Gotcha. Yeah Saturn to Dreamcast was massive, downright insane when you consider there were only four years between them.

1994:

1998:

N64 to Gamecube and XBOX - specifically - by a large mile. Early PS2 games looked inferior to Dreamcast games. Dreamcast was a big leap in itself, but many of its titles (e.g. Nomad Soul or MDK2) looked like hi-res N64 titles, and it was only exceptions such as Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, and Shenmue that looked truly 'next-gen'.

Switch to Switch 2 is a huge leap, Wii to Wii U was a huge leap.

NFL 2k looked and played beyond next gen.

Also, we were all playing online with our Dreamcasts in 2000. The PS2 and Xbox couldn't even officially do that in the US until mid-late 2002.

To be honest I wasn't that impressed with the PS2 or GCN because the Dreamcast basically did a lot of the same things earlier, seeing Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast was more mind blowing than any PS2 or GCN title ... but I was too hard on the GCN too.

Like I remember getting a PS2 in Oct 2000 and not being impressed by really any of the launch games because they looked similar to Dreamcast games that I was already playing or in some cases worse. 

With GameCube, launch games like Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Wave Race: Blue Storm were incredible looking for their time, I just didn't appreciate it enough because you get caught up in internet nonsense.

Now looking back on it, I realize GameCube was incredible hardware for its time, many games still look good to this day (Star Fox Adventures, Rogue Squadron II/III, Resident Evil 4, etc. etc.). I was watching some Star Fox rumors video on Youtube the other day and they showed gameplay of Star Fox Adventures and I was like "daaaamn ... that game still looks good today". 

Yeah the Gamecube was an insane machine for its time in terms of graphics; seeing Rogue Squadron II on a CRT TV back in 2001 felt like a playable CG movie come to life, at 60fps to boot, especially compared to N64 with its comparatively primitive 3D visuals and low framerates.

That's the thing too, many of the Gamecube's graphical powerhouses targeted 60fps as well as looking amazing. While it's not my favourite Nintendo console in terms of its games, I would contend that in terms of engineering its the best they've ever made; it was small, quiet, cheap, reliable, yet blazingly powerful.

I would also argue that the best looking Gamecube titles hold up remarkably well today over two decades later.

Ps2 and GC holds up well in emulation with upscalers and AA.  Add in some texture packs and games can look quite nice.  

Yeah the Gamecube was an insane machine for its time in terms of graphics; seeing Rogue Squadron II on a CRT TV back in 2001 felt like a playable CG movie come to life, at 60fps to boot, especially compared to N64 with its comparatively primitive 3D visuals and low framerates.

That's the thing too, many of the Gamecube's graphical powerhouses targeted 60fps as well as looking amazing. While it's not my favourite Nintendo console in terms of its games, I would contend that in terms of engineering its the best they've ever made; it was small, quiet, cheap, reliable, yet blazingly powerful.

I would also argue that the best looking Gamecube titles hold up remarkably well today over two decades later.

My standards are probably not as high as yours since I'm a part-time retro gamer, but I still feel even the consoles themselves can hold up well, with the caveat though that they don't play nicely with modern displays as they were designed for use with old CRT screens.