Illusion on 23 October 2020
I will only comment on the consoles that I own personally and have played enough of the library to have a first hand perspective:
N64 - Pokemon Stadium 2 (with Expansion Pak). Pokemon Stadium 2 is an incredible-looking game. People need to play this game to have an idea just how spectacular the graphics are (just google screenshots of Ho-Oh from PS2). The game is almost at Gamecube quality. Now the trade-off is that the framerate is probably chugging around 10FPS for much of the gameplay but because all camera movements are on rails, the game effectively masks a low frame-rate with really slow movements and transitions. While this does slow the gameplay down compared to Pokemon Stadium 1, the graphics are nice enough that you actually enjoy having extra time to stare at the arena's and the Pokemon. Also, it doesn't hurt that the attack effects went for more of an artistic stylized visualization as opposed to (for example) attempting to make a Hydro Pump attack look like realistic water blast like in PS1. The stylization really makes PS2 still hold up as a nice looking game even today as opposed to most games on the N64 which are tough to even look at today much less play.
N64 (without Expansion Pak) World Driver Championship - A really underrated game that I just recently purchased. It really is the Gran Turismo 3 of the fifth generation. I strongly recommend watching some Youtube videos of this game. It blows my mind that the development team were able to pull off these graphics without the expansion pak, it's a shame that they didn't get more recognition for their work. The game even offers a wide-screen high resolution mode which makes the game look even better. This game was insane for 1999 pre-Dreamcast.
Gamecube (Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings). I am not listing the Resident Evils because I haven't played them. I am sure that RE probably takes the cake for the most realistic graphics on the Gamecube (and probably on the N64 as well) but I wanted to mention Baten Kaitos for its incredible artistry. Baten Kaitos follows the FVII RPG format with pre-rendered dungeon and world map screens but where the battles are rendered at runtime. Both the battle screens and the pre-rendered canvasses have incredible artistry and effects. The magic effects are stunning and so are some of the effects that are overlaid on the pre-rendered mattes (for example, check out the clouds in the Diadem continent).
Wii U - BotW probably takes the cake without much contest, but Xenoblade Chronicles X had some beautiful environments (unfortunately, the character models were poor).
Last edited by Illusion - on 23 October 2020
