Yes.

A lot of ignorance about that demo here I see. For one, it wasn't pre-rendered. It was real-time and ran on a prototype WiiU weaker than the current actual WiiU model. We can be pretty sure WiiU would be able to run that with little problem. It also was never a demo of Zelda U, rather one showing the potential of WiiU hardware. As such, Nintendo never changed anything regarding Zelda U's art-style. You fell for the old Spaceworld/Wind Waker trap.

In 2011, the demo indeed looked impressive. Today however, you see it was just Twilight Princess HD. Most effects are old news. Textures , level of detail and modelling not much out of the ordinary. Animation was sloppy, though this is maybe excusable.

I'd say there's a multitude of WiiU games that surpassed it already, or specific areas of it, including what we saw of the actual Zelda U, which seems technically far more impressive. Super Mario 3D World and especially Captain Toad has it easily beat in the shading and detailing department. Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2 and maybe others also beat it if you asked me. I'd say everyone should rather look at the garden demo they had.

 With?

I think a more interesting answer from him would be if you ask him why he believes the graphics from the games he'll mention surpass those from the tech demo. =D

It has been beaten easily multiple times. Mario Kart 8, Pikmin 3, Wind Waker HD, Bayonetta 2, and the Zelda E3 trailer are just some examples

That's easy to explain. haters couldn't stand nintendo showing something that easily surpassed ps360, so they had to downplay. and since 90% of wii u's big exclusives surpass the demo, some people now say it was godly and wii u games can't surpass it.

people already mentioned but: Super mario 3d world, Mario kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X, the actual zelda U...

Your attitude aside, here's why: the demo consisted of one big room with some windows, big statues, reflective floor, pillars... there were also some bats and torchs, link himself, a fairy and armogohma.

Starting with the room, the floor is pretty but reflectiveness isn't hard to do. it was already pointed that even the last story from wii had a pretty reflective floor. the fire on the torches use a simple effect that isn't very demanding. the pillars and statues modelling are ok but have clear low polygon parts. lighting looked really good but like the floor, it isn't any herculean job to do.

The bats are somewhat better modeled hd versions of the bats from TP.

Link's model, as I already said, has textures doing the job of shadows in his clothes, low polygon areas and bad detection on his arms/clothes.

Armogohma is big and detailed but Bayonetta 2 has bigger and more detailed monsters, many of wich appear on screen simultaneously.

So, the demo showed very little and wasn't amazing, being easily surpassed in all aspects by other wii u offerings.

But the question is, have the visuals of it been beaten yet. Yes, they have.

Wii U could not dream of doing that in an actual game lol