This is a topic that has been nagging me more and more recently after having several conversations with Nintendo fans about MK8.

In the past art direction was the most important thing to Nintendo fans, and that was something i appreciated. Had i said i thought MK7 was nicer to look at than GT5 because of it's great art direction (a real opinion of mine), many Nintendo fans would have been quick to agree with me. Yet things seem to have changed with MK8.

I've never had anything but praise for MK8's art direction. Despite it's lack of graphical fidelity i believe it's one of the best looking 8th gen titles we've seen, thanks to Nintendo excellent artistic skills. In the past that statement would have been welcome, yet suddenly i seem to be being attacked for it :/ So here i'm going to try and explain what exactly i mean when i call MK8 a graphical disappointment.

I say it based on two criteria. The first is what the WiiU is capable off, the second is comparing it to the competition.

First comes the comparison to the competition. If i look at MK8 and Driveclub, i don't believe either looks better than the other. They are both beautiful looking games, but for different reasons. Before i go further i should note that this is a GRAPHICAL comparison, not a PERFORMANCE comparison. If you want to have a 60fps vs 30fps argument, have it somewhere else.

To really judge a game graphically you have to take an up close look, so here are two close ups of the karts/cars of DC and MK8. When we do that with something like DC, we see cars with huge poly gon counts, excellent use of AA and some top level textures (what i would describe as graphically impressive). Then we turn to MK8 and see very low res textures (especially on the floor), awful AA, and visible polygon counts (the exact opposite of graphically impressive).

None of this would have mattered to most Nintendo fans in the past, as long as the game looked good for other reaons, which it does.

Back when it was thought MK8 was 720p/60fps i was told i was wrong for believe MK8 should be making better use of the WiiU's power (by everyone who replied to be except carl-6). Yet some of those same users fully embraced the possibility that it may in-fact be 1080p/60fps. I'm sure you can see why that's a tad hypocritical, since resource wise that would be like running the game twice over. At 1080p/60fps i can fully understand MK8's lack of graphical fidelity, because it is at leats pushing the WiiU's hardware. At 720p/60fps i was disappointed.

All in all it's been a confusing experience. I miss the days when fantastic art style was enough for all Nintendo fans, but i suppose we can't have everything :/

So discuss! What has brought about this change in many Nintendo fans?

I suppose this thread was made in response to the 1080p/60fps thread, so I'll just copy what I said there:

1. This article is one month old
2. This article published at the same day says the total opposite: " The graphics are crisp, detailed, and very dense in design, and not to mention this game runs at a rock solid 60FPS and at 720p -- which not only benefits the gameplay, but also the visuals."

So Eurogamer confirms nothing.

Not a response to that no, but i did mention it. I'm talking about the general attitude many Nintendo fans have had towards visuals recently compared to the last gen, and use the 1080p/60fps discussion as a point of reference. I was essentially saying it makes little scene for people to say i'm wrong for believing MK8 at 720p/60fps isn't utilizing enough of the WiiU, then immediately embrace that it could be 1080p/60fps.

OP doesn't claim it to be 1080p.

But whats so great about the 'art style' anyway?
I just think people use that term to avoid getting into technical details where MK would lose on every basis.

I am a PS4 guy but MK8 looks great from what I have seen. I mean come on, mario's moustache moves!

Running at 720 vs 1080 has absolutely no impact on how much I will enjoy this game. The trailers look amazing and have great detail. I will be looking out for blue shells and not at detailed texture.

Ignore everything i said, graphical power house confirmed! :P

actually most nintendofans react like : the game looks beautiful regardless of resolution
others : it aint 1080 so it sucks

This isn't a discussion of resolution. I only used the 1080p thread as a point of reference for what some Ninendo fans said in reply to me in the past, i made no mention of their opinions of the resolution itself.