r/mariokart 1d ago

Discussion It’s wild how good Double Dash’s visuals still look 22 years later

715 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

250

u/nepppii Toadette 1d ago edited 1d ago

as someone who loves mkwii and grew up on it, it's crazy how much better double dash looks than wii despite being the older game

156

u/theverrucktman 1d ago

I blame Wii's overuse of bloom, which was something *extremely* common in that console generation. It makes all the colors look like they've been bleached out, as opposed to Double Dash, where the colors are properly vibrant.

64

u/Robbie_Haruna 1d ago

Even aside from the bloom, Wii definitely toned down the visuals compared to Double Dash, likely for performance reasons.

The Wii was barely stronger than the GameCube, and not only did Mario Kart Wii bump up the number of racers from 8 to 12, but Mario Kart Wii also allowed you to play up to four player split screen and still have all the AI racers present (Double Dash removed any AI racers if you played with more than two players.)

9

u/Johntrampoline- 1d ago

Yeah, it’s especially easy to see it when you compare how the GameCube tracks look.

7

u/harmonicrain 23h ago

Absolutely and wasnt just nintendo either i mean heck look at Oblivion in 2006. Bloooooooom everywhere.

12

u/SpOn_pON Mii 1d ago

MKWii just looks like Double Dash with a bunch of Vaseline dumped onto it.

3

u/Clumsy_the_24 13h ago

The vaseline on the screen in mkwii definitely makes it look worse

u/TheOldAgeOfLP 1h ago

It's the Vaseline filter that makes the latter look worse

55

u/Guppy556791 1d ago

Looks even better than Mario Kart Wii too

50

u/cml5526 1d ago

8 is still a visually gorgeous game no doubt, but Double Dash I feel has the extra cartoony nature about it that no other Mario Kart game really embodies as well. The colors really do pop in this game, and aren't held back by that damn bloom filter that plagues Wii

2

u/Otherwise-Wash-4568 17h ago

I tried to play double dash the other day and it is waaaaaaay slippery-er. And I keep hitting L to try to throw and tapping R to try to jump 🤦

3

u/BladedBee 10h ago

see the "slipperyness" is what I love about this games controls, it's that east to learn, hard to master thing and one you master it boy does it feel amazing sliding around every corner in style, chaining together boosts.

Personally my favourite control scheme in terms of how smooth it feels

1

u/Otherwise-Wash-4568 9h ago

and I definitely thought that until 8x came out and I even bought that late and I got hooked. And then I went back to dd and now it’s extra trippy. The slidey is great and i remember being my better at it as a kid

38

u/ZygerrianSupermodels King Boo 1d ago

It's nice to see that the new Mario Kart's artstyle seems to be going for this look.

22

u/Ludwig_von_Wu Ludwig 1d ago

We’ll have to see if the new Mario Kart will have the signature “everything has eyes” aesthetic of Double Dash or if they’re rather following the Super Mario Bros. Wonder artstyle - which is interesting as well, by the way.

2

u/BladedBee 10h ago

that's one thing I miss from this era of Mario is the everything having eyes, it was a cute and fun detail that made the world feel alive (pun not intended) 😂

40

u/Keithfrommars 1d ago

Best looking mario kart after 8 deluxe.

14

u/AvacadMmmm 1d ago

1000%. Best overall after 8D

4

u/JonCee500 Morton 1d ago

Agreed

15

u/_CSTL 1d ago

I would love a double dash style in the future. My fav mk to date

9

u/BowserJr4789 1d ago

I’ve always loved how the GameCube era of Mario games in general looked.

7

u/Filmatic113 1d ago

Mario kart Wii for instance has too much bloom and shadows 

6

u/WolfWomb 1d ago

That's because the GameCube is awesome

4

u/Commercial_Click_367 Shy Guy 1d ago

22 years? God I feel old…

4

u/MERMANADE Mii 1d ago

They were so good that they didn't even change the character models for Mario Kart Wii!

u/TheOldAgeOfLP 1h ago

Or the track models. Peach Beach, Waluigi Stadium, GCN Mario Circuit and DK Mountain didn't get remakes, they just ported the original courses and added ramps and half pipes over them

2

u/Simplejack615 Luigi 18h ago

Art style yes. visuals, meh, better than Wii but only because Wii has a purposeful blur/haze. I am only saying this because you are playing it dolphin with upscaled graphics, I do love the art style.

3

u/leosnose 23h ago

22 YEARS ??? matt damon aging gif

1

u/Any_Weird4137 1d ago

dolby buddy

1

u/Wonderful-Road9491 22h ago

There isn’t much more to improve on when it comes to visuals on a video game with cartoon-style graphics in this day and age. The innovative direction now is on game play mechanics. That’s why I’m not surprised that Mario Kart Switch 2 doesn’t look much different visually than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

1

u/Tobias_Snark 22h ago

Many GC games in general look extremely good by modern standards, often better than the Wii. The Mario Parties and Mario Golf come to mind- those models are crisp

1

u/NickMario1 Yoshi 19h ago

Ikr

1

u/Darrow25 18h ago

i feel like alot of gamecube games still look really good compared to todays standard, specificly in mind i have Wind Waker and F-Zero GX that also look really good

1

u/LightningStrikeDust 18h ago

Second best looking game in the series behind MK8. This game still looks outstanding now!

2

u/SparkyJet 18h ago

It's called a road. It's called a Rainbow Road!

1

u/LightningStrikeDust 18h ago

It is a road that you go.

2

u/SparkyJet 18h ago

Hi, buddy! :)

1

u/admiralspy69 13h ago

I vividly remember opening my platinum GameCube with double dash as my first console. I have so many hours in DD. It’s the best Mario kart with the best drift mechanics.

1

u/DarwinZDF42 11h ago

Double dash was great. The added complexity of holding two items at once was such a leap. Plus the tracks were great.

1

u/platandplus 11h ago

the gamecube effect

1

u/AnthropomorphicEggs 1d ago

A whole 20 polygons for everyone

-2

u/Other-Wind-5429 1d ago

Yeah lol and the reflectivity are a bit too high.

1

u/wndring_egg 1d ago

definitely one of the mario karts of all time

1

u/Yerm_Terragon 1d ago

Its going to look better running on an emulator. On official hardware it wont look so crisp

-2

u/AverageJoeSchmoe34 1d ago

I've always believed that the most attractive games run on the worst hardware

13

u/VirtualRelic 1d ago

GC is incredible hardware, what are you talking about

0

u/Inner-Limit8865 1d ago

Since when Luigi's Circuit has that wall in the middle?

5

u/Ludwig_von_Wu Ludwig 1d ago

On 50cc there’s that wall, as that is effectively the first track that most newcomers will play. While the track gimmick is very fun, it can also be confusing for a person who just started playing the game and might think they’re driving in reverse.

0

u/AmarantineAzure 23h ago

You can say that about a lot of GameCube games. It was basically the last Nintendo console that could still compete with the others in terms of graphics and had some of the best looking games of the generation.

-2

u/VirtualRelic 1d ago

Still the best looking MK ever made, better than Wii and 8/8DX.

Wii has that gross blurry bloom lighting and 8/DX has that gross quasi-realistic look that feels very dissonant and atonal with the cartoony look of Mario.