Digital Foundry: Mario Kart World on Switch 2: Is This Really A Generational Leap?

Generic said:
A open world kart game sounds pointless.
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Pretend you're a kid it seems less pointless. I remember playing Mario Kart and many other Nintendo games and trying to leave the map and literally explore just to spend time in the game worlds. As we get older, we lose that time and we lose that wonder.
 
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In what reality or world is this a generational leap? It looks like mario kart which is to say it looks decent and that's about it. DF are starting to use clickbait thumbnails and video titles to drive views and it's pathetic.
 
Bert Big Balls said:
Nowhere near switch 1. Not even close.
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Gaf might be wrong on this one, there is huge pent up interest from tens of milions of nintendo fans and they all like:
CkOA.gif
 
I don't know why, but it feels a little pointless for DF to do a deep dive on a game like this. It's an exclusive, so there's no real comparison to make and... more importantly, I look at it, it looks good, and it makes me happy. But that's not really one of their metrics.
 
As good as it looks and as impressive as Switch 2's hardware clearly is, I can't shake the feeling that 8 looked better, even on Wii U. Obviously the open world aspect is going to eat into the available horsepower, and the vehicles and characters are clearly more advanced, but despite the inferior resolution, 8's tighter course layout permitted it better lighting and composition imo. It was just a really phenomenal looking game for its time.

I expected to be really blown away visually by a sequel to MK8, and it's just merely very good rather than amazing.
 
I'm very hyped for MKWorld, I put unhealty amount of time in MK8D and it was just pure joy.

Rather people think graphics are "high tech" make zero difference to me.
 
Mephisto40 said:
Mario Kart needing an open world was just as pointless as Burnout Paradise needing an open world

In Burnout Paradise's case it made the game less enjoyable, so it will probably be the case here as well
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Exactly first game I thought of when seeing "open world racing game".

Open world is not the answer. Pretty much ever.

People talk about particular tracks, because they're iconic. Open world just loses so much in translation.
 
Sebastian1295 said:
In what reality or world is this a generational leap? It looks like mario kart which is to say it looks decent and that's about it. DF are starting to use clickbait thumbnails and video titles to drive views and it's pathetic.
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they literally have a question mark in the title, because people online were discussing if it is a generational leap.

and it is btw.
the issue however is that diminishing returns hits stylised graphics styles even harder than realistic ones.

the characters for example have about 2 to 3 times more triangles from what close-up comparison shots show.
it runs at essentially twice the resolution compared to MK8.
it has twice as many racers on screen, an open world with dynamic weather changes, planar reflections on water (that's very GPU intensive, which is why most devs go for cheap and ugly Screen Space Reflections instead), and better materials.
 
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Sebastian1295 said:
In what reality or world is this a generational leap? It looks like mario kart which is to say it looks decent and that's about it. DF are starting to use clickbait thumbnails and video titles to drive views and it's pathetic.
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Its ps3pr0(og switch) to ps4pr0(switch2) jump, so generational for sure, just not 90s/early 2000s generational leap but rather recent gen generational leap.

Lets keep in mind we had this in a span of 1 console gen back in the 90s but such progress is never coming back:
playstation first tekken, launched in 1994 in arcades, 1995 on console


vs tekken 3, launched in 97 for arcades, 98 on playstation so 3 to 4 years of progress, on same console:
 
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Totally a generational leap. Mario kart 8 still looks good for it's age but only has to display visuals for individual tracks. Mario kart World is rendering a full open world area and the visuals are still night and day. Sometimes with more cartoon like visuals it's tougher to see.

 
YeulEmeralda said:
Just what the hell kind of graphics do people even want from Mario Kart?
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Certain people here will instantly dismiss a game if it doesn't have photo-realistic graphics like Hellblade 2 or TLOU2. They get more excited over the detail of a characters beard or a 2 second uber realistic animation over actual gameplay. Its fucking bizarre.
 
It's crazy how MK8 still shows more polish in some departments, and this is the same company that made that run on a Wii U at 720p/60? Not sure if I should be impressed by MK8 or World here.
 
It's much like the PS4 to PS5 upgrades we saw for a long time. It doesn't really look a generation better, but it's an obvious upgrade.

And this game, even though it doesn't look MUCH better on a surface level, clearly couldn't be done on Switch. Or if it could, it would be like 720p30.
 
Mozza said:
It's subjective opinion. World is a massive upgrade over 8. And it's not even close. Just look at the lighting.
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PS3 to PS4 leap in compute power, nothing in here is slightly trying to fulfill that. MK8 really shouldn't look comparable in any condition, this was already discussed in the graphics thread.
 
