4-8k textures in the screens. The Zelda demo had a lot of lower rez stuff on the walls and such

Given the pressure Nintendo and their partners are under to produce things quickly, this is possible.  Or if we do, it will be in DLC where they have time to burn.  Although, Fast Racing Neo very well may do it. 

But I would just say, the Zelda HD demo from announcement didn't do it either.  Not only is it not that impressive in general - the only major exception being perhaps the particle effects and some other shaders - but it was also running at 720p 30fps to boot (according to Digital Foundry).  With that taken into account, I think it's safe to say that Bayo 2 has already surpassed it with its own visuals and higher framerate.  And Fast Racing Neo is also 720p 60fps.  I think the major issue is that the pressentation is very clever with the Zelda demo.  It draws your eyes to what is strong, but that doesn't change its deficiencies. 

Yeah, if any game can do it, it's FRN. Not only will it be a third generation Wii U game built from the ground up for the console by a talented studio, but they said last year they're about as close as possible to coding to the metal.

Yeah, I still think X and the real LoZ will give us a fair glimpse at the limits of the console at that time.

this expression, what does it means?

Yes and No. If anything though it's extremely close.

I think the bar is still the 2004 Twilight Princess reveal. Although 2006's reveal of Snake in Smash Bros. plus all the info about Wii comes close.

Since then, I'd say 2014 was probably Nintendo's best E3 - really well-done presentation, lots of promising-looking games including some genuine surprises like Splatoon, the Treehouse set-up. It made the other major presentations look incredibly antiquated by comparison.

The 2011 Zelda stuff was cool, but I wouldn't call it the benchmark for Nintendo at E3. I wouldn't even call it the benchmark for Nintendo at E3 with Zelda specifically.

It's kind of funny how many ways you can interpret the question, lol.

'Metal' refers to the hardware itself. The closer to the metal you're coding (which is usually the result of either API optimization, or if someone is really dedicated they can code directly to the hardware with something like assembly), the more of the hardware's power and quirks you can take advantage off.

It's one of the reasons why consoles tend to produce better results than a PC with comparable hardware. Programming for a specific piece of hardware (rather than thousands of PC combinations) let's you code closer to the metal.

TL;DR - Closer to the metal = more optimization potential.

Has this thread seen XCX?