What's with the washed out look in new Nintendo games?

nkarafo

Member
One of the reasons i always liked the visuals in Nintendo IP games is the colors. Nice, contrasty, warm colors.

But in games like the new Kirby Air Ride, Mario Kart World and DK Bonanza, they are aiming for a more washed out, foggy look. Like they have increased gamma and reduced contrast at the same time.

This comparison shows exactly what i mean:

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I really dislike this new look in Nintendo games. It's like the mid 00's overused bloom all over again.
 
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I dunno, I think they look insanely vibrant on my OLED TV. Each game you mentioned.

Maybe they tone it down a bit because displays are so much better these days?

Though I will say that their HDR implementation is awful most of the time. Games definitely look way more washed out, ironically enough. I keep HDR off 99% of the time.
 
I agree. I noticed it and I have an LG OLED. They have definitely desaturated their latest games. It's like the poor motion on the handheld, I noticed it in 3 seconds but others still have no idea what to even look for.
 
You can't see the difference in the pictures i posted?
I mean, that's two examples. Even if they're the same tracks, I could easily cherry pick some inverse examples.

I think personal testimony is more important here. I play GameCube and N64 pretty regularly on a nice CRT—a $16,000 (in 2004) PVM actually—and those games look similarly vibrant and colorful as the games you mentioned when displayed on my LG OLED.

My point is that I don't think anything has changed with Nintendo's style. It's every bit as colorful and saturated as it's always been.

Some games do look like shit on the Switch 2 in portable mode, but that's mostly because that display sucks ass.
 
HDR issue with your tv?
edit
recorded videos while on hdr usually look like ass when uploaded to youtube in sdr
 
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I agree. I noticed it and I have an LG OLED. They have definitely desaturated their latest games. It's like the poor motion on the handheld, I noticed it in 3 seconds but others still have no idea what to even look for.
I noticed this in Mario Odyssey in 2017. I've always loved the colorful saturated look of Super Mario Bros 3 on SNES, Super Mario World 2 and Super Mario Sunshine. Shame.
 
It's just the modern Nintendo art style. They often use a haze to add more depth to the lighting, they also often tone back the colour saturation.

If you compare Double Dash to MK8 you'll see the same thing, Double Dash colours are way more saturated while MK8 tends to have a more muted presentation.

IMG-20251127-203813.jpg


It's all personal preference though. I think MK8 looks great.

It's not a new thing either though. I think you'll find Mario Kart, Smash Bros and 3D Mario on the Wii were all less colourful than the GameCube iterations.
 
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