My thoughts on what's Wii's standard graphics should look like

[Viper1]

Mifely said:

The Wii will have some decent 3rd party engines after a while, but they'll never be truly spectacular in the graphics sense.  They won't suck as bad as most of the shovelware does though.  Nintendo has consistantly set the high bar for their games with their 1st party titles.  There really aren't engines that ever outdo them on their platforms, ever.  Some come close now and then (RE4 on the GC, for example), but Nintendo will always be king.  You can't ever expect more out of the Wii than Nintendo provides.  Their games are fun to look at, but not astonishing in the graphics department.  I would argue that "fun to look at" is what really matters to the typical Wii user, and Nintendo knows that.

You've been pretty spot on until here.   Many 3rd parties outclassed Nintendo graphically on the SNES and N64.  Squaresoft, RAREWare, Factor 5 and others.   On GC, Factor 5 continued that trend right out fo the gate.  Rare also held up their talents again for a game.  In fact, Nintendo at one point during hte N64 days admitted that Rare had better tools than they did.

While these are certainly exceptions and not the rules, they are THE bar for which other 3rd parties should strive for.