Darksiders II

Final development kits for the Wii U are now out there in the hands of developers, and comments on the power of the system’s final hardware are starting to come out.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Darksiders 2 associate producer Jay Fitzloff had this to say:

“The visuals will be the same [as the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions]. It’s still a work in progress. But I know, at least as good is the way to say it.”

Another developer who spoke to Eurogamer—but wished to remain anonymous—said that Wii U ports will “at best” look as good as PS3 or Xbox 360 games, but that games which were built from the ground up for the Wii U would be better at showing off the true graphic capabilities of the system.

Obviously, the power on display at the start of a console’s life cycle isn’t a true representation of what that console can do. Look at the launch titles for the Xbox 360 or the PS3, and compare them to the games we have now.

Still—the Xbox 360 was released seven years ago, and the PlayStation 3 six. To say that Nintendo’s brand new console will have games that look “at least as good” as those consoles just feels so unsatisfying to me. Even if the system isn’t a gigantic jump over the current HD systems, I want to see the Wii U show me games that neither of those consoles could do at this point—and I mean graphically, not just in terms of a special controller.

What do you think? Is getting Nintendo games in HD on the level of the Xbox 360 or PS3 enough for you to be satisfied? Or is Nintendo playing it too safe in terms of the Wii U’s abilities?