It even seems as most people weren't present on last gen releases. Notall games are fantastic leaps (a lot of the first games on ps3 didn't looked better than god of war 2 on ps2).
About SMW being impossible on the NES the answer is simple, ninty didn't tried. Sonic was back ported to master system without looking much worst and alex kid was ported to genesis without looking much better.
And pigpen we get that you just play Nintendo and think that all games that share a genre with Nintendo are clones and the ones that don't are worthless hyped. I bet CoD is a clone of Golden eye right?

I couldn't disagree with the OP more if I tried. I just don't have the energy to argue. I'm sure somebody else has done it for me, though. I'll just say F-Zero, Ridge Racer, SSX, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (or Call of Duty if you want a day one launch game).  What's the eigth gen equivalent?  Not only can every 8th gen game I can think of (that's been released so far) be done on a 7th gen console, they can be done extremely well.  

If you want to downgrade enough you could get most games working on a ps2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hQjFpGB6_k

What? FF10 on PSX? I want that thing you are smoking too!!! roll it over!!!
Getcha pull!!!

seriously. no. its over. we reached the point of deminishing returns. get over it and enjoy the games.

Kind of a side note, but people are giving the PS360 generation a lot more credit than it actually deserves. It certainly didn't feel like as much of a generational leap as that from PSX to PS2. HD was being done on PCs for years at that point. So this sudden jump to HD didn't really mean much. And the jump to PS2 meant a jump from 240i (for the most part) to 480i/p anyways.

So, by your argument... Consoles barely ever made any kind of generational leaps since PC was always there much earlier than consoles... -__-

That was only one of my arguments.  Take it as you will.

My other one was that there was a clear increase in resolution from Gen 5 to Gen 6.  So why some people in this thread are making more of a deal in the increase from Gen 6 to 7 is baffling to me.

Graphics will be perhaps one of the least important jumps this generation.

Yes we will see a pretty big graphical leap over the years, but that isn't what is going to define this gen. It will be stuff like physics, facial animations, particle effects, hugely detailed worlds, fully destructible terrain and dynamic events that will be what makes this generation stand out.

In essence, the 8th gen will be everything the 7th gen couldn't be, in the same way that the 6th gen fully realized the 3D worlds dreamed up by the 5th.

I'm of the opinion that there was really only one big generational leap (maybe two). That would be the leap from Gen 4 to Gen 5. Those new games simply weren't possible in any way on previous generations. The Super FX chip was pushed to its limit and couldn't handle something like Mario 64, even in a crude way.

And maybe the leap from Gen 2 to Gen 3. The ability to create whole levels and worlds rather than have single screens was a big jump for game play. But games like Pitfall could do that before, so it's not like it wasn't possible on earlier systems.

Any other leap is simply a graphical improvement. You get better looking environments, or better sound, or more/smarter enemies, or scripted events, etc. But nothing that was absolutely impossible on previous generations without some sacrifices. You get a few things here and there that refine gameplay like analog sticks, or motion controls, etc. But the games and what was possible to create, wasn't vastly different.