You still really can't see that far off into the distance. What you are seeing in the Pikmin stage is a background of a background....its just filler. There is a chance that the second background in the back moves.
I am majoring in Game and Simulation Programming (senior), currently taking Computer Graphics w/ Programming (using DirectX). I know definitely what I'm talking about. You are 100% wrong when you state that video games are not affected by frame rates in a 2.5D environment. Street Fighter 4 is a perfect example of this. I dare you to research why the "Training Stage" is the only stage played at competitive tournaments. Want to know the reason? Oh...that's right...there is lag on other stages. The FPS does not stay at a static 60 FPS. The background is not static, things happen. Animations in the background can cause lag.
P.S. : *complains about people being elitist then brags about his major when it has nothing to do with programming*
3D effects are only put into play when you PAUSE the screen? What? Lol???????
Sorry, but the game uses a 3D plane at all times. There are X, Y, and Z coordinates. Only the characters move on a 2 Dimensional plane, but there is still depth. How the heck do you explain the depth in the background? I'll let you research this more on your own, too lazy to explain...
Yep simple programming...
The camera is dynamic dude. Its not static. The camera does not stay in one place. If the fight is happening more on the left side...oh hey guess what, the screen leans more to the left. It takes the average of each player's position and centers the screen based around that average. Good thing the camera isn't always changing...nope...
You can easily take a screenshot of LoZ or Metroid, they just never implemented an option. Oh, but guess what? The Wii U has a function that can take screen shots in any game and post them on MiiVerse. Why is that? Guess you can take screenshots in Zelda and Metroid now!
Yes, Fatmanonice's explanation could be right, due to the style of the game, not just cause of Brawl, rather Pikmin in general.
P.S.: Straight from that article:
A common trick used in games to disguise a short draw distance is to obscure the area with a distance fog. Alternative methods have been developed to sidestep the problem altogether using level of detail manipulation. Black & White was one of the earlier games to use adaptive level of detail to decrease the number of polygons in objects as they moved away from the camera, allowing it to have a massive draw distance while maintaining detail in close-up views.
AFK getting a haircut.