[quote name='KABUKISTAR']One word: Shenmue. (the first one). If you play it now, it's nothing that spectacular (about equivelent with current gen), but when it came out for the Dreamcast, it was hot shit; one of the most visually realistic games of the time, with incredibly effort put into character and environmental realism. It even had some Hi-def, in the form of VGA support.
But it
SUCKED! One of the worst games I've ever played, and I'm pretty sure the worst game that I own. The control scheme was awful, the plot was freaking boring, and the gameplay was absolutely monotonous. You spent most of your time running around and asking people stupid questions, or driving a forklift as a part-time job. They made it to look like this awesome kung-fu game, but there are only like 3 battles in the whole freaking game, and you could learn and practice a whole bunch of different moves, but it was pointless, because every battle could be beaten by just repeating the punch-punch-punch combo ad nausium, until you win. And at the end of the game, how are you rewarded for making it through all that crap? Your character gets on a boat, to go to China, to continue his journey (undoubtedly finding a part time job driving a Chinese fork-lift, as he asks Chinese people stupid questions in his spare time).
Now, what does this have to do with the Wii, you ask? Everything. Current gaming in standards are that graphics are what's important. Rather than working on developing new genres or control schemes, all game developers work on doing is making thier product more visually appealing, and crappy games like Shenmue are the biproduct of that thinking.
But Nintendo is breaking away from that, with the Wii. They're showing that there's more to upgrade in a system, than how many pixels it can pump out per second, they're finally doing what every game company should: they're breaking away from the norm of focusing on graphics, they're trying something different, and so far, the results look like they're going to be great. If you want to see something that just looks good, then go to a movie, but if you want to play a game that's actually fun, get a Wii.[/QUOTE]
Shenmue does not have Hi-Def. It has Enhanced Definition (480p) the only other system besides 360 or PC to have Hi-Def is about 20 XBOX games. Check here to see which ones (the ones with 720p or 1080i):
http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/index.php?autocom=custom&page=xboxa
Also, everyone fails to realize that more power does not just mean better graphics. It means more realistic physics (which can add a lot to the game), bigger enviroments, better AI, and much more. You can't tell me that PS2, XBOX, and GC are just graphically better versions of PS & N64 games. Nor can you say that all of the current generation games could have been ported to older systems by just downgrading the graphics (and keeping everything else exactly the same).