Pretty much my same thoughts right there. I remember someone saying "SUDA51 is the Quentin Tarantino of video games". Can't really argue with that. The whole cast of this game is amazing. There wasn't one character I disliked. My personal favorites being:

Is this game really as ugly as it looks in the adverts? It looks like a PS1 game! I know graphics aren't everything but when something looks as bad as this, the casual gamer like me who buys things on the basis of tv ads ain't even going to bother looking for further info online.

It's not bad, but it's certainly nowhere near the best out there. You forgive some of the shortcomings graphically because of the stylistic choices.

So ya, seeing as the Wii is essentially an overclocked Gamecube, I figured there was no way the graphics for No More Heroes looked anything like a PS1 game. I decided to scour the internet in search for a screenshot of some generic PS1 title to compare with the Wii shots. I managed to find a fairly representative screen of Spyro, and a screen of No More Heroes with a resolution of 640 x 480 which is pretty standard for Wii. I added a few other screens in simply as filler and additional comparison. This was the result.

Playstation One
Spyro
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...dRat/spyro.jpg

Gran Turismo
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...screensrp0.jpg

Wii
No More Heroes
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...dRat/large.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...4053907346.jpg

Unsatisfied with the lack of quality from the Wii screenshot, I found something from the PS2 to compare it to just for the sake of reference.

PS2
Jak and Daxter
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...92665_full.jpg

Here is a comparison to a good looking Wii game. This is Mario Galaxy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...1408041905.jpg
It is sad to say, but I really don't see a substantial difference between Spyro and No More Heroes myself. Sure the No More Heroes screen has more colour and more objects in it, but it looks grainy and Jagged. I think the Jack and Daxter screen shot seriously looks better than all the screens above it and the Mario Galaxy stands a head taller than even these. I do know that to see the graphics in motion says a lot, but judging from the screencaps alone, there is definitely a problem here.

Admittedly NMH doesn't look that good even in decent quality screenshots. The environments are low ps2 quality at best, but I love the main character models, especially the way hair is done. To see the game moving on your own TV (CRT at least) is a new experience.

Also keep in mind that's a fairly hi-res still of Spyro, no PS1 game ever looked that good on a regular TV because of the lower resolution.

I think it's the jagged edges that ruin NMH. It looks like there's clipping between polys where there probably isn't. It's a similar graphical style to SMT:Nocturne but that looks more polished:

http://dailyscreenshots.de/screensho...ne/ps2-1365491

It's probably because there's far less on screen or something, I dunno.

PS1 games-wise, I was thinking of Tekken 3 or something:

http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0010/tekken3.jpg

Ridge Racer 4 maybe:

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7...3798192tg5.jpg

The graphics reminded me a little of GTA on PS2. But the weakness in the graphics are strongly countered by the voice acting, the humour and motion capture. (I’m guessing they both used motion capture, but hell if I know really.)

But yeah, it does look a bit crud for a Wii game. Ridge Racer 4 actually looks better in that shot. =o

I wouldn't say it's as bad as GTA 3-- those games had a serious problem with joining limbs to a person's torso. At least the people in No More Heroes look like full human beings.

Anyway, we forgive the game's graphical shortcoming's because of the great character designs and the fact that Travis Touchdown is the best new protagonist in a video game in the past five years.

But Myst 3 looks better than all those games. I think one really has to consider the technical demand of different graphical feats. In the case of Tekken, the background is just a still backdrop and most of the processing power is devoted to the character models and game physics. For that reason, it really isn't a direct comparison to something like No More Heroes, where the entire background is animated in full 3D.