Why Wii Doesn't Need HD (By Carl B.)
November 23, 2010, by Carl B. - In a generation where gamers are crazy about a game's aspect ratio or how many pixels per second a console can process, many have expressed discontent for the Wii's lack of HD support. The popularity of HD has risen to such highs that Youtube videos have an HD mode (and are still, somehow pretty low-quality) and there's even such thing as an "HD Radio." To top off the insanity, Qwest has a marketing campaign where they describe their Internet service as HD. Despite the love affair the main stream media and a great number of gamers have with HD, Nintendo's current home console doesn't need it.
While I don't play my PS3 as much as I play my Wii and DS, I do own some pretty fantastic games, both in overall quality and visual quality. But here's the thing: I play all my games on my four-year-old SD TV, including PS3 games. Uncharted 2, which is easily the best realistic-looking game to release this generation, still looks amazing in Standard Definition.
That's not to say games in HD don't look great, because they certainly do. However, a Wii HD wouldn't bring in Resident Evil 5. It wouldn't bring in BioShock, Red Dead Redemption, or Fallout: New Vegas.
The problem with the Wii is that its processing power doesn't come close to the PS3 or Xbox 360. Masachika Kawata, Resident Evil 5's producer, said in a GameTrailers interview back in October of 2008 that the Wii couldn't even handle the game's intro screen. This probably isn't completely true, but the fact remains that the Wii can't handle games with that level of detail.
Red Dead Redemption and Fallout: New Vegas would only work on Wii if each game was scaled down both visually and in overall scope. Both games feature huge open worlds for players to explore that load in real-time and have a high attention to detail (minus various glitches, of course). The perfect example is with the Call of Duty series on Wii. Black Ops looks decent by Wii standards, but compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, the game looks terrible. Even if the Wii had HD, Call of Duty: Black Ops would still pale in comparison to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions on the visual level. Consider the following screenshots:
Call of Duty: Black Ops for Wii.
Call of Duty: Black Ops for PS3/Xbox 360.
There are some Wii games that push the console to its limits. Titles like Monster Hunter Tri, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Red Steel 2 all look fantastic, despite not being in HD and being on a lesser-powered console. These games are stuck in the middle-ground; visually superior to most Wii games and last-generation games, but not quite on par with PS3 and Xbox 360 games. HD would only make these games – and all Wii games for that matter – look cleaner on a larger TV. It wouldn't allow for more detailed textures, more detailed character models, or more enemies on screen.
There probably won't be a Wii HD – judging from Nintendo's comments on the notion – and Nintendo's next console might not support it, but looking at what the company is doing with the 3DS, there's hope that the Wii's successor will have processing power on par with the competition.
