What makes a game feel friendly? - the color schemes behind Mario Kart

Design

The design elements seen in ‘Mario Kart Live – Home Circuit’ are the trademark colors of the original game ‘Super Mario Kart’ itself. So before taking a look at the design and visual build of the recently released Mario Kart, we need to analyze the main color and design schemes of the original game.

 

Color

 

    The foundation of the Mario Kart Game lies in ‘opposites.’ Duo colors seen as the absolute opposite are known as ‘complementary colors.’ If two colors are facing each other on the color wheel – opposite as in polar opposite – they are coined as complementary. 

Using color pallets with complementary colors gives the effect of making the object really jump out. Advertisements and television commercials commonly use these colors to further bring out statements and announce products. Complementary colors can be seen in Mario’s (the main character of the game) attire and the basic racetrack coloring. This makes Mario stand out from amongst the other game characters and promotes a stronger ‘trademark image’ to the persona of the character.

 

Another thing noticeable about the game is the frequent use of primary colors. Primary colors are like the building blocks of color – putting together two or more of each color can make up every color that the eye can see. 

    The next level of color diversity switches on to rainbow colors. These are the 7 basic colors that are seen in the rainbow, and also the most elementary colors that we can distinguish. Elementary colors are easy to tell apart, and therefore are considered as youth-friendly and playful in terms of design. They also bring a bright mood to the selected object or backdrop. In Mario Kart, all the characters and backdrops are in these elementary and primary colors, allowing the players to catch on to the atmosphere of the game. 

    The right use of color in video games can not only set an atmosphere for the players to enjoy, but also evoke a certain attitude for the game that can eventually lead to a whole public perspective of the game itself. Mario Kart is only a stepping-stone example of the many visually flattering games that now exist, but is a good enough example to show us the importance of design – especially color – in games and other multi-media projectives. 

Article by Dahee Jung