Mario Kart 8 (Wii-U)

[Mr Useful]

The year of Luigi is never over(in Luigi's mind anyway)

No Waluigi Kart? What the fuck is this shit and how can I fix it.

[jords]

No Waluigi Kart? What the fuck is this shit and how can I fix it.

I was waiting for someone to get mad that Waluigi didn't get his own title screen. lol he should of gotten one though.

 

 

Anyway the credits music is here:

 

http://youtu.be/SAkr5IlqO3I

[Doctor MK]

Haven't played any of the recent games lately, but... what's up with Rosalina's voice in the title screen video? Did she got a voice actress change or something? She sounds way different from the Galaxy series and MKWii, mostly missing those OOOH SPACE ECHO filters.

Yep, she's had two VA changes actually. She was voiced by Mercedes Rose in the Galaxy games and MKWii, Kerri Kane in MK7, and Laura Faye Smith in Super Mario 3D World and onwards (including MK8, Smash Bros, etc)

[Lady Soniko]

Can I just ask, what makes you think that's ALL of the title screens and not just a handful of them? There could be more y'know.

[Your Vest Friend]

Can I just ask, what makes you think that's ALL of the title screens and not just a handful of them? There could be more y'know.

 

Because the uploader insists that's all there is, and he seems to have played the game extensively.

[Doctor MK]

New artwork alert!

 

 

And in more scenic official desktop wallpaper form:

 

[jords]

Found a pic I like in Miiverse 

 

Bowser's coming for you.

[azoo]

The CG renders Nintendo's been making for Mario since 3D World have been such a massive step up from how they've been for years. Kart 8 just seems to be pushing that envelope. <3

[Dejimon11]

Unfortunately I hate see those pics can somebody please give me a link to them?

[TearForFear]

New artwork alert!

 

 

I never saw the rivalry and animosity between these two so visible.

 

...in fact this is the first time these two show what they think of each other...

[Blitz 'n Burst]

I mean, they regularly go out go-karting together, so who knows what the deal is between them

[Willsy]

It kind of looks like Mario is trying to give Bowser a hug.

On another note (a rather sad one at that), the graphics have been somewhat downgraded in the final product. There is apparently no anti-aliasing, and the graphics don't look as crisp as they did in press screenshots.

NOTE: These are uncompressed TV screenshots.

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=111383233&postcount=10002

I'm a bit disappointed that there's no AA, but it won't ruin the game too much for me. What's strange though is that in the press material it did gave AA.

[RosaRosaRosalina]

I never saw the rivalry and animosity between these two so visible.

...in fact this is the first time these two show what they think of each other...

Actually, it isn't really the first. Mario Kart Super Circuit predates that in terms of artwork.

They've been at this for a looooooong time.

EDIT: Turns out they've been at this even before Super Circuit! Hell, it's been going on since 1992.

It seems that Mario and Bowser are gonna be at this a lot longer than I thought. Joy.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

It kind of looks like Mario is trying to give Bowser a hug.

On another note (a rather sad one at that), the graphics have been somewhat downgraded in the final product. There is apparently no anti-aliasing, and the graphics don't look as crisp as they did in press screenshots.

NOTE: These are uncompressed TV screenshots.

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=111383233&postcount=10002

I'm a bit disappointed that there's no AA, but it won't ruin the game too much for me. What's strange though is that in the press material it did gave AA.

that looks like a demo or perhaps 4 player 

[LimeTH]

Could be an option to turn the AA off for lower resolution TVs

[Doctor MK]

All of the footage we've been seeing from people with review copies of the game has looked absolutely fine, especially when running at a steady clip, so I personally have no issues with the graphics, even if there might be slight technical differences to earlier media. It still looks pretty dang gorgeous to me.

[PSI Wind]

It kind of looks like Mario is trying to give Bowser a hug.

On another note (a rather sad one at that), the graphics have been somewhat downgraded in the final product. There is apparently no anti-aliasing, and the graphics don't look as crisp as they did in press screenshots.

NOTE: These are uncompressed TV screenshots.

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=111383233&postcount=10002

I'm a bit disappointed that there's no AA, but it won't ruin the game too much for me. What's strange though is that in the press material it did gave AA.

They look fine to me. At least it's no Watch_Dogs fiasco.

[Willsy]

Might look better in motion, or it could be that the person had it set to 1080p. The game is a native 720p, so it's a possibility that this might be the case.

[Sami]

Might look better in motion, or it could be that the person had it set to 1080p. The game is a native 720p, so it's a possibility that this might be the case.

 

Those screenshots are way too small to be 1080p. Those are 720p with no AA, for sure. There'd be no reason for the uploader to downscale to 720p, and even if he did, it'd look nearly identical to a native 720p screenshot anyway, if not slightly smoother.

 

Game still looks good, so whatever. I didn't buy a Wii U expecting to be blown away by visuals. I'll just try to ignore the aliasing.

[VO.SUPER]

Wow; if there was anymore proof to this poor game being rushed, look no further. Lack of proper battle mode maps, no anti aliasing in the final product, lackluster line up of characters. Bloody shame.

[Dantemustdie00]

Those pics look fine to me, and they look even gorgeous in motion. I never really cared for anti-aliasing stuff.

