Best Wii Games Ever
Image: Nintendo Life

Nintendo changed the game with Wii, the little motion-controlled console which broke away from the competition and started a revolution. Its brilliantly compact design (the size of three DVD boxes, remember?) and approachable controller helped it open up gaming to a whole new audience, young and old alike.

Despite its reputation as a casual, 'kiddy' console, the huge library of Wii games has some of the most fantastic and varied titles on any system, and the very best Nintendo Wii games took advantage of its unique features in brilliant ways.

To highlight the best of the best, we've compiled the following list of our top 50 Wii games ever.

The 50 Top Wii Games

50. Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth (WiiWare)

Part of Konami's 'ReBirth' series – which also includes Contra and Gradius – this M2-coded offering has very little to do with the Game Boy original, outside of the fact that it showcases Christopher Belmont in the lead role.

A return to the hand-drawn 2D visuals of the classic entries in the series, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth plays like a dream – although it can be somewhat brutal at points and, with only six stages, doesn't offer the same amount of content as, say, Bloodlines or Dracula X.

It's also no longer available for purchase as Nintendo has long since closed the Wii eShop; fingers are firmly crossed that Konami sees sense and republishes all of the ReBirth titles on modern-day systems.

49. Wii Fit Plus (Wii)

Whilst the failure to fully address issues from the original Wii Fit was a bit of a disappointment, Wii Fit Plus was still a good exercise program with a large array of fun activities that appealed to a broad range of Wii owners. If you already owned Wii Fit, it was definitely an upgrade worth getting.

48. Sonic Colours (Wii)

One of the very best 3D Sonic games in our books, Sonic Colors managed to translate the classic 2D gameplay and introduce a gimmick that complimented rather than disrupted that gameplay.

The Wisp power-ups gave Sonic new abilities which tied in beautifully to some strong level design and delivered the best Sonic experience we'd ever had in three dimensions. Also available in Ultimate form on Switch.

47. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials & Tribulations (WiiWare)

Another awkward transition to the TV screen for a game which began life on a handheld, we wouldn't recommend playing the WiiWare version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials & Tribulations these days — besides the fact that you can no longer access the Wii Shop, there are too many excellent alternative ways to play.

This port really should have included pointer controls, but even given its sloppy presentation on Wii, the base game is still pretty ace.

46. Cave Story (WiiWare)

There are plentiful ways to enjoy Cave Story these days, and none of them are bad.

The WiiWare version will be mighty difficult to get hold of if you don't already own it and have it downloaded (the Wii Shop is no longer in operation), but regardless of where or how you play this indie platforming gem, it comes heartily recommended - and this version was a winner.

45. Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)

Animal Crossing: City Folk did add a few new bells and whistles to the experience, but it just didn't feel like enough, especially considering how long the game was in development. The formula is still there, it just felt too much like both previous releases, creating more of a feeling of déjà vu for series fans when many of us were looking for a cutting-edge Wii experience.

The game was still a lot of fun, and the Wiimote controls and Wii Speak microphone were nice touches. Ultimately, though, this felt like a game that had been done one time too many and could have offered up a lot more.

44. Little King's Story (Wii)

An excellent little explorative RTS game that holds its own against the Pikmin series.

You're put in charge of a village and it's your job to ensure your citizens' happiness while expanding your kingdom upwards and outwards. Little King's Story is one of those games that is loved by all who play it, yet remains one of Wii's many 'hidden' gems.

If it sounds at all enticing, we recommend tracking down a copy while they're easy to source — you won't regret it.

43. Monster Hunter 3 (Tri~) (Wii)

While Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is arguably the best way to play Monster Hunter Tri, the original game is still an impressive piece of software from Capcom. It's something of a slow burn, and certainly a daunting challenge if this is your first hunt, but the old-school monster-hunting magic is in this game's DNA regardless of platform.

If you have the fortitude to persevere through the first few hours, you'll find out why this series has only gone from strength to strength over the decades.

42. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (WiiWare)

A poor port of a great game, we can only assume residual affection for the original software itself is elevating the WiiWare releases in your estimations.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a corker, but of the myriad ways available to play it these days, this is probably the last version we'd recommend.

41. MadWorld (Wii)

PlatinumGames' MadWorld presented an inky black-and-white aesthetic that served to highlight the ultra-violence of the action whenever red blood sprayed across the screen, which was a lot.

Tapping into the visual style of Frank Miller's dark graphic novel Sin City, Madworld is another example that the Wii's reputation as a family-friendly console, though warranted, is only partially correct. In fact, it had an incredibly varied catalogue and this Sega-published hack-and-slack brawler was a fine example.

40. Resident Evil (Wii)

A Wii port of the 2002 GameCube remake featuring new controls, Resident Evil (or Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil to give its full title) provides what we came to expect from Wii re-releases of previous-gen titles: a more accessible, incrementally improved control experience with box art that's a bit rubbish.

Just concentrate on the horror of the game rather than the horror of the box and you're golden.

