http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-10-23-assassins-creed-iii-wii-u-exactly-the-same-as-other-versions

The article above is an interview with an Assassin's Creed dev, and you can tell just how excited he is about the Wii U port. In fact, he sounds extremely excited.

But why would he be excited about a game on new hardware (that's supposed to usher in a new generation) when it looks exactly the same as the last gen hardware? It doesn't make any sense to me...

Because at launch it is on par with the HD consoles -- which is much better than what the Wii could show.
And remember early console titles often are not marked improvements over what people can do with the older machine after several years of practice. The jump from SD to HD meant quite a bit of changes in that regard, but it will be hard for the next generation to again achieve a quantum leap.

Mike from Morgantown

Because he's not a fanboy and is just happy to see his game running on more hardware.

The GamePad will give the game a lot of cool features and that's what he's talking about.

And of course the game will be the same as the other versions, why a third party will put resources into a console that they haven't been working too much time? Not because it's not more powerful or slightly more powerful, is because it will take time and money that Ubisoft don't want to spent, specially since the Wii U doesn't have any install base yet.

Ubisoft have done enough into making games like ZombiU and Rayman Legends, it's actually admirable how much they have been able to do with so little time and probably money constraints.

I've heard that argument a lot. I don't believe it, though. We've seen numerous screenshot comparisons from very early Xbox 360 titles compared to the regular Xbox, and outside of the few pictures where the 360 version looks like crap, the 360 version easily outclasses the Xbox version. And in previous generations, the jump was even more pronounced, wasn't it? We went from 8bit to 16bit, then to full 3d, and then to a much higher polished state of 3d (ps2,gc,xbox) and then to HD.

I do believe that graphical jumps are becoming less noticeable and less important for consumers, but it still boggles my mind that a developer sounds SO excited to run a game on new hardware exactly the same as they can run it on last gen's hardware.

Not even Nintendo is bothering to push their own hardware. You can argue that it's just the launch window, you can argue that the games (such as NSMB) don't need better graphics, but the truth is that the system is currently not showing anything substantial over these cheaper consoles that have a much larger library of titles. It'll be a while (if ever) for the Wii U to impress in that regard.

That really leaves all appeal down to the tablet controller. Which is fine, I suppose.

That's because the ACIII's videos showed on Wii U lacks a lot of graphics elements... so the final version is to have these "missing elements" in the game.

The exactly same game sounds ok for me but I expect slightly better performance due the 1GB VRAM.

Edit: Ninty is pushing their own hardware just not in the way YOU want them to. Mario day one is definitely pushing the hardware. You remember the last time Ninty released a 2D Mario game for their home console? It broke records.

Honestly, we aren't going to see any "next gen" multi-platform software titles until either the PS4 or 720 are released. The Wii U will, in effect, be current gen unless Nintendo or exclusive developers push the envelope well beyond what the PS3/360 can accomplish. Until then, it will have to depend on the novelty and/or innovation that its controller provides to separate itself in the market. Performance should be better across the board, if developers optimize, but most people aren't going to really care about that, or about modest gains in visual quality. Few people are going to replace their PS3/360 just for that.

The Wii U is going to spend half its effective life as this gen and half as next gen. The software, as always, is the important part.

noob, because the wii u version was lacking some particle and lightning features because they dont had time to finish it when they show it, i guess this means its ok now

/facepalm

This discussion was purely about raw power (graphics/physics/textures/etc.).  Releasing a 2D Mario game on their system at launch is not "pushing the hardware" in any sort of means. It's not about what games release, it's about what they do with them.