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Neff said:
As good as it looks and as impressive as Switch 2's hardware clearly is, I can't shake the feeling that 8 looked better, even on Wii U. Obviously the open world aspect is going to eat into the available horsepower, and the vehicles and characters are clearly more advanced, but despite the inferior resolution, 8's tighter course layout permitted it better lighting and composition imo. It was just a really phenomenal looking game for its time.

I expected to be really blown away visually by a sequel to MK8, and it's just merely very good rather than amazing.
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What? Not even close… I really love how MK8D looks, but in the Treehouse presentation MKW looks way better than MK8D on every aspect, even with the YT compression.
 
LordOcidax said:
What? Not even close… I really love how MK8D looks, but in the Treehouse presentation MKW looks way better than MK8D on every aspect, even with the YT compression.
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Mario Kart World will look insane running at 4K on an OLED telly. Why we are even debating this is the mystery.
 
Mozza said:
Mario Kart World will look insane running at 4K on an OLED telly. Why we are even debating this is the mystery.
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They're literally coping at this point lol


If they retain switch scope with better graphics to focus on gameplay I'm all for it. Switch has some of the best games available regardless of their opinion.
 
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4 player splitscreen 60fps. That's what I want. For the rest, i think the game had great graphics. Nintendo is not about having the best tech, but using the tech they have to the best effect.

I don't care for the open world, but as long as we can still have normal races, I don't give a damn.
 
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kiphalfton said:
Exactly first game I thought of when seeing "open world racing game".

Open world is not the answer. Pretty much ever.

People talk about particular tracks, because they're iconic. Open world just loses so much in translation.
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The only racing game where I enjoyed the openness was in NFS: Most Wanted, but that had a lot to do with the cop mechanic and how you could keep getting chased after a race was over, I would really love a sequel to it. I don't see any point in open world for MKW, but I guess it'll be fun anyway.
 
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Again, open world racing is dated as far as choro-Q in PSX or road trip in ps2, as far as i know. But yeah, most might never know those games. Racing lagoon also has the somehow one of the first concept of open world racing as well.
 
PurePlatinum said:
these guys have done more to lower the overall level of discourse in the gaming community than almost any other single channel or creator.

There is nothing more boring to me than the obsessive pixel-counting that these guys do. I played SoTC at like 15 FPS on PS2 and loved every second of it. When the game is good enough, the technical details hardly matter (outside of a game being like totally broken)
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I'm so happy someone else sees it exactly as I do.
 
Danny Dudekisser said:
I don't know why, but it feels a little pointless for DF to do a deep dive on a game like this. It's an exclusive, so there's no real comparison to make and... more importantly, I look at it, it looks good, and it makes me happy. But that's not really one of their metrics.
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Just wait for switch2 launch week, those DF vids of switch2 games will be getting crazeh amount of views/likes and comments, gamers are thirsty for new stuff and even if we wont buy switch2 day one we definitely wanna find out about it and its games whole lot more :D
 
kevboard said:
they literally have a question mark in the title, because people online were discussing if it is a generational leap.

and it is btw.
the issue however is that diminishing returns hits stylised graphics styles even harder than realistic ones.

the characters for example have about 2 to 3 times more triangles from what close-up comparison shots show.
it runs at essentially twice the resolution compared to MK8.
it has twice as many racers on screen, an open world with dynamic weather changes, planar reflections on water (that's very GPU intensive, which is why most devs go for cheap and ugly Screen Space Reflections instead), and better materials.
Click to expand...

It's a generational leap for nintendo fans but not a generational leap overall.
 
PeteBull said:
Its ps3pr0(og switch) to ps4pr0(switch2) jump, so generational for sure, just not 90s/early 2000s generational leap but rather recent gen generational leap.

Lets keep in mind we had this in a span of 1 console gen back in the 90s but such progress is never coming back:
playstation first tekken, launched in 1994 in arcades, 1995 on console


vs tekken 3, launched in 97 for arcades, 98 on playstation so 3 to 4 years of progress, on same console:
Click to expand...


I just see it as generational if ur a nintendo fan but it's not generational overall. Btw i do appreciate the good effort post and it was well worded and a good read.
 
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kevboard said:
what does that even mean?
it's a game that would be not possible to run at a decent quality on the last system... that's the only generational leap definition needed.
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Btw i also appreciated the good effort post you made and you have a habit of making them which i do like tbh so ty for that seriously man. And i just mean it's not generational when compared to the ps5 and series X. When i think of generational i think of the overall picture but yes if we're just counting the switch 1 than it is a generational leap agreed.
 
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