39. World of Goo (WiiWare)

World of Goo is a masterful game which marries addictive physics-based puzzling with a fun gooey aesthetic and some biting social commentary to produce one of the best-ever games on Wii or whatever system it appears on.

This special game was a 10 then, it's a 10 now, and shall always remain a 10. And the IR pointer in the original game still trumps the gyro-based equivalent (which needs frequent recentering) and the touchscreen option in the Switch re-release. Just spectacularly good.

38. The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)

A foul-mouthed, gorily stylised 'lightgun' shooter in the B-movie mould, The House of the Dead: Overkill has its tongue impaled through its cheek and is best served with buckets of popcorn.

It's yet another slice of mature entertainment on that most family-friendly of consoles, and further proof that the breadth of genres found in Wii's software library was second to none.

37. Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii)

An adventure game from Capcom that's bursting at the seams with creativity and ideas, anyone who's played Zack & Wiki will wax lyrical about how you're really missing out if you never got around to it. Why? Because it's absolutely wonderful — that's why!

Seriously, take a moment to navigate to your secondhand games retailer or auction site of choice and nab yourself a copy right now. If nothing else, it'll shut the Z&W evangelists up. Ordered it yet? Excellent. Now play it. Don't worry, we'll wait...

Good, isn't it? Welcome to the club. Now go preach the good word.

36. Super Paper Mario (Wii)

Super Paper Mario blends classic platformer with some of the RPG elements of its predecessors and throws in a world-flipping mechanic that gives you a whole new perspective on traditional 2D platforming courses. It diverges heavily from Thousand-Year Door's way of doing things, and as a result, divides series fans.

Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of fandom, the Wii entry is a beautiful game with fiendish puzzles and an intriguing, unique flip mechanic.

35. Mario Strikers Charged (Wii)

Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom pals put down their jumpers for goalposts and had another crack at the beautiful game in this follow-up to their first time on the pitch on GameCube in 2005.

Mario Strikers Charged delivers exactly the brand of arcade pyrotechnical take on football you'd expect, with Next Level Games once again on dev duties as the studio went up another rung on the ladder in Nintendo's estimations on their way to such gems as Punch-Out!!, Luigi's Mansion 2, and the sublime Luigi's Mansion 3 - and ultimately being acquired and brought under Nintendo's first-party umbrella in 2021.

34. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)

Now available to play on Switch along with its predecessor, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle continues the stylish (mis)adventures of Travis Touchdown in a sequel infused with the same punk-aesthetic, referential humour and sassy surrealism as the first game, except with the splintered edges sanded down to a still-pleasingly rough-and-ready finish.

33. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii)

Combining the original two Lego Star Wars trilogies from the GameCube era, the now-misleadingly named LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga offers hours of low-barrier family fun with dozens of playable characters blasting and lightsaber-ing their way through galactic locales, all to the sound of John Williams' iconic score.

This Danish plastic take on the series was infused with charm from the beginning. Reimagining key scenes from the six movies in silent slapstick (and with DS versions of all of them scaling the games down in a generally admirable fashion), the Lego characters and the comedic, playful tone of the entire game made it a great co-op experience to blast through with friends or younger relatives.

The moveset might be small, but that can't be said for the roster. We can honestly say that leaping around with a Force-infused Yoda (who usually hobbles with a cane) like some crazy, laser-sword-wielding frog is some of the most fun lightsaber combat we've ever engaged in.

It might lack depth, and the fancy-pants new version on Switch might be better overall, but the original 'complete' Lego Star Wars remains hugely accessible and it still brings a smile to our face.

32. Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)

A gorgeous side-on action RPG, 2009's Muramasa: The Demon Blade was ahead of the wave of side-scrolling platformers that would arrive from indie studios over the next few years, and Vanillaware's eye-catching adventure through Japanese folklore is still a treat many years later.

31. No More Heroes (Wii)

No More Heroes certainly isn’t perfect; the tasks you’re given in between missions are dull (calling to mind the same boredom experienced when you had to get a job in Sega’s Shenmue), the Grant Theft Auto-style driving sections border on pointless (we can only assume they’re intended to be a thinly-veiled dig at the successful franchise), and the general gameplay doesn’t actually change during any of the assassination missions.

But regardless of these points, it still entertains in a way that few other games can manage. It’s a chaotic riot packed with gleeful videogame references, over-the-top dialogue, and some seriously awesome-looking combat action.

A far more accessible proposition than Killer7 ever was, No More Heroes is so wonderfully amusing that it’s easy to forgive its minor shortcomings; Suda 51’s epic fully deserved to garner the kind of attention and praise that unfortunately eluded its predecessor.

30. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Wii)

A crossover fighter bringing together Capcom's finest with the varied faces of Tekkaman, Karas, Jun the Swan, Gold Lightan, and other luminary characters from Japanese Animation studio Tatsunoko's IP portfolio, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars was an appropriately gorgeous, madcap and joyous console-exclusive fighter on a system which missed out on some of the biggest franchises in the 2D fighting space.

