikmin 3 was one of those games that looked better every time a new lot of screenshots was revealed. It started looking off like a Wii 1.5 game; yet ended up looking absolutely fantastic, especially given the graphical constraints of it's platform.

 

[Kimawolf]

Yeah Nintendo did good with Pikmin 3. It's not a bad looking game at all and Wii U owners should definitely be happy that lil black (or white) box has a lil bit of umph to it.

 

[Darryl]

those fruit look delicious

 

[OminoMichelin]

Like I said in the other thread, the odd way this game looks is more due to unoptimization than hardware limitations. I'm sure a pikmin 4 would look a lot better

 

[Akuun]

Wow. That looks great.

 

[bud]

in the end, it's the overall image quality and art direction that matters.

for example, super mario galaxy still more visually appealing than, say, killzone 3 or titanfall or watch dogs etc.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Ooooh.

OOOOOOOHHHH!!!!

:O

 

[ColdBlooder]

Like I said in the other thread, the odd way this game looks is more due to unoptimization than hardware limitations. I'm sure a pikmin 4 would look a lot better

I think you are right. Instead of making it from the ground up for Wii U, they propably just used the Wii engine and boosted the old engine to the max to get out of it what they could. A proper "Wii U Pikmin" would propably look alot better. I mean look at MK8... Thats a ground up Wii U game!

 

[SuperSah]

Ooooh.

OOOOOOOHHHH!!!!

:O

Top photo doesn't look like anything special, but man that second one's pretty as hell.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Again:

How is it that those rocks look so next-gen, but such as ground textures are low-res? And I see hints of the bird demo (remember the rocks with the water running on them?).

 

[Regulus Tera]

4.5 gbs (?)

 

[rschauby]

PS360 games looked like this within a few months of launch... right?

 

[JohnnyWestlake]

It frustrates me because playing Pikmin 3 I feel like I'm playing a game with so-so realistic textures and not much else. Effects are pretty basic, and even things like transparency on enemies is running at a lower resolution than the game which looks horrible. It doesn't look as polished I usually expect first party Nintendo titles to look like. Nintendo have quite a ways to go with their HD engines, that's for sure.

And there's no giving them a pass on the texture quality here either - this is a machine with double the available RAM of an Xbox 360 or a PS3, with confined play worlds with relatively little going on in them. The more stylised textures look okay, but the realistic ones like the flat grass and dirt just grate.

 

[anchorman128]

Or maybe the hardware isn't as underpowered as people think?

They are working with 1GB of usable ram for games, a 3 Core CPU with large caches, and a GPU with a small number of shaders but likely largely customized. So yes, compared to the PC and next gen standards, it is under powered. Nintendo does wonders with what they are able to squeeze out of their console.

 

[Ricerocket]

Are there no native res shots? All seem to be 800x450

 

[I am Michael Bolton]

PS360 games looked like this within a few months of launch... right?

do you REALLY want to go there?

 

[kinggroin]

This game would look god-tier if it started on Wii U.


Alas, pretty good, will have to suffice.

 

[Courage]

PS360 games looked like this within a few months of launch... right?

You do know it's more than just raw power right? The art direction is also beautiful.

 

[Darkroronoa]

These are really impressing screens,so beautiful.Wii U pushes some pretty impressing graphics but the grounds textures really look kinda bad.

 

[RPGamer92]

Wowsers, that does look really good.

 

[zroid]

damn you for making this thread

I can't take the wait any longer! D:

 

[netBuff]

Or maybe the hardware isn't as underpowered as people think?

These screenshots pretty much tell us that the Wii U is, in fact, underpowered: Low-poly geometry and terrible textures are apparent. Pikmin seems great despite its graphics, not because of.

 

[Dennis]

Is this a cutscene or in-game?

 

[diaspora]

These screenshots pretty much tell us that the Wii U is, in fact, underpowered: Low-poly geometry and terrible textures are apparent.

It's almost looks like it started off as a Wii game or something.

 

[Portugeezer]

I'm not impressed.

 

[ColdBlooder]

Are there no native res shots? All seem to be 800x450

No, those are Miiverse shots. Miiverse downscales images when you post them (And compresses them very high). Natuve res is 720p.

 

[dimb]

On top of the visual inadequacies already pointed out in the OP the lighting and effects seem wildly inconsistent.

 

[Darryl]

Again:

How is it that those rocks look so next-gen, but such as ground textures are low-res? And I see hints of the bird demo (remember the rocks with the water running on them?).

could be an artistic choice to reduce businessness in travel-able pathways so you can focus on the action there, and instead they put extra time working on the side foliage and obstacles to bring up the overall look of the game

 

[LordGouda]

Pikmin 3 has an amazing art style. Plus, Nintendo is somehow always amazing me with their water effects.

 

[shakin_haitian]

Again:

How is it that those rocks look so next-gen, but such as ground textures are low-res? And I see hints of the bird demo (remember the rocks with the water running on them?).

You play the game in an overhead position.

 

[Oersted]

These screenshots pretty much tell us that the Wii U is, in fact, underpowered: Low-poly geometry and terrible textures are apparent. Pikmin seems great despite its graphics, not because of.

The game started as Wii game and especially the textures are showing, obviously.

Man, the hyperbole already reached a critical point.

 

[netBuff]

could be an artistic choice to reduce businessness in travel-able pathways so you can focus on the action there, and instead they put extra time working on the side foliage and obstacles to bring up the overall look of the game

Considering the very visible geometry underlying the (not all that impressive) rock textures, it seems more like someone didn't look very closely before designating something as "next gen".

 

[Deleted member 125677]

Is this a cutscene or in-game?

cutscene, but most of the photos in OP are in-game

 

[Anth0ny]

Looks pretty good

why do we in North America have to wait so damn long

 

[I NEED SCISSORS]

Nintendo have become masters of natural looking lighting and tasteful use of effects like depth of field and motion blur. There is always one niggling blemish though, like the over-used bloom in Wind Waker HD. The only thing that is letting Pikmin 3 down in this instance is some low-res ground textures. For a while I had wanted them to go with a claymation art style too, but I think i've reversed my opinion after seeing how juicy the final game looks in its own style.

 

[FairXchange]

I'm all over this game.

 

[astroturfing]

looks very nice, and unique. this is a case of not even having to ponder whether it's technically impressive or whatever, it just looks beautiful and coherent. i think i need to see this in motion.

 

[ColdBlooder]

cutscene, but most of the photos in OP are in-game

But its rendered with the ingame engine. Except for the opening, there is no cutscene video. (Unless there is one in the end. Haven't beaten it yet)

 

[-MB-]

Considering the very visible geometry underlying the (not all that impressive) rock textures, it seems more like someone didn't look very closely before designating something as "next gen".

Trying way too hard...

 

[Hero of Legend]

You play the game in an overhead position.

This is true, and when playing the EBGames demo, they looked just fine from above.

 

[King Allant]

look nice.

 

[EhoaVash]

It looks amazing, but just imagine if this game didn't start out on wii

will there be a pikmin 4 for wii u....I'm not sure...if this is early wii u visuals, just imagine what they can do later in it's life o_o

 

[netBuff]

Trying way too hard...

Pikmin 3 seems like a great stand-out game I'm most definitely going to play in the next few weeks, but a graphical showcase it is not. And I can enjoy my Wii U even thinking it is underpowered and unimpressive hardware