You may remember that in the past we shared some videos from the MrBean35000vr YouTube channel. The hackers often use their skills to show off cool areas of games we haven't seen much of before, and were among the first to break into the Wii U.
Courtesy of Nintendo's efforts with security and updates it's a niche activity, but in this case is used to show some neat features. Some of the best videos have revolved around Mario Kart 8, and last year we shared videos that essentially gave fly-bys of some tracks, giving a whole new perspective. This is achieved by running ghost data for another track over the course in question, prompting the kart to fly around the environment.
What these videos do is show the extraordinary detail that Nintendo puts into its tracks, and the effort in creating substantial backgrounds. The latest videos showing this explore DLC tracks - we have Mute City, GBA Ribbon Road and 3DS Neo Bowser City. Mute City, in particular, is eye-catching in the detail that was poured into the wider area; you can see rivers and all sorts of features in the cityscape.
Check out the videos below and let us know what you think.
Comments (43)
The amount of detail Nintendo put in the background for Mario Kart 8 is amazing. Hats off to them.
I think more videos are coming, in the coming days, of other courses.
That's a crazily detailed environment, especially the Mute City one... and even moreso considering it's just the background, which you hardly look at nor notice much when racing, anyway. It's not surprising the DLC look a long time to arrive. Kudos to them!
This looks similar to the kid's bedroom from smash bros. 64. Look at the lamp, pencil holder, desk, and the posters on the wall. Maybe I'm looking to deep into this...
See now this is the kind of attention to detail I wish Nintendo had put into the backgrounds of Super Mario 3D World. I think it would have made all the difference in the world to those levels feeling less like simple floating obstacle courses in basically empty spaces and more like part of an actual real, living and breathing, Mushroom Kingdom (or wherever SM3DW is supposed to take place).
This is as far as we are gonna get to a New F-Zero game. SMH....again and again....
Sprixie Kingdom.
Is it too late to pass these off as the actual new Starfox?
I wished they put DLC and amiibo compatiblity in Mario kart 7
I still hope that another set of DLC for MK8 comes out. It's been almost a year since the last set and it would be cool for another set to close out the Wii U.
@Zach777 I agree. The game is already loaded with tracks but another dlc would peak my interest in the game again. I shelved it a couple of months ago and some new content would make the experience feel very fresh for me.
Very well done by Nintendo. Though, it's weird to see people so amazed when this level of detail (or much higher) has been standard in games for years now...
This was literally what everybody meant when they said Star Fox lacked the environmental detail like MK8. Just look at how detailed this game is especially with the lighting effect. If they can do this with MK8 they are more than capable of doing it to star fox!
@Mida The problem with Starfox is outputting complex action on two different screens at once - with MK8 the gamepad simply displayed a map/horn or mirrored the main screen. A large chunk of the Wii U's processing power is used on the two distinct displays.
Just noticed there's what appears to be a yarn Yoshi in the Ribbon room. Why am I so damn unobservant?
@C-Olimar That's the thing. The game is being held back by that super unnecessary gamepad screen. It's kinda cool to have that feature to make it look like you're piloting a real craft but we want a Star Fox with solid gameplay, not some gimmick. We were completely fine without that "precision aim" control scheme in previous star fox games
@Mida yeah, but if you want to play Star Fox 64 play Star Fox 64 (as most people consider it the only game with really solid gameplay). Star Fox has always had a new "gimmick" in each game since 64. Adventures was action adventure, Assault had on foot, tank and shape ship sections in a single map. Command added some strategy to to the on-rails fighting. I really don't care if the graphics become 480p, as long as the actual gameplay is good I'm good
@Zach777 If a new dlc pack comes out, I hope it is a battle arena pack.
