Nintendo SUPER MARIO RPG REMAKE, update: "Expertly modernises a SNES classic" (Digital Foundry technical review)

[stepee]

This should be out for people on the east coast right now It’s not fair.

[Brian]

Midnight releases are dumb af

[stepee]

50 minutes ago, Brian said:

Midnight releases are dumb af

 

How about 9pm eastern 6pm pacific 

[Keyser_Soze]

3 minutes ago, stepee said:

How about 9pm eastern 6pm pacific 

 

How about 12PM eastern 9AM pacific

[Brian]

6 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

How about 9pm eastern 6pm pacific 

Sure. Any waking hour is better than midnight. 

[Derek]

Just 'finished' Mario Wonder on Tuesday, so downloading this now... but going to bed.

[BloodyHell]

First Switch game I’ve picked up in a while. It’s beautiful to see it remade, but still capturing its original charm. 
 

Man, the SNES era was special.

[stepee]

Just took a quick look but man it is even more gorgeous than I thought. It’s super crisp and vibrant.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Updated the reviews post.

 

 

[stepee]

It is funny how it seemed last year Switch was getting stretched to its limit but this year has seen a lot of more smartly designed for the system games that still look great. TOTK is probably the most like last year’s releases but still better than stuff like Scarlet/Bayo3.

[Spork3245]

https://www.newegg.com/nintendo-50-00/p/N82E16832074004?Item=N82E16832074004&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=promo&utm_campaign=EMC-ignefl111723-_-EMC-111723-Index-_-Gaming-_-N82E16832074004&ignorebbr=1&cm_mmc=EMC-ignefl111723-_-EMC-111723-Index-_-Gaming-_-N82E16832074004&ignorebbr=1&cvtc=25817416

 

$50 Nintendo Shop card for $45 (instant digital delivery) with code BFDAYWCYA757 at NewEgg. I'm glad I didn't preorder and saw this deal this morning, this + the gold points I had made it about $50 + tax for me

[TheLeon]

I’ll be checking this game out this weekend. 
 

Spoiler

The original, on my forgotten SNES Classic. 

 

[Greatoneshere]

50 minutes ago, stepee said:

It is funny how it seemed last year Switch was getting stretched to its limit but this year has seen a lot of more smartly designed for the system games that still look great. TOTK is probably the most like last year’s releases but still better than stuff like Scarlet/Bayo3.

 

What are you comparing it to? Every time I watch my brother play a Switch game I'm always amazed at how poorly they all look. The art styles are great but the actual framerates and resolutions are really rough. Saw my brother playing Tears of the Kingdom recently, for example, and I was like: "damn, that's how that runs on the Switch"? Felt like I was back in 2014 or something.

[best3444]

3 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

What are you comparing it to? Every time I watch my brother play a Switch game I'm always amazed at how poorly they all look. The art styles are great but the actual framerates and resolutions are really rough. Saw my brother playing Tears of the Kingdom recently, for example, and I was like: "damn, that's how that runs on the Switch"? Felt like I was back in 2014 or something.

 

Finally someone with eyes like mine! 

[stepee]

Just now, Greatoneshere said:

 

What are you comparing it to? Every time I watch my brother play a Switch game I'm always amazed at how poorly they all look. The art styles are great but the actual framerate and resolutions are really rough. Saw my brother playing Tears of the Kingdom recently, for example, and I was like: "damn, that's how that runs on the Switch"? 

 

This game, Super Mario Wonder, Wario (obviously) Detective Pikachu 2, Kirby, Pikmin 4, all run and look just fine. Last year stuff was struggling more to hit the target framerate and had lower internal res. The stuff this year isn’t as demanding in a lot of ways, but it’s the kind of stuff they should be releasing since it actually works on the system.

 

TOTK is the worst performance this year but still isn’t as bad as Pokemon last year or Bayo3 or even Xeno3. 

 

I only play handheld though, so for me if it’s 720p/60 it’s a good time.

[Greatoneshere]

4 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

This game, Super Mario Wonder, Wario (obviously) Detective Pikachu 2, Kirby, Pikmin 4, all run and look just fine. Last year stuff was struggling more to hit the target framerate and had lower internal res. The stuff this year isn’t as demanding in a lot of ways, but it’s the kind of stuff they should be releasing since it actually works on the system.

