Well I was totally blown away last night by chapter 12 of Uncharted, "Upriver".  It was absolutely incredible.  Never seen video game water look that cool.  The sound was great to.  And trying to drive the jet ski up river while shooting bandits and depth charges was a rush.

So make your own nominations for that level that really dropped your jaw and made you say, 

"wow this is next gen at its best"

I expect lots of nominations from Bioshock, Halo 3, CoD4, and SMG but should be interesting 

Super Mario World. First time I saw that, I was blown away. The level of detail, the vibrant colors. The whole world just seemed alive with endless possibilities of fun.

Super Mario 64. Enough said.

I dont think Super Mario World qualifies as Next Gen...

I remember last-gen playing Medal of Honor Frontlines (Omaha Beach opening) saying "This is next-gen at its best". This gen, for me, the jaw dropping game was CoD4.

- The intro to Rapture, BioShock
- The canyon Scarab(s) battle, Halo 3
- Death From Above, CoD4

There were several impressive parts of Uncharted but I can't think of one moment that really "wowed" me. Personally, I hated the river level. Exploding barrels and stolen jetskis FTL.

Oh, you mean this gen only? (Wii, PS3, 360)

Then, Wii Sports' tennis. Totally mind blowing.

Playing Uncharted and seeing Nathan flinch when a bullet would hit a wall he is behind, and he would curse. It seemed so detailed. That, to me, is next gen, not the graphics, but the details.

Wii Sports, golf is awesome.

 It was in the NES days. If you want to limit your definition to a correct one then Uncharted doesn't count either. That is strictly a current gen game which is all any game can ever be.

Portal has been the only recent game that has taken me back. The concept seemed so impossible to work with and against everything ever taught to my gamer mind. If you can teleport anywhere then how can the game be hard? Unbelievable level design and genious developers to see how they could make it work rather than how it could fail. Most everything else feels like a lot of the same old same old.