Topic: Is there anything wrong with Nintendo using mostly a cartoony style?

It's no secret Nintendo mostly uses an art style that resembles animation (Western Cartoons and Anime). However, some people have a problem with this and would like Nintendo to make something more inline with the realistic looking graphics seen on Sony and Microsoft platforms, that have become an industry standard.

A likely argument by some would be because it adds diversity. However, I don't buy this. There are a wide variety of cartoony art styles to use like a saturday morning cartoon, shonen manga, shojo manga, western comic books, general anime, surreal style, storybook style, painting style, or even stick figures. Nintendo games use a wide and diverse variety of art styles, while still sticking a central animated feel. You can be diverse, while still being cartoony.

I've always preferred an interesting stylized art direction over attempts at photorealism. I think it ages better as well.

Not to say that cartoon/anime art automatically means interesting. One of the worst looking HD games of last generation was Star Ocean 4 with its plastic-looking generic 3D anime models. Looks like they were designed by someone who just finished all the exercises in a "how to draw anime" book. Other games though like Valkyria Chronicles with its "animated canvas" style or Fire Emblem 9 and 10's digitally coloured pencil sketches still look great.

I think Infamous: Second Son is one of the best looking games of the generation so far though. Sometimes realism works very well. SS makes great use of colours, particles, lighting, etc. Beautiful game.

no

Chasing realism wouldn't bring diversity- quite the opposite. It would actually kill off the last remaining diversity left in the industry.

Nintendo now has their own approach to realistic graphics for some of the Wii U titles. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is using clay. Yoshi's Woolly World uses yarn.

No, there is nothing wrong with their own style. They don't need to follow others just to gain market share. As long as they are profitable with their niche, who cares if they don't sell as much as the Sony's and Microsoft's of the world?

My thoughts in a nutshell.

You want "realism" play bayonetta or Zombie U. Nintendo is well known for their "cartoony" style and frankly I love it.

No, going for realism can sometimes limit creativity and imagination. It would also make Nintendo look like a water down clone of its competitors.Doing both would be great, but Nintendo has built an identity on art style.

It's the main reason I'm with Nintendo, all I see in the other systems are thrird/first person shooters with blood and gore and people saying the F-word ten bazillion times. lol

I agree with every word.

If Nintendo develops a game that would greatly benefit from a realistic artstyle, then I've got nothing against it. So far there's nothing in the pipeline, but in the past they had things like the cancelled Project Hammer, in which a too cartoony style would just look odd. Ninty could surely pull a realistic game off. After all, even on Wii U, game's like Watch_Dogs already look quite stunning.

Define "wrong". Wrong from a sales perspective or wrong from a quality perspective? Because it's right for quality but wrong for sales.

Personally speaking, I prefer animation to live action, as I prefer the greater ability to craft your own unique visual style (with greater variation than with live action).

But from a business perspective, that's not the majority opinion. A lot of people consider live action to be a style that is more serious and more valuable.

I think the same attitude bleeds over into games.

As an aspiring animator and avid fan of animation, It annoys me greatly how a good chunk of the gaming community shoves animation or anything cartoony into the "kids only" box. I understand the gaming industry wants to be respected among the likes of Hollywood, but I feel they're going about it all wrong.

I'm actually taking a course on animation right now, and I think I'm starting to understand the origins of that. Originally, animation wasn't really used to tell a story as much as it was used for the novelty of moving art. Eventually the idea came about that you had to have as much insane action as possible to entertain the audience. I think this kind of set animation on a path such that it was more associated with children, a group that can be more consistently entertained with visual gags. Actually, it may go all the way back, as early animation in the west grew from comic strips and "trick films", all built around the idea of visual gags. Alternatively, I believe animation's origins in Japan came from theater.

If you ask me, I think gaming's obsession with realism is two fold. One comes from the humble pixelated beginnings, which I think spurred people's interest in something "more realistic". That interest just stuck around. I think the other reason games drive for realism is simply inherited from the western film/TV world. That's why you see a lot of cartoon-esque Japanese games that aren't designed for kids, because the development of animation in Japan didn't create a strong association with kids.

Though it is definitely sad. I think a lot of creators don't understand that being realistic=/=looking realistic. There is a reason I believe the relationship between John Stewart and Shayera Hol on Justice League more than I believe the relationship between Oliver and Felicity on Arrow. Or why I can relate to an anthropomorphic toy like Woody more than I can to Anakin Skywalker. The former are just better constructed.

Most games from Nintendo lend themselves well to the colorful artstyles. The only game I'm ever unsure about is Zelda, but that's mostly because I know other people will complain, especially when Nintendo teases a realistic demo video. I find the more stylized Zelda games have more memorable and expressive characters, which is right up my alley.

Only the metroid series really feels like it could benefit from more realism, but that's just because it really shines when it starts adding horror elements to the setting.

Actually, I heard the animation age ghetto exists in Japan to an extent. And plus, I feel Nintendo (being a japanese company) doesn't strictly target kids, rather just anyone who likes video games. Nintendo just makes what they think is fun, and society deems their idea as childish, or "for kids".

I will prefer cartoony or stylized art styles over realistic until someone can make a game that looks as good as real life. Who knows when, or if, that could actually happen.

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