The Wii with its underpowered graphical prowess has already provided gamers with some of the best looking games of this generation. How is this possible, one might ask? Simple, outstanding art direction. We have seen games like Super Mario Galaxy, Okami, No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki, de Blob, and the upcoming Madworld. Every one of these games oozes with style and has a very distinctive artistic style that allows its lackluster graphics to outshine the pixel-pushers of some of the other systems.
Of course this isn't anything new, but only now has it become clearly apparent with the Wii and DS being significantly underpowered when stacked against their rival machines. Not only will the stylistic presentation of games with great art direction outshine most "realistic" games, but they will likely stand the test of time as well. As technology pushes forward, these games will simply be seen as relics of the past, artifacts of a time when technology was only capable of doing so much.
I think the perfect example of this can be seen when looking at Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Granted Twilight Princess still looks great, but Wind Waker is literally breathtaking and its stylistic approach to the series will always be remembered and revered.
I can only hope that more game designers start to see this simple fact and adjust their goals to achieve great art rather than great graphics. While this approach shouldn't and won't work for everyone, it would be nice to see a longer list of companies who take the stylistic approach rather than the realistic one.
Whine Waker: blue ocean, distance blur, ugly Link
TP: great animation, emo black and white areas, adult midna
The graphics winner is clearly tilted toward TP
It's the same thing as we delve back into older generations. Some games look great, some don't, even if they used to. Take a look at Final Fantasy VII, for example. The game was praised, through-and-through, for outstanding graphics upon release, right? Now, however, we see that the way the pre-rendered backgrounds are a pain to manage, with you navigating character being in ambiguous places when the perspective draws back. The characters, when not in a battle are hideous. Sure, the cutscenes might look alright, I don't remember them, but to be honest, the game, on a pure visual basis, does not withstand to the same degree Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, and Final Fantasy VI do.
With 3D, more polygons = more detail = better-looking models and environments. There's a much higher ceiling there.
Actually that depends on how it's done...Wind Waker was actually harder to make since they had to develop two layers (the standard 3d model and then the toon-shaded layer on top of that)
That's fixed, because for any console there are only so many pixels that you can put on the screen.
Mario 64
the whole thing feels like a mess.
Why does art or innovation have to be experimental? Experimental tends to mean "we thought we had a cool idea but couldn't really get it to work so you guys go appreciate the coolness of the idea".
Okami + Headache-inducing blur = SUPERFAIL.
Did...uh...NinGurl seriously just say that the graphics of MM9 are lazy and ugly? Does she not realize that the entire point was to recreate the look and feel of the old NES games? Does she have no sense of history or artistic achievement?
Again I say--not every game needs to look like a photograph. Wario Land: Shake It! has very stylized graphics, it looks like a cartoon, that's the whole POINT. Mega Man 9 looks like an NES platformer from 1990. Again, that was the intent, and Capcom succeeded wonderfully.