 

TOTK is the worst performance this year but still isn’t as bad as Pokemon last year or Bayo3 or even Xeno3. 

 

I only play handheld though, so for me if it’s 720p/60 it’s a good time.

 

I can't even imagine playing a game in 720p anymore so that doesn't help the Switch's case . . .  You said "smartly designed games" (which I agree with) that "still look great" (which I don't agree with). You said here they "look just fine". Looking good enough and looking great are very different.

[Keyser_Soze]

9 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I can't even imagine playing a game in 720p anymore so that doesn't help the Switch's case . . .  You said "smartly designed games" (which I agree with) that "still look great" (which I don't agree with). You said here they "look just fine". Looking good enough and looking great are very different.

 

They look fine ... until you see these fine graphics on an OLED very small switch screen and then

 

[stepee]

16 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I can't even imagine playing a game in 720p anymore so that doesn't help the Switch's case . . .  You said "smartly designed games" (which I agree with) that "still look great" (which I don't agree with). You said here they "look just fine". Looking good enough and looking great are very different.

 

720p is fine on a 7” is probably similar to 4k ppi on a 65”. It’s more than adequate and handheld shouldn’t really shoot higher, at least not natively rendered. 

 

So yeah, playing on the Switch Oled undocked, this game for instance, just looks flat out fantastic. I view switch as handheld only and play it handheld only so i can’t comment on tv playing.

 

edit: When Im saying fine, Im saying thar by my high standards for tv gaming (coming from a 4090/G2 environment) it still produced a very nice IQ when handheld. That might be underselling by saying “fine” but I just mean it’s not blurry, over sharpened, and has great contrast and visual design while running at a solid 60fps in this case.

[Greatoneshere]

2 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

720p is fine on a 7” is probably similar to 4k ppi on a 65”. It’s more than adequate and handheld shouldn’t really shoot higher, at least not natively rendered. 

 

So yeah, playing on the Switch Oled undocked, this game for instance, just looks flat out fantastic. I view switch as handheld only and play it handheld only so i can’t comment on tv playing.

 

Looks "flat out fantastic"? I guess for the Switch, but not on my eyes. The Steam Deck looks better.  

[stepee]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Looks fantastic? I guess for the Switch, but not on my eyes.  

 

Have you played this on an oled switch? I really can’t see how much sharper you really need it lol

 

Edit: Like even most AAA games in fidelity mode on console have worse IQ than this game on a 7” display 

[stepee]

Steam Deck is definitely not pushing higher than 720p also I mean and is mostly designed for 720p/30 for anything somewhat demanding, which on an IQ level, will definitely look worse than this. But the point anyway was just that this years releases seem to play things more smartly to what the Switch is capable of. Not that it’s some magic next gen system now.

[best3444]

Idk...I listen to stepee when it comes to visuals. If this looks amazing on the Switch oled then it must look really sharp and impressive. He is the graphics king.

[stepee]

I mean there isn’t any special tech or anything going on - just great art that runs at 720p/60 handheld, leaving the art itself to be the biggest graphic takeaway when played on a 7” display.

[Brian]

17 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Looks "flat out fantastic"? I guess for the Switch, but not on my eyes. The Steam Deck looks better.  

This is crazy talk. Deck’s screen is one of the worst. As a handheld only user on the OLED, I think Nintendo games outside of Xenoblade look pretty good. The artstyle helps to cover up some of the limitations. 

[Biggie]

2 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

What are you comparing it to? Every time I watch my brother play a Switch game I'm always amazed at how poorly they all look. The art styles are great but the actual framerates and resolutions are really rough. Saw my brother playing Tears of the Kingdom recently, for example, and I was like: "damn, that's how that runs on the Switch"? Felt like I was back in 2014 or something.

You should buy your brother the OLED Switch and wake the fuck up.

[Biggie]

This game POP’s off the screen

[best3444]

Just now, Biggie said:

This game POP’s off the screen

 

[Biggie]

And it’s adorable af

Nintendo did an awesome job on remaking this 

[Greatoneshere]

3 hours ago, stepee said:

Steam Deck is definitely not pushing higher than 720p also I mean and is mostly designed for 720p/30 for anything somewhat demanding, which on an IQ level, will definitely look worse than this. But the point anyway was just that this years releases seem to play things more smartly to what the Switch is capable of. Not that it’s some magic next gen system now.