@Monado_III Those aren't gimmicks. Those are completely new gameplay mechanics. This gamepad thing isn't a new gameplay mechanic because there is no physical change to the gameplay itself. You still fly and shoot but with gimmicky controls. Adventures had walking on foot - massive core gameplay change; Assault had mix of both - massive core gameplay change; Command had huge core gameplay change with each vehicle having different stats, rolling takes energy etc (which I actually didnt like). Zero had the walker which is a new gameplay and not a gimmick but it was released in Star Fox 2 so it doesnt really count as new gameplay anymore. I actually liked Assault best tbh because the on rails part were so good and the foot missions were also good (dont get why people hate that). Only thing I hate was the game was way too short
@Mida Those, under the definition of 'gimmick' could all be considered one.
"gimmick: a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business."
The gamepad lets you view your surroundings better, fire more accurately (gyro is easily more precise than sticks), and like you mentioned, there's the walker which also makes use of the gamepad.
Mario Kart 8 is a masterpiece of interactive art
Really like the Battle Revolution music in the first two videos.
You know what this city needs? It needs more helipads.
Kung Fu Lakito! haha
@Zach777 I agree, but it hasn't been almost a year since the last one, it's been four months I think.
"That wasn't flying, it was falling with style!"
Amazing. Now, Nintendo, how about an F-Zero GX HD?
@PrincePeach92 +1
Wow, those videos are so cool. Plus, I've never noticed before but the level of detail in the background is superb.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; Neo Bowser City is beautiful. I LOVE that we get a tiny glimpse into how different the Koopa Kingdom is.
The detail is simply astonishing....and we never see it. What other company does things like this? No-one.
@Kirk just saying...but there are entire levels in Mario bros games when there are no platforms. Even Mario Galaxy it's just little planets in space. Can't argue they could do more...but also look at how much content there is in a Mario game now. I'm still collecting stars in 3d world.
@Zach777 Don't you mean half a year?
@Donutman There obviously are levels that are basically just floating platforms in the old Mario Bros games but the point is that by the design of those old 2D games, with the background itself being another 2D layer too, you still get a sense that you are actually running through real locations that are part of the Mushroom Kingdom, which exist beyond the confines of simply the platforms you are jumping on and they're just floating obstacle courses in mostly emptiness, even, ironically, with the levels that are just a bunch of floating blocks on a single coloured background. The same is not true once you get into the kinds of graphics where it's no longer really possible to create the illusion of the world extending beyond the level with just a simple colour, or a gradient, or just a couple of little generic background objects that themselves are basically just floating on nothing. That's the difference.
Ribbion Road is the best track in Mario Kart 8! More tracks please Nintendo
Man, that play-room looks like something straight out of Toy Story. The color schemes, the lighting and subtle use of Fresnel shaders is really well done.
I remember using an Action Replay for Double Dash!! to fly around. The downside back then was you couldn't steer once you were in the air — it was forwards or a drop down to the void.
I actually wouldn't mind if future Mario Karts had this as a standard feature. Sure, if we got up close to things it might get blurry and glitched, but I can never fully appreciate the backgrounds 'til this stuff pops up. (Though the void makes me feel uneasy for some reason when it suddenly appears.)
@FLUX_CAPACITOR Not imo. I think it was genuinely just a symptom of Nintendo trying to cut a few corners where it didn't think this kind of stuff particularly mattered, and for most people it basically doesn't so I can see where Nintendo is coming from but I personally think having fully realised worlds around the main level platforms would have elevated the game to another level in terms of presentation. If the game were on either Xbox One or PS4 I believe 100% there would have been fully realised backgrounds in there.
@Mida Agreed, the GamePad does have this habit of holding back certain games, or simply adding nothing at all to the experience. The list of games significantly improved by the controller is short, unfortunately.
Splatoon also shows the level of detail in their maps.
Ribbon Road looks amazing!
