Super Mario Odyssey looks worse than both 3D World / Galaxy, am I right?

[SleepSmasher]

EDIT - poll added

I mean, we went from this:

To this:

Now, you may say I'm cherry picking screenshots here (and the first 2 are actually running on Dolphin at a higher resolution), but still, there's something with Odyssey that just... bothers me. It feels like Nintendo was too close to some kind of uncanny valley for Mario that just doesn't fit the character that well. Things like overdone cloth and cap details (not as bad but close to his model in SSB, horribly overdone and just plain ugly), his nose animation being too "bouncy", bland or muddy / non-contrasty environments (save for the Luncheon and perhaps Sand Kingdoms), list goes on.

I seriously believe 3D World / Captain Toad style to be peak Mario graphics. If Nintendo could just add to that style by improving lighting and ambient occlusion, we would have the perfect Pixar-style Mario game. Opinions?

 

[808s & Villainy]

No, I'd say you're objectively wrong and the only area in Odyssey that looks slightly worse is the forest area's grass

 

[fluffydelusions]

Nah

 

[Mekanos]

I think the grass textures in Odyssey are pretty ass but that Sand Kingdom picture looks fine to me?

 

[mopinks]

strong disagree

 

[Datajoy]

Breaking out of the traditional "Mario aesthetic" was the best thing that Odyssey could do. The series was stuck in a major rut in terms of visual design. And yes, I feel like to you did cherry pick the Odyssey screenshots to fit your argument a bit.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

Sorry OP, I aint feeling this post. Odyssey is a fucking great looking game! Remember Jump Up Superstar? Was damn beautiful

 

[EJS]

The last Odyssey shot looks better than any of the other photos, to me.

 

[Pirateluigi]

Odyssey is a great looking game. So, no. Can't agree with you

 

[leng jai]

Image quality makes a huge difference to Nintendo's art styles, that's why it's stupid when people say their games don't need higher resolution or anti aliasing.

 

[NippleViking]

Nagh. And I might be wrong, but aren't those Galaxy shots up-rezed from Dolphin?

Edit: Yeah, those Galaxy screens are 4k. The originals on Wii were 480p lol.

 

[Ithil]

That is most certainly not what SMG looked like on the Wii.

 

[Metal Gear Miyamoto]

No

 

[robot]

I mean, yeah the grass texture looks bad but so does the one from World. I think your second two Odyssey examples look great. I think the overall design of Galaxy is still great but it doesn't have the lighting or particle effects that give Odyssey wonderful little details.

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

Nagh. And I might be wrong, but aren't those Galaxy shots up-rezed from Dolphin?

Click to shrink...

That's where my mind went too.

 

[Watchtower]

Look, if you like 3D Land/World and Galaxy 1/2 more that's fine, but.....no. Absolutely 100% false.

 

[Polioliolio]

I'm not the biggest Odyssey fan, but while less colorful, it still looks good generally.

 

[SleepSmasher]

Image quality makes a huge difference to Nintendo's art styles, that's why it's stupid when people say their games don't need higher resolution or anti aliasing.

Click to shrink...

Exactly. Would love to have Odyssey running at higher resolutions to see if I would change my mind.

That is most certainly not what SMG looked like on the Wii.

Click to shrink...

It definitely looks like this now, on PC :D

 

[metalslimer]

Huh...some of the later levels blow 3d world out of the water. I do like Galaxys toy like style though

 

[DeathbyVolcano]

Lol absolutely not. If you wanna argue art styles, maybe, but hell no with regards to fidelity.

 

[SmittyWerbenManJensen]

Not even remotely close. At all.

It's bigger and looks better.

Galaxy 2 and 3D World are gorgeous games, too, though

 

[piratethingy]

1. Definitely not.
2. Those screenshots for Mario 3D World look amazing, I wish the game looked like that.

 

[Anth0ny]

In fact

you're wrong

 

[Alooful]

I played 3D World for the first time in years yesterday. It looks (and plays) worse than Odyssey to me.

The only thing 3D World has on Odyssey is difficulty and music

 

[zroid]

why does everything have to be a competition

 

[GuessMyUserName]

Now, you may say I'm cherry picking screenshots here

Click to shrink...