 

3 hours ago, Brian said:

This is crazy talk. Deck’s screen is one of the worst. As a handheld only user on the OLED, I think Nintendo games outside of Xenoblade look pretty good. The artstyle helps to cover up some of the limitations. 

 

I only meant the Deck does more in terms of handling/doing more (handling far more intensive games), that's what I mean by "better". You guys are focusing on the OLED, I'm focusing on performance with regard to the Switch. Calling something as looking "flat out fantastic" only works when you add: "in handheld mode for the Switch only", not overall. I'm watching videos of this game and it's cute and looks like a fun Mario Party-esque RPG adventure but looks amazing? No way.

 

1 hour ago, Biggie said:

You should buy your brother the OLED Switch and wake the fuck up.

 

He has an OLED switch. I'm talking about it still looking like a game from the past, regardless of sharpness because of the screen. 

[stepee]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

 

I only meant the Deck does more in terms of handling more, that's what I mean by "better". You guys are focusing on the OLED, I'm focusing on performance.

 

 

He has an OLED switch. I'm talking about it still looking like a game from the past, regardless of sharpness.

 

 

Well, the performance of this is a perfect 60fps :P

 

I think you are focused on how much the game looks like it has high end 2023 tech as part of its rendering process. We know Switch can’t do that so idk what to say! I still think some 16bit games look great idk. 

[Greatoneshere]

4 minutes ago, stepee said:

Well, the performance of this is a perfect 60fps :P

 

I think you are focused on how much the game looks like it has high end 2023 tech as part of its rendering process. We know Switch can’t do that so idk what to say! I still think some 16bit games look great idk. 

 

Games can look great cause of their art style, that is frequently the case, but when I look at people playing most Switch games, I'm not impressed by anything except if I go: "cause it's handheld" and even then whatever (ignoring the art style). I just don't know what measuring stick you're using to call a basic graphics game like Super Mario RPG as looking great and flat out fantastic compared to . . . what? Definitely not in general. Like, compared to other handheld games? Its art style is solid, but is it some great graphics powerhouse? No.

[stepee]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Games can look great cause of their art style, that is frequently the case, but when I look at people playing most Switch games, I'm not impressed by anything except if I go: "cause it's handheld" and even then whatever.

 

Yeah, Switch needs a power upgrade yesterday but this game has no glaring issues as a handheld game and is very pleasant and joyous to look at. 

 

I have two 4090’s (mobile and desktop) and an Ally, I’m well aware of how lacking the switch’s power is as a whole in 23!

[Greatoneshere]

3 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah, Switch needs a power upgrade yesterday but this game has no glaring issues as a handheld game and is very pleasant and joyous to look at. 

 

I have two 4090’s (mobile and desktop) and an Ally, I’m well aware of how lacking the switch’s power is as a whole in 23!

 

I won't disagree there - "pleasant" and "joyful" are much better descriptors that fit than "great" and "flat out fantastic". Originally I was like, when was Switch dropping flat out graphical powerhouse games?  

[stepee]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I won't disagree there - "pleasant" and "joyful" are much better descriptors that fit than "great" and "flat out fantastic". Originally I was like, when was Switch dropping flat out graphical powerhouse games?  

 

I also usually judge games by the restraint of their system and if it’s just a clean look, I still would use “great” for say how Mario Sunshine looks even though obviously it’s been surpassed technically. But that game has a great timeless look. Or say, this game!

 

If I didn’t judge by restraint then I’d have to say all console games besides like 3 look like shit :P

[Greatoneshere]

8 minutes ago, stepee said:

I also usually judge games by the restraint of their system and if it’s just a clean look, I still would use “great” for say how Mario Sunshine looks even though obviously it’s been surpassed technically. But that game has a great timeless look. Or say, this game!

 

If I didn’t judge by restraint then I’d have to say all console games besides like 3 look like shit :P

 

Yeah, I mean, I'll agree there, I do the same. I'm not a huge fan of Nintendo's "house" graphical art style - it looks nice but it's very simply and very clean but I'm not impressed graphically by it - it's very boring, like generic Pixar. Nintendo codes really solid games with few bugs or flaws but graphically it's whatever to me, probably personal preference. But I'm glad it looks good!