@FLUX_CAPACITOR My point (and to be clear here, I made my point first) isn't about whether they intended them to be floating "dioramas" or not, of course they did, because they are. The made the levels exactly as they chose to make them. My point is that THAT was the "flaw" in their design, as I see it. It made this brand new Super Mario Bros game seem "weaker" than it should have been, imo. The world in this Super Mario 3D WORLD didn't feel fully realised. It felt "small" and less impressive as a result, and less wondrous, magical and exciting too. It didn't even feel like at "world" at all.
If you showed SM3DW most Xbox One or PS4 fans they'd just look at it and be underwhelmed by what they saw, which is basically a bunch of simple floating obstacle courses over mostly empty space for the large part, which to them might be more likely what they'd see in a second tier puzzle game or something, purely in terms of scale and epicness.
These floating courses are entirely acceptable for a simple puzzle type game, like Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker for example, but they feel "small" and largely underwhelming, even disappointing, for a fully fledged 3D Mario platformer, imo. IF HOWEVER, it had fully realised backgrounds around those very enjoyable levels, well then it could have been impressive beyond just the main gameplay and general artistry. Then a larger audience, outside of Nintendo fans, could have been impressed with it on a technical levels too, in terms of scale, grandiose, epicness. And more than that, it would have made the entire Mario "World" feel more real and wondrous, like an actual living and breathing Mushroom Kingdom. Just like is the case when you look at that remake of Ratchet & Clank, as one example of a kinda similar first party "platformer" on PS4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtG_cjz9WR0
Skimping out on presentation stuff like this to save a few bucks, dev resources and development time, by doing the bare minimum required to make these Mario levels—which is EXACTLY what I think happened here—isn't a very good excuse or defence, imo.
If you think it would look "pretty terrible" with fully realised backgrounds then, imo, you're talking utter sh*t out your *rse as a way to defend Nintendo's decision, for whatever reason. That would be like someone actually arguing that having more fully realised worlds somehow ruined games like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, or even the Ratchet & Clank example I gave. Or that having more fully realised backgrounds in the likes of Donkey Kong Country Wii U or Kirby Triple Deluxe somehow ruined those game and looked "pretty terrible". What a load of rubbish.
Or that having a more fully realised world is going to ruin this game and make it look "pretty terrible":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYUwo-D59ws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4yjUTammNk
Don't kid yourself that this type of game wouldn't have more detailed backgrounds if it were a game made for either PS4 or Xbox One. This is Nintendo's flagship property/franchise. If this were on Xbox One or PS4 it would be given a level of budget and quality that at least matches the likes of the Ratchet & Clank game I mentioned, because those guys know how to make their big games blow you away in terms of spectacle and presentation, as well as fully realising the worlds, etc.
PS. Don't say "it makes more sense because of the design of those stages", like you actually believe you know what you are talking about, because CLEARLY you don't know what makes sense in terms of the design of those levels. Where are you pulling this utter crap from? Stop drinking Nintendo's Kool-Aid and then trying to spit that same bullcrap back at me and expecting me to just lap it up too.
Christ! The same argument you just made about Super Mario 3D World's levels could be levelled at Mario Kart 8's, even more so, because the tracks are exceptionally well defined in a racing game and technically speaking, everything else is just superfluous detail and scenery BUT it DOES make the world come alive and give you sense that these track aren't just floating over mostly empty soulless nothing but are actually part of much bigger, living and breathing worlds, which adds to that sense of magic and wonder when you are playing in them, that sense of escaping into and playing in exciting new worlds, worlds like the Mushroom Kingdom, and THAT is exactly what I'm suggesting would be ideal for a fully 3D game like Super Mario 3D World too.
@FLUX_CAPACITOR I dunno . . .
I'm a perfectionist, picky, stubborn, opinionated, jaded, overly passionate, have a low tolerance for stupidity . . .
There's probably a whole lot wrong with me, and when I'm worth talking about and someone makes an article about me specifically, I'm sure people can and will discuss/debate it in great detail.
@FLUX_CAPACITOR There's no such thing as real demons.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is making excuses for their words or actions.
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