Actually, this gen is probably the happiest I've been with Nintendo, between the DS and the Wii. I personally think that last gen saw the beginning of "too little graphical return for the investment." The cost to make graphics look better was just not worth it. And I believe after the GC, Nintendo saw this. Graphics for me are very low on the importance list, but the increasing importance that many companies were showing them, getting to the detriment of every other aspect of gaming, was pushing me away. I don't mind a good story with good graphics, but if the game is boring, then you've failed. And, as far as I'm concerned, a lot of these newer "look at my pretty graphics" games are just that- boring.
What Nintendo did with the Wii is bring back gameplay. In general, I've not had this much fun with a home console since the SNES. Sure, it can't be as fancy as expensive PS3/360 games. But they can still look damn good, with another upside- less raw graphical processing power means less cost in making the games! On paper, it seemed like everything should have been perfect- cheaper to make games for, with the focus back on the game itself.
But as we all already know, that's not how it went. (I'll spare people the recent history recap.) They didn't go to the Wii because they didn't know how to market to it. Starting in the late 16-bit days, advertising became all about the graphics. And yet, 10 years after this starts, a system comes out that can't be marketed that way. You couldn't slap up 30 seconds of FMVs for a commercial and get people to drool over your game. So it wasn't marketed. And sales were poor. (Yadda, yadda.) The HD marketing? Well, too much was already invested to let the game flop, so it had to be advertised.
So where am I going with this? Well, sorry, OP, but I think you bit whole-hogged into what some of the companies wanted you to- that graphics are all that matters. It's what, as of today, has been marketed for gaming for almost 15 years. They're just going to keep spoon-feeding these graphics, and hope that people in larger and larger number gobble them up, to cover the larger and larger costs of making these graphics. Nintendo sat this out, and while a fair chunk of 3rd-party support has been lost as a result, I think that ultimately, they will be who comes out winning. Natal and Move I think are the first sign of what Nintendo has done with this gen...
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