Rumors have been swirling recently over the resolution and frames per second for Mario Kart 8. Originally, it was thought that Mario Kart 8 would run at a native 1080p resolution and also at 60 FPS. However, according to analyst Digital Foundry, this isn’t the case. Digital Foundry claims that Mario Kart 8 runs 720p native, and that the game will often dip to 59 frames per second. Below is a small sample of the total analysis:
“When it comes to performance, Nintendo has always aimed to deliver a rock-solid 60 frames per second with each home console Mario Kart and, aside from Mario Kart 64, it has always managed to achieve just that. There was never any doubt that Mario Kart 8 would fall right in line with the rest of the series but upon seeing it for ourselves we immediately noticed that something was amiss. During gameplay we experienced the regular appearance of duplicate frames manifesting as a constant but subtle stuttering effect. Upon analysis we determined that the game suffers from extended clusters in which a duplicate frame is displayed every 64 frames. What this ultimately means is that, during normal gameplay, Mario Kart 8 continually drops down to 59fps. This may not seem like a big deal – most will probably not notice it at all, and it has zero affect on playability – but it has a noticeable impact on image fluidity that mars what would otherwise be a perfectly consistent frame-rate. And for us at least, once it is seen, it can’t really be unseen.”
The important question here is will something like this hurt sales? Chances are it won’t. Nintendo fans are usually the last people to point out flaws in framerate and resolution. Where it might be important to someone who games on a PC or one of the “next-gen” consoles, Nintendo owners are usually content with whatever they are offered (speaking as a huge Nintendo fan myself here.) I don’t believe just because Mario Kart 8 is in 720p and not 1080p, and won’t be a perfect 60 FPS, that anyone will truly care. Although the game being in 1080p would be nice, it’s certainly not a necessity.