[Sami]

Wow; if there was anymore proof to this poor game being rushed, look no further. Lack of proper battle mode maps, no anti aliasing in the final product, lackluster line up of characters. Bloody shame.

 

To be fair, assuming it's running at a constant 60fps and doesn't fluctuate at all, it's still decently impressive for the lackluster hardware. Definitely way more impressed with MK8 than I am with Donkey Kong, which I found to be extremely underwhelming.

 

Those pics look fine to me, and they look even gorgeous in motion. I never really cared for anti-aliasing stuff.

 

It's not a dealbreaker but after getting used to games like inFamous it's difficult to go back. Aliasing and upscaling made The Last of Us look horrid to me. Poor image quality can potentially absolutely ruin the look of a game. 

 

Mario Kart 8 and Mario 3D World are lucky in that their art styles are both relatively low on detail and focus more on popping colors and dynamic lighting than detailed texture work. They don't suffer as much as a result. Kind of like how Wind Waker still looks great upscaled because the textures are simple enough to not need to scale too well, as opposed to the really muddy and compressed textures of Twilight Princess.

 

Oh, and if you have a 1080p TV it'll look vastly worse. I'll whip up an image comparison. 720p without AA is not good on a 1080p screen.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Ok, something about that picture feels way off, and I think I know what it is, they said it was uncompressed tv footage right? well did they say wheter they were using HDMI or the Wii standard cables? cause that doesn't look like the wii-U's normal output, or for that matter which of the 4 output settings they are using

[Sami]

Ok, something about that picture feels way off, and I think I know what it is, they said it was uncompressed tv footage right? well did they say wheter they were using HDMI or the Wii standard cables? cause that doesn't look like the wii-U's normal output, or for that matter which of the 4 output settings they are using

 

That's definitely HD. It just doesn't have any anti-aliasing. I suppose it's possible there's something weird in his setup, but I wouldn't keep my hopes up. 

 

Anyway, here's a pic so I can demonstrate what I was talking about earlier. Please make sure to view it at its native size (right click and open it in a new tab or window) to replicate what both games will look like on a 1080p display as accurately as possible, as SSMB automatically shrinks the image. 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so to note, I'm only using these particular pictures as a demonstration for the difference resolution and AA make. Not trying to bring up a debate over which game looks nicer or whatever.

 

So on the left is, obviously, Mario Kart 8. I've upscaled the native 720p image to 1080p to demonstrate roughly what it'll look like on your 1080p screen. On the right is inFamous Second Son, which runs at native 1080p and with AA. Again, not here to debate about these games. It's not a remotely fair comparison. I'm only showing what difference res and AA make by using two recent console examples.

 

As you can see, the primary benefit a boosted resolution provides is extra detail. On the right, the doubled pixel density allows us to see a lot more small details, such as the links in the chain on Delsin's hand, and the tiny patches of skin in between them. On the left, there's a lot less to be seen. As I mentioned before though, Mario Kart 8 circumvents this by using simplified textures on its characters anyway. If there was some very small cloth texture on Luigi's hat, it'd be invisible, but I don't think there's anything there anyway. That said though, the blue lines on the side of the track get extremely hard to make out at the top left of the image. A boosted res would help there.

 

Further away, in the bottom images, the difference becomes even clearer. In 720p, details like the audience, wiring on the fence, and the smaller TV screen in the background are almost completely lost. There just aren't enough pixels on screen for it to be visible. On the right, you're able to see a lot more of the smaller details. For instance, you can make out the individual leaves, the thin textures on the rock and even the thin light pole in the distance (though it's just thin enough that moving further away would probably make it invisible against the similarly colored background). 

 

The higher the resolution, the more shit you can see on screen. In Mario Kart it'd definitely help, as you'd be able to more clearly see the racers ahead of you. With a lower resolution you can't see nearly as far. It's unfortunate, but the game was 720p to begin with and that was my expectation from the beginning, so I'm not really bothered by it.

 

AA on the other hand, is a disappointment here. AA makes an enormous difference as well, largely because its primary purpose is to make the image cleaner and easier on the eyes. See how in the two Mario Kart pictures, small details like Luigi's tires and the aforementioned wiring and crowd look extremely jagged and sharp? That's a result of the downgraded AA. Without any smoothing at all, even native 1080p images have a really sharp and harsh look to them. Upscaling from 720p only makes it worse. Almost every single straight line visible like the edges of the kart, Luigi's neckline, the line separating his hat from his ear, and the edges of the track have visible pixels. AA blurs and smooths that. Contrast it with the AA'd inFamous screenshots on the right, where the top image is more or less completely smooth, and only the bottom one shows minor aliasing (jaggies) on the thinnest of lines. 

 

So yeah. That's what AA and resolution do. Like I said before, I'm not trying to show the two games in a competitive nature, but inFamous was the first console game I thought of that was native 1080p and had good AA. Hope this post helps anyone who didn't know exactly what the downgrade was or why it looks worse than before.

[azoo]

Now the only question is of what build that screenshot or two was from in MK8 that featured the lack of AA. Is it a demo? The retail copy? What is it?

 

Hoping I'm not just in denial due to loving how clean MK8 looks before launch..