Why are the graphics in Mario Kart Wii so bad?

[Atomheart]

EXACTLY. When games are developed, the first thing they focus on is gameplay. Adjusting the difficulty, designing the levels, working out bugs etc...
Then, when all of that is taken care of, they use ALL of their remaining time polishing the game up the best that they can before it has to go into physical production.

That's why, as CrowTRobot said, Metroid looked significantly better in the end than it did upon first being revealed. Though I bet the gameplay was virtually identical. They put the luxury changes at the end of production because they're less important.
MarioKart will look great, I assure you. Especially since it's a first party Nintendo game, and what was the last BAD-LOOKING one of those?!
Super Mario Galaxy had beautiful graphics, this surely will too.
Besides, those screen shots don't even look that bad, they look like they were taken from a low-resolution tv or something, you can definitely see some evidence of it being a poor display rather than the in-game graphics themselves.
It's gonna be awesome, just wait.

The difference here is that MKWii is less than 2 months away, barring no delays. That means that the game should pretty much be finished or at least in the very final stages.

[Ads]

[T3kNi9e]

Actually, the graphics in those screenshots aren't that bad. I'd say those are even acceptable (although no where near the potential of the Wii). Those are no doubt high def graphics (or as best as the Wii can do). I've seen some screenshots that depict pretty terrible graphics, such as that one in the Mario Kart Battle thread.




Still, why can't we have BOTH great graphics AND great gameplay. 360 owners get it...

Thats kind of stupid seeing as the Wii is not the 360. You know why 360 gets both? Because 360 owners dished out more money for their console. You can't expect the cheapest console to stay up to par with the others in terms of graphics.

The visual actually doesn't look that bad, the screenshots shows its flaws, but they're not noticable when you see video footage. They're better than double dash but not by much.

[Sovieto]

Thats kind of stupid seeing as the Wii is not the 360. You know why 360 gets both? Because 360 owners dished out more money for their console. You can't expect the cheapest console to stay up to par with the others in terms of graphics.

The visual actually doesn't look that bad, the screenshots shows its flaws, but they're not noticable when you see video footage. They're better than double dash but not by much.

well when you buy the wii youre suppose to be sacrificing graphics and "old school" gameplay for the wii remote. sell it if you dont feel it was worth it. (post directed towards atomheart)

[shrimpy20]

Many games do look a bit crappy in screenshots or videos before they're released. This happened in Metroid 3, and that has got to be the best looking game on the Wii except from Mario Galaxy which looks awesome.

[wezeles]

Still, why can't we have BOTH great graphics AND great gameplay. 360 owners get it...

Not sure how your figuring that.

Thats kind of stupid seeing as the Wii is not the 360. You know why 360 gets both? Because 360 owners dished out more money for their console.

And I thought your fanboy comments were pretty much behind you untill this..lol

Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems, especially formal games. Generally, the term gameplay in video game terminology is used to describe the overall experience of playing the game excluding factors like graphics and sound.

How are you getting any better gameplay with the 360?

The controller is next to identical to the previous version, and almost ever "hit" game has been a sequal to an older game, most with the exact same controls. Almost all the actual New games haven't strayed far enough away from the same thing you expect with xbox to even call them unique games, or to claim they have unique gameplay.
There has been zero advancment or improvement on gameplay they don't even have there own unique peripherals yet. You get nothing more for the price but improved graphics.

PS3 atleast dabbled in the idea with improved gameplay. They added in motion sensing controller at the last second. Still pretty much identical to the first controller they made 13 yeats ago. Atleast they have the new eye toy comming soon, but thats also just an improvment on a old idea, but atleast it looks to be a pretty big improvement.

Nintendo has never had the same controller configuration with any of there 5 consoles over 25 years!
Keep on pushing the same buttons and loving it, but don't try claiming any of the current consoles are even close to Nintendo when it comes to the concept of gameplay, it's nothing more than fanboy opinion.

[Milton.S]

Look fine to me
Never really been too bothered about graphics. Not like alot of other people i know. Gameplay is always my priority and i think MKWii will guarentee bundles of fun

[AoWFraggit]

i honestly don't see what's so great about galaxy or metroid's visuals. sure, they've both got colorful environments and depth, but they really don't look much better than a well-developed gamecube game.

then again, it might be because of my tv from the mesozoic era

[zapasant]

so what if the graphics arent great?

the emphasis of a mario game is FUN

[AoWFraggit]

sequels aren't supposed to have worse graphics than their predecessors...

[zapasant]

they arent worse graphics, just not that much better