Digital Foundry has finally released the video that I’ve been waiting weeks for: a full visual and performance analysis of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. This game surprised everyone, and while I was totally expecting Kingdom Battle to be a blast, I was not prepared for how gorgeous it is. Ubisoft‘s Snowdrop engine worked some serious miracles, and Digital Foundry is here to let us in on a few of its secrets!
Videos by ComicBook.com
If I took you into a room right now and you watched me play Kingdom Battle for an hour in both docked and handheld modes, I doubt very much that you’d be able to tell that it wasn’t running at 1080p and 720p, respectively. Edges are so sharp, and the character models are so clean, yet the game runs at 900p and 600p. If we would have heard those numbers before the game launched we would have been worried. Now we’re not even sure if we believe it!
Nintendo could learn something from Ubisoft, here. Nintendo is notorious for not implementing anti-aliasing in its games, which makes them appear pretty jaggy and a little rough around the edges. Though Mario Kart 8 Deluxe runs at a full 1080p, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is the smoother looking game due to Ubisoft’s fantastic anti-aliasing solution. Texture details also look phenomenal, even up close.
Performance is stable across the board, with very minor slowdown in certain areas. The framerate can stutter when the camera zooms in close on a character who has a special effect applied to them, and while navigating certain areas of the hub world, but otherwise thing stay locked at a rock-solid 30 fps. Considering the sheer number of things happening on-screen at any given time, Kingdom Battle‘s performance truly is a marvel.
The biggest takeaway here? Ubisoft’s Snowdrop engine has a very bright future on the Nintendo Switch. This is a highly versatile engine which is obviously capable of some impeccable scaling to Nintendo’s current spec. What other games might we see grace the Switch? South Park: The Fractured but Whole seems inevitable, but could we ever see a game like The Division ported to the Switch? Only time will tell, but now we know that when Ubisoft is determined to make something work, by God, they’re going to make it work.
