*UPDATED* Say it ain’t so (it aint really!)
March 22nd, 2007*UPDATED* used cisco has rightfully pointed out that the PSP screenshots used in the comparison have been re-touched. As he pointed out in the comments, you can look at the original pics here. Thanks used cisco! I’ve posted one below for comparison. You can see that the game looks MUCH jaggier and less polished than what they are showing in the comparison (and I don’t think it’s just a resizing issue). I have no idea why someone would waste their time with this to discredit the Wii, but I guess some people just have way too much time on their hands. It’s still possible the Wii could look worse, but it doesn’t seem quite as obvious any more.
Sega Nerds (via Kotaku) compares screenshots of the Wii and PSP versions of Sega’s Alien Syndrome. While the Wii doesn’t purport to be a graphics powerhouse, the results are, say, less than flattering for the Wii. I’m going to chalk this up to a lazy port rather than an actual indication of power, but lets just hope there’s less and less of these examples as time goes on.
March 22nd, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Yeah, I saw this somewhere else too. It turns out that not only does the Wii version smack of a lazy port, but the PSP image was been retouched quite a bit. Lame.
March 22nd, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Do you mean the screenshot has been re-touched (and therefore doesn’t represent the actual PSP graphics), or that Sega has really been working on the PSP version over the Wii?
March 22nd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I mean, whoever made this comparison is trying to make the Wii look bad. They have totally smoothed over the PSP images to make them look better.
Here is the original from IGN, it is loaded with jaggies and looks far worse than Wii screens.
http://media.psp.ign.com/media/789/789736/img_4328185.html
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Wow, you are right. I’m updating the story.
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 pm
used cisco well spotted. I have to admit I was taken in by this on another site. I never gave it a second thought. if any one has time, try to trace the story back to the start. You might find some viral marketing from sony. remember the alliwantforchristmas farse?
Anyway you get my bloodhound of the week award.
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:39 am
If you fellas actually think we went through the trouble of “re-touching” an image for the sake of an article, you’re quite wrong.
Why don’t you all look at the original images from Sega themselves and decide for yourself. Maybe you’d like to re-update your update, eh?
PSP version
ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_GAMES/Alien%20Syndrome/Screenshots/PSP/AS_Screenshots_Emb021407_PSP/AS_PSPscreens_Emb021407_07.jpg
Wii version
ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_GAMES/Alien%20Syndrome/Screenshots/Wii/AS_Screens_Emb032007/screenshot_004.jpg
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:47 am
Yeah to me those images have not been re-touched. Unless if Sega themselves retouched them.
-The fact that Sega Nerds (the site that seems to have originally posted the images) is a Sega fan site and covers all consoles - suggests to me that there is no point in them trying to make one console look better than the other.
To me it looks like an honest article- just showing a comparison.
I wouldn’t say it’s trying to make the Wii look bad -after reading some of their posts and comments in their forums- you can tell they are fans of the Wii (well aren’t we all?) I think they are just trying to show how lazy some developers can be when it comes to ports.
Look at the Dreamcast- half the PS1 ports it had just had slightly sharper graphics. It wasn’t a reflection in the machine itself…and neither are these screenshots.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:32 am
Firstly I would say that no one here is making any claim, nor stating who did it. I think it’s more of a commenter stating that something didn’t look right about it. Now I’ve been to the ftp site and gone back to the directory I would say the pictures are rather selective. The bmp pictures of the PSP version are “jagged” as (used cisco) points out. Here you will also find the jpg pictures as well. Go look Jeff. Then if we go to the Wii directory Here you will see there are no bmp “jagged” pictures to chose from just low kb jpg, the one chosen for comparison was only 300kb and PSP version 493kb. So whilst that’s not proving a touch up it does suggest the bmp pictures have been converted to jpg and touched up at sometime or another and the save quality was less for the wii versions. However if you go Here there’s 3 pictures of better quality for the wii uploaded in December 2006 which are prettier and three months older than the PSP pictures.
So I think it’s a case of unfinished product, and the pictures chosen were the best of PSP, and worst of wii; not deliberately, but has had the unfortunate effect of upsetting a few fans. For me I don’t care Sega made sonic secret rings, sonic rings made my son cry with frustration, so sonic rings along with, monkey ball and all Sega games can burn in hell for.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:41 am
How embarrassing those links didn’t work:
1) Find PSP at this link
ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_GAMES/Alien%20Syndrome/Screenshots/PSP/AS_Screenshots_Emb021407_PSP
2) Find Wii at this link
ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_GAMES/Alien%20Syndrome/Screenshots/Wii/
3) Find better Wii pictures at this link
ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_GAMES/Alien%20Syndrome/Screenshots/Wii/PREVIOUS_NO%20EMBARGO/AS_Screenshots_121206_Annc/
Sorry if they don’t come out linked you might need to copy and past the old fashioned way.
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 am
Also, I tried to post on the seganerds site to point out the evidence and my post was removed. I call that proof enough for me.
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 am
We are looking into this right now… Thank you everyone for the heads up.
March 23rd, 2007 at 11:28 am
Your post wasn’t removed, cisco; it was sent into the Askimet spam box. I had to go back and check and approve it. It’s now on the site.
March 23rd, 2007 at 12:25 pm
It’s photoshop 101. The image size was reduced to show a fair comparison to the Wii. The jagginess goes away when the size is scaled down. It still proves that the Wii is getting crappy ports from lazy 3rd parties.
March 23rd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
If they were honestly interested in a fair comparison, they would have blown the PSP image up to demonstrate the reduced quality. But it doesnt matter, none of this resolves the issue a “Supposed PSP screenshot” is somehow in 800×400 resolution when the PSP is barely capable of half that. The reality is that neither of these screenshots are representative the respective systems and therefore should not be used for some sort of side by side that makes the assumption they ARE indicative of the respective systems. The lazy developer argument notwithstanding, this is pointless comparison.