Expert Claims ‘Mario Kart World’ on Nintendo Switch 2 Features ‘Fake HDR’ — Highlights Top Developers’ Lack of HDR Commitment

All right, let’s unpack this mess of a situation with Mario Kart World on that spanking new Switch 2. So, here’s the scoop: some tech geeks—yeah, those TechTubers—are up in arms about what they’re calling ‘fake HDR.’ Like, what even is that? I stumbled on a blog by this guy Alexander Mejia, who has some serious chops with HDR, thanks to his work with Dolby Vision on Xbox. Anyway, he calls out Mario Kart World, saying it plays with “an SDR-first content pipeline and last-minute HDR tonemap.” Honestly, sounds kind of messed up for a marquee game like this, right?

Nintendo promised us 4K glory at 60FPS with all the HDR bells and whistles. But apparently, they dropped the ball, or so Mejia claims. He even says top-tier developers are kinda clueless about HDR. Who would’ve guessed it, huh?

Mejia isn’t too harsh though; he admits that lots of folks find HDR tricky to nail in games. Like, it’s not just plug-and-play. His golden nugget of advice? Start thinking HDR from the get-go, rather than tossing it in later like an afterthought. Makes sense, but also kinda feels like saying “plan your project, duh!”

Oh, and check this, Mejia goes into excruciating tech detail—talking about hardware and capture path stuff. It’s like, you wanna measure your game’s peak brightness? Knock yourself out, but only if you’re ready to see that Nintendo’s proud image only peaks at ~500 nits. Makes you wonder, did they even try?

Anyhoo, even when people crank up the console brightness sky-high to 10,000 nits, the in-game peaks still languish at ~950 nits. Like, what’s the point? Seems the game would rather cozy up to SDR’s vibe (Rec.709, anyone?), despite having the possibility to shine with Rec.2020 colors. I mean, imagine having a rainbow palette and just sticking with the blues and greens. A tragedy.

And in this corner, a little YouTube clip comparing the HDR of Godfall Ultimate Edition on Xbox Series X against Mario Kart’s dare-I-say half-hearted version. Guess who wins?

Long story short, looks like top-notch developers might be taking HDR as seriously as I take my Monday morning alarms—like, hit snooze and hope for the best. Mejia wraps things up by subtly pitching his studio’s consulting services. Need HDR wizardry? He’s your guy.

So keep your ear to the ground for more hot takes from Tom’s Hardware. Hit that follow button for the freshest news. Because, let’s be real, who doesn’t want a techie drama delivered straight to their inbox?