So nobody really expected Call of Duty to look as good as the PS3 or 360 versions, but come on… didn't some Wii fanboys reach for the panic button when Little Big Planet came down the pipe, and it dawned on them that someone had out-nintendoed Nintendo?

I've owned every system Nintendo has ever made… and for the second time in my life I've bought a gaming console NOT made by The big N, ending a streak that's been alive since the SNES debuted in the summer of '91 (stealing a good amount of Sonic The Hedgehog's thunder) and put my Genesis into semi-retirement. I got into the high-def world of Playstation 3 a few weeks ago, but before I wrote about it I wanted to, at the very least, familiarize myself with the core titles and exclusives. Now, having stepped out of the bubble, I think I better understand what the Wii is and what it's not. And I'm compelled to talk about how the experience has changed me as a Nintendo fanboy.

I like HD Graphics—a lot

The most obvious difference is graphics. PS3 hardware is capable of rendering graphics at true 1080p and at 60 frames per second (the holy grail of HD game development) and even though it's actually 720p at 30fps most of the time, visuals on PS3 are better than those on the Wii—that's putting it diplomatically.To put it bluntly, when placed side-by-side with PS3 graphics, Wii graphics blow. In terms of enjoyment of games, good graphics matter. More than I previously cared to acknowledge. Games with good graphics are just really impressive to people.

Whether it's the way the Helghast jump over the railings in the opening level of Killzone 2, or the fact that you can see the stitching on the cloth building blocks in LittleBigPlanet,or a straight-up comparison of Call of Duty versions, the PS3 tends to stop people in their tracks. I had one of those moments, pretty rare for someone in my age group, where "I couldn't believe how good it was" when I loaded up KZ2, which offers arguably the best looking FPS graphics in any game on any platform… and it's not even 1080p.

Trophies

With the obvious success of the the Xbox 360's Achievement leader boards and PS3's trophy comparison systems, and legions of gamers participating in the trophy hunt with the same or even more fervor than they generate for any individual game, why the heck doesn't the Wii have something comparable? And before you say anything: no, becoming a 5-star Mii Artisan with a good "judging eye" just isn't the same.

Experienced gamers want more game

In addition to those who want to be wowed by displays of raw power, there are those seasoned gamers who want deep, detailed adventures that fill up most or all of the PS3's whopping 50GB Blu-ray disc capacity. FIFTY Gigs. By comparison, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the first Wii game to use 9 gig dual-layer DVDs, all earlier games (may I remind you that this includes Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Twilight Princess) fit onto 4.7GB media. You may argue that few PS3 games will make use of all of that capacity, but Metal Gear Solid 4 already has, and not frivolously—it was, by most accounts, the best video game of 2008.

The LittleBigPlanet Factor

You're no doubt becoming aware that a tiny studio called Media Molecule and publishing giant Sony teamed up at the end of last year to bring the gaming world LittleBigPlanet, which has, with its level editor, thriving community, and smiling creatures, hit a monster home run. The "play, create, share" concept isn't new, but one can argue that it's never been done this well before, and few if any video games in the past 20 years have been as absorbing or as magical (or as destined to inspire ripoffs) as LBP. It's sold over 2 million copies, too, and a sequel is in the works; Nintendo does NOT have a monopoly on wares for the "non-traditional gamer" or games for kids, or even for whimsy! Not any longer. LittleBigPlanet is just a huge amount of game, and while the level-creation side of things isn't perfect, and it requires a good helping of geekiness (and maybe a dash of obsessiveness) to fully appreciate it and to build anything good, you don't need a computer science degree in order to get started; it's actually quite intuitive. As I sat surrounded by highly-rated, barely touched game discs, level-creation in LittleBigPlanet was ALL of my gaming for the better part of a week and a half, and I'm by no means done with it.

What does this all mean?

The Wii will continue to be the party console, and will continue to help usher in a new era of gesture-based gaming control, will continue to be the top of the heap for the time being, and I will continue to love it. And yes, sales figures for Super Mario Galaxy 2 will probably dwarf those for LBP. But I hope most of Nintendo's R&D dollars and Wii developer efforts are going towards making the controls even cooler (I remain optimistic about Wii MotionPlus), to releasing more exclusives, to focus on stylized games rendered in art genres which are within its limits yet still pleasing to the eye, and to releasing retro stuff on the virtual console... not towards trying to squeeze a few more frames per second out of 480p Call of Duty ports. They can't compete in that battle and shouldn't try; at least not until we see an HD Wii.

I should talk for a minute about on-rails "shooting gallery" type games, and how, for whatever reason (maybe because they're evocative of shooting ranges with pop-up cardboard bad guys), on-rails shooters don't need to have jaw-dropping graphics to be satisfying. As such, these games actually work really well on the Wii, as we've seen with House of the Dead: Overkill and Resident Evil 4, and this is the case with or without the Wii-Zapper. These games play to the Wii's strengths. In theory (and to a degree, demonstrated in practice, with the Wii version of Call of Duty: World at War) the Wii's sensor bar/wiimote combo offers the nicest control setup for shooting games on any of the consoles. The Conduit, due out at the end of this month, may further cement this.

I'm a Nintendo fan… and typically when someone bashes the Wii, Nintendo fans respond as if that person just punched their kitten. Well, I don't think this article is a Wii-bashing piece. Yes, I bought a PS3, and no Ihaven't merely been playing it, I've been caught up in it. But my Nintendo fanboyism is unshaken, just not untested.

Most have summed up the console debate with rhetoric along the lines of, that with the Wii, Nintendo went for a more flexible, friendly and intuitive control scheme, finesse if you will, and Sony (and Microsoft) went for power, and so whichever system you play, you're getting a "Next Gen" experience to a degree. But that's not the whole story any more; in the eyes of adult gamers, and just about everyone else, Nintendo does not currently offer enough.

And yeah, the Wii still has something that the other consoles are hard-pressed to touch; Mario and Link. There is a sizeable contingent whom will follow them religiously, onto whichever platform they leap. And let's not forget that the Wii launch wasn't simply huge, it was culturally significant. However, until we see an HD incarnation, I want more. I want some PS3 with my Nintendo.