Actually Super Mario World was one of the best looking games of its day on consoles.  It didn't look like a game that was capable on last-gen consoles when it came out, thats for sure.  Nor did Super Mario 64, or Rogue Squadron II or Melee. All the other games you mentioned look like Wii games in HD, with the exception of Bayonetta, which looks exactly like a PS360 game.

How is it different from you saying that X looks better than TLoU?

I acually think the difference between PC and consoles will take less time to become apparent then last gen. As powerful as these consoles are they're not more powerful then a top end PC and by the time the next graphics architecture is out the difference should be quite plain to see. 

The Wii U may not be a cutting edge powerhouse, but it's definitely capable of producing beautiful visuals; after all, the PS3 and 360 produced some absolute stunners with half as much RAM and older GPUs.

The thing is that nobody's trying.

Nintendo's priority clearly isn't on pushing visual  boundaries. Even the 1st party who pushed the Wii's limits, like Tokyo EAD and Retro, seem content to do Wii-graphics-in-HD on Wii U. And third parties? They're barely bothering to do ports at all.

The thing is, graphics are about more than just the hardware.

Games like Uncharted 2-3, The Last of Us, and God of War Ascension look as good as they do because they were built by teams of technically brilliant people for whom pushing technological boundaries was a very high proirity. Wii U simply doesn't have any such studios. 

How long did it take last time? I know the first Crysis in 2007 was beyond PS3/360 level, was there anything before then?

this is false, there might be a rare exception, but nintendo anounces games and they usually come out a year and a half later.

What's really sad about this post is that your avatar is FROM THE VERY KIND OF STUDIO YOU ARE SAYING DOESN'T EXIST FOR NINTENDO.

You are also completely ignoring that the first year of any console is the dumbest time to judge it's graphics.  Many first-year games began or even concluded development on unfinished dev kits, and that it takes time for developers to discover all the nooks and crannies in the hardware.  

Or did you somehow convince yourself that all the best graphical representations of every console released in their first year?  Was Super Mario Galaxy a year 1 Wii title?  Was Donkey Kong Country a year 1 SNES title?  Was THE LAST OF US A YEAR ONE PLAYSTATION 3 TITLE?  No to each and every one of these.  

Your argument is flawed from the get-go.

I'm not criticising their results, I'm criticising the amount of effort they put in. It'd be one thing if their early games showed growing pains, (Pikmin 3) that I can understand. Systems never show their full power from day 1, and Nintendo is new to HD development. What I don't understand is games like Mario 3D World. That's not difficulty, that's laziness.

I don't expect them to make the Wii U's best looking games in its first year. But I did expect them to try.

X does look amazing though, yes.  Monolith are very talented, and clearly making an effort. I'm just not sure if they're as technically minded as ND or Santa Monica.