A long time ago, I was in Best Buy and I saw the jet ski level from Crash Bandicoot 3 running on the PS1 demo. I didn't even care about that series but seeing the game running stopped me dead in my tracks. I wasn't leaving the store without it.

That's what I think it when I think of a "graphical showcase". Not resolution, draw distance, of frames per second. If somebody walked into a store and saw a game running on a Wii U demo, what game would make them say. " Holy crap that looks good!"

For me, I own a lot of great WiiU titles and I think Super Mario 3D World is the only one that can do that (Maybe Captain Toad.... but it's Toad and not Mario). The game may not be a technical marvel but it's looks so clean, so pretty, so colorful, and there's so much going on. It will look good ten years from now when the latest and greatest starts to look dated.

I've gotta gove that to either MK8 or Captain Toad. XCX is probably the most technically impresdive title on the system, but it isn't really a graphical showcase, even at 30 fps.

Image quality is certainly a key element, but its still one aspect among many. Textures, framerate, lighting, shading, effects, all have their parts to play as well. For example, Star Wars Battlefront is 900p on PS4 and 720p on Xbox One, but I'd still call it on of the prettiest games on either console.

If you're gaming on a projector blown up to 92" I can understand that image quality becomes a much more pressing concern.

However, I think most Wii U gamers, like myself, will be playing on a TV substantially smaller than 92 inches. On my 42" LED, Fast Racing Neo's image quality is acceptable, if sub-optimal, and doesn't spoil its gorgeous lighting, textures, etc.

I finished the subsonic cup with all gold finally. It's addictive although not all that visually appealing. Even the tiny screenshots miiverse takes look rough.

The rain track is my favorite so far

Still looks a bit rough but the effects hide it well in motion.


What gorgeous textures?


Hard to see the track while boosting

This does not look good imo


Considering you spend more than half the time boosting in time attack, it's an ugly game,



The neon lighting is nice at least.

Btw taking screenshots on the wiiU while playing this is comedy gold. Pounding racing music, then elevator muzak loading miiverse and back to pounding tunes lol.

The resolution is a little low, but the game looks fantastic, I'll agree.

Hard as nails, once you get past the subsonic class, though. 

The vast majority of textures in the game are very high resolution. If you close enough, you can find weak textures even in PS4 games, on things you rush passed at high speed in normal gameplay.

Singled out screenshots, particularly with Miiverse's 480p limit, don't do the game's beauty justice in my opinion, nor would being projected so big. A lot of the artefacts visible in a screengrab aren't really noticeable when the frame is only on screen for 1/60th of a second. And 92" inch projection would make almost any Wii U game look muddy.

Image quality is certainly sub-optimal, but that's the price of pushing effects usually seen in PS4/Xbox One games in a Wii U title at 60fps. In technological terms, nothing else on Wii U can boast the graphical checklist that FRN can.

Sure, but that's what it is. A graphical checklist. Games that skimp on a stable framerate for a graphical checklist rightly get called out for it. I don't think FRN should get a pass cause it looks passable from a certain distance. Too much focus put on effects.

I think it's fair to assume that most Wii U gamers will be playing on a television, and personally speaking, on my 42" LED, FRN doesn't look passable, it looks fantastic. Honestly, I don't think I'd want a higher resolution if it meant sacrificing framerate or effects.

If I had to show one thing to someone to showcase Wii U's graphical capability to them, it would probably be Cevo Canyon or Storm Coast from FRN.

Kinda surprised more people didn't go for Fast Racing NEO. It looks absolutely incredible. Better than most PS4 games.
I guess maybe not everyone's played it yet though?

Inconsistent frame rates damage Bayonetta 2. Otherwise it would win easily. I find the fluctuations too noticeable. Mario Karts great. Xenoblade X has stunning environment but is very patchy in other areas. A shame because where it really impresses it's truly stunning.

IMO the best overall is Captain Toad. It had all the slick graphics of SM3DW but improved lighting, had cuter main character animations and a pace of gameplay that lets you really look at how pretty it is - unlike SM3DW where you rush through levels to fast to notice the pretty sights. I feel this is probably why I don't feel it was the ideal graphical style for SM3DW because, although it looked very slick, it looked relatively soulless, but an almost identical graphical style worked brilliantly and seems full of character in Captain Toad.