Before I go on, let's get a thing or two straight. First of all, I'm not against powerful video game graphics. I think the improvements that have been made in the gaming industry are heaven sent, and I appreciate them (in fact, I can't stand 2-D Zelda, so the advent of 3-D gaming means a lot to me). My point of view is that today's gamers put too much weight on graphical capacity. Here's why:
Compare a game that had "good" graphics twenty years ago to a game that has "good" graphics today. I predict that today's graphics, just as yesterday's graphics, will be laughable twenty years from now. It's like the world of fashion: we mock the fashions of twenty years ago. Just try to imagine the gamers of tomorrow, laughing at what we consider to be "good" graphics today. Let go of your narrow perspective and recognize the limitless potential of the future! It's not the most realistic or powerful graphics that will go down in history: it's the ones into which thought was put.
So let's talk about Nintendo. It's no secret that Nintendo's Wii console is less powerful than other systems of its generation. Here's a good question, though: why has the Wii dominated its competition in this generation of console wars? The answer lies within Nintendo's philosophy that the graphics don't make the game; the way the player interacts with the game is what's important. And isn't that what gives the medium its identity? Movies provide endless amounts of the realism that is so vainly sought after in video games. Nintendo is out to make sure that the video game industry never goes without a fresh way to interact with the action on the screen.
And what of Nintendo's graphics? I'm going to use The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as my example. Even when the game's graphics are praised, a comment about the Wii console is made. "...despite the limitations of the Wii." So what? The graphics in Skyward Sword are excellent on any scale, compared to anything else, limitations or no limitations. They are creative, artistic, imaginative, and expressive, traits that are severely underrated in gaming culture today. Graphics play a part in shaping a game world, and the world of Skyward Sword is rich with detail, despite the limitations of the Wii. The world of Skyward Sword is vibrant and alive, despite the limitations of the Wii. The world of Skyward Sword is one I gladly return to again and again, despite the limitations of the Wii.
Nintendo's graphics may not be the most powerful or realistic out there, but I think that's because Nintendo has got the right idea about video games: that they are a medium defined by the user's ability to take control. I stick with Nintendo because the company has always striven for innovation, leaving menial pursuits like graphical capacity in the background (and thus saving me literally hundreds of dollars on top of that).
