I doubt anyone wants to hear it, but Nintendo was never really traditionally associated with pushing hardware and making the best looking games, graphically.
Compare most of Nintendo's GameCube output to Resident Evil 4. Wind Waker is the only real exception I can think of from that generation, and that's more stylistic, less of a technical accomplishment.
It's really only recently with Wii needing *someone* to step up to the plate, and specifically with EAD Tokyo, that they've taken on this association.
Nintendo has released plenty of games that were good looking, but did not exactly push the hardware to its limit. Gameplay and controls were always their primary focus, as it should be.
In general it's usually been third parties that push Nintendo's hardware to the limit: Iridon 3D, Square's output on DS, Conker's Bad Fur Day (not third party, but it was not one of Nintendo's in house Japanese devs, Rare differed philosophically), Star Fox Adventures, Rogue Leader, Resident Evil (remake), etc.
I dunno, I think that Revelations could very well end up looking like that in game, with Capcom's track record with the series.
Keeping in mind these are the very first generation of 3DS titles, before devs have even gotten comfortable with the hardware.