I will, yes

 

[Metal Gear Miyamoto]

The 3D World style was such an ugly style. Yuck. I remember when that game got its reveal and you could just feel the excitement deflate from how boring, safe and uninteresting it looked.

 

[GranddadFreeman]

I'm gonna redo all the art assets of the original Super Mario Brothers and make a post like this

 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Big miss from OP.

 

[DeliciousSunnyD!]

I agree that the Galaxy games and 3D World had far stronger, more appealing art direction. Odyssey may use some rendering techniques that are "superior" to those two games, but its overall art style/direction is worse.

 

[808s & Villainy]

This looked better than anything in Galaxy or 3D World even came close to looking like

 

[LordOcidax]

Lololol.... NOP.

 

[Kubricks]

I get that you prefer the 3D World and Galaxy's aesthetics. I do in some particular area too, but saying Odyssey looks worse is just... wrong?

 

[newmoneytrash]

sorry OP

 

[Gold Arsene]

 

[WestEgg]

Mario's animations in Odyssey are the best they've ever been. It doesn't quite pop the way visually that Galaxy and 3D World in terms of color, but that seems intentional to help drive the strange new lands thing it's going for.

 

[mopinks]

This looked better than anything in Galaxy or 3D World even came close to looking like

Click to shrink...

yeah, it's like night and day between 3D World's japanese castle stages and this majestic business

 

[Starphanluke]

I agree. I far prefer the art direction of the Galaxy games and 3D world. Outside of New Donk City, I find Odyssey to be very bland.

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

I think you would've been better off saying you preferred the Art Direction of those game.

 

[hanshotfirst]

I can see what you're saying. Seems like a difference in the art style to me and its something I noticed when Odyssey came out. Specifically, the more "realistic" areas don't look as good as art heavy ones.

To be honest though, there is something that's very nostalgic to me with the realistic areas. It reminds me of early 2000's graphic and I mean that in a good way!

 

[Vandova]

Yeah I'm not seeing it.

 

[Cipher Peon]

I completely agree.

I loved Odyssey's movement mechanics but I had no interest in exploring the worlds because they were so ugly.

 

[Deleted member 58368]

The images you provided literally prove the opposite point lol, those Odyssey pics look way better than the 3D World pics (except for the grass textures, which are bad in both) and using the 4k emulator screens from Galaxy instead of the 480p Wii ones is just cheating. :P

 

[SleepSmasher]

This looked better than anything in Galaxy or 3D World even came close to looking like

Click to shrink...

This level was indeed very impressive, completely forgot about it.

 

[Lobster Roll]

Not even close. Odyssey looks miles better.

 

[leng jai]

I can see what you're saying. Seems like a difference in the art style to me and its something I noticed when Odyssey came out. Specifically, the more "realistic" areas don't look as good as art heavy ones.

To be honest though, there is something that's very nostalgic to me with the realistic areas. It reminds me of early 2000's graphic and I mean that in a good way!

Click to shrink...

Everyone seemed to love New Donk City while I thought it was the ugliest level in the game.

 

[PedroRVD]

Odyssey is an open world Mario. Much bigger areas so they had to divide resources in much wider spaces and show a lot more objects at once.

Galaxy happens in very small areas ...Im sure they did the "Galaxy" and "planets" concept as an excuse to make very small worlds and small areas to cover Wii's weaknesses. They did the same with Zelda Skyward Sword and the small areas on the sky concept (hated that).

3D World is a completely different game. Not comparable at all. Camera is semi fixed and you don't have that much freedom to explore. So very few objects are loaded on screen. It's an amazing game though.

 

[Parthenios]

I've never had a technical eye for graphics so I largely go on aesthetics and style and atmosphere.

So that said, I too always thought Odyssey was the worst looking 3D Mario platformer. I'm sure it's technically fine, and I assume some of this is due to the open world nature of the game.

 

[silva1991]

Odyssey is better graphically, but one can argue they prefer 3D world artstyle.

 

[Odrion]

post a poll you coward