29. Mega Man 9 (WiiWare)

Winding back the clock to Mega Man's NES routes with a potent throwback, Inti Creates and Capcom tapped into our nostalgia beautifully with Mega Man 9, returning the bombardier bleu to his original 8-bit stylings in the first numbered entry in the original series for 12 years.

Simply making it look authentic wouldn't have been enough, though. Fortunately, Inti Creates crafted a tight little run-and-gun platformer worthy of bearing that hallowed digit.

28. Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)

A cracking 2D platformer from the folks at Good-Feel, Wario Land: Shake It! (or Wario Land: The Shake Dimension if you prefer the European flavour) brought the antihero's antics to Wii in fine fashion.

It's hardly the longest 2D platformer you'll ever play, but its gorgeous art style and Wario's adorably greedy antics give us the warm fuzzies when we think back to 2008.

27. Rayman Origins (Wii)

Before the sublime Rayman Legends, there was the sublime Rayman Origins.

A 2D platformer par excellence (as they say in Ubisoft's homeland), the limbless wonder always had an impressive heritage in the platforming genre, but this arguably raised him up alongside the invention and beauty of Nintendo's own offerings — perhaps even higher if you ask players who aren't fans of Super Mario's 'New' adventures.

26. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)

The first 2D entry to come to a home console since Mario World in the early '90s, 2009's New Super Mario Bros. Wii brought chaotic — a little too chaotic for some — four-player local multiplayer to the series for the first time.

This game gave old-school fans yearning for a side-on Mushroom Kingdom adventure something to chew on, with plenty of clever nods to the past, although as with the rest of the 'New' series, you could argue that the visual presentation was a little bland. Cracking music in this one, though.

Arriving in a red Wii case which really made it stand out on the shelf, anyone put off by the New series' 'wah's and cuteness missed out on a real platforming treat in NSMB Wii.

25. New Play Control! Pikmin (Wii)

Who says that Switch is the first Nintendo system to plunder its less successful predecessor for choice 'deluxe' re-releases, eh?

The 'New Play Control!' series brought back a host of GameCube titles with Wii Remote enhancements and other additions for a new audience, and if you never played Pikmin originally on the lil' purple box, this was the perfect way to catch up.

Terrible box art, though. Does anyone actually like those? "Well, you didn't play it the first time around, so as punishment, you're getting the boring box." Actually, the covers were reversible so you could get something far closer to the original GC box art if you wanted.

Anyway, Pikmin. Good game.

24. Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)

A sequel to Treasure's cult classic N64 rail shooter (which didn't make it to the West until it appeared on Wii's Virtual Console in 2007), this sequel improves on the experience and is arguably the better of the two games — yet another fantastic addition to a huge and impressively varied console library.

We're thankful we didn't have to resort to importing this one back in the day.

23. Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii)

Bringing the handheld series to home console, Rhythm Heaven Fever (or Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise as it was known in Europe) showcased the series' infectious beat-based surrealism on the TV for the first time.

It's almost as fun to watch as it is to play, and the Wii Remote was a great fit for what remains the series' only home console entry to date.

22. WarioWare Smooth Moves (Wii)

An early showcase of the Wii Remote (or the 'Form Baton' as it's known in-game), WarioWare Smooth Moves brought the anarchic micro-gameplay and aesthetic of the handheld series to the Wii in an entry which surely ranks as the most widely played of any WarioWare title.

You never quite knew what was coming next, and this ranks up there alongside Wii Sports as an off-the-wall demonstration of the console's potential in those first few months.

21. The Last Story (Wii)

Coming from Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, The Last Story was an impressive RPG and one of the last big releases for the system. While it struggled from a technical perspective at times, it's an ambitious title that's worth playing today if you missed out back in 2012.

Along with Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora's Tower, it's also notable as one of the titles North American players campaigned to see released in that territory — Nintendo, who published that game elsewhere, eventually granted Xseed publishing rights and it released six months after PAL regions.

20. Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition (Wii)

A 20th anniversary collection of some of the most popular Kirby games ever, 2012's Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition spans the puffball's debut on Game Boy through his NES and SNES adventures and also includes his N64 outing; so, that's Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Kirby Super Star and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards in one very convenient package.

Convenient for Japanese and North American players, that is — it never saw the light of day in PAL regions. Cue our sad European Kirby eyes.

19. Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)

A gorgeous, low-stress game that transports Kirby into a world of fabric and thread, Kirby's Epic Yarn was the first of Good-Feel's material-based platformers and is arguably still the best.

We adore it. Anyone who says it's lacking in the challenge department is correct... but missing the point entirely. Kirby's Epic Yarn is one of the most joyous and creative games on Wii, or indeed any platform. (It's also available on 3DS in Extra Epic form.)

18. Punch-Out!! (Wii)

Next Level Games managed to recapture all the character and energy of the original Punch-Out!! on Wii while adding a beautiful cel-shaded graphical style.

With all the fighters from the NES game returning, the motion controls were cute, if a little hit-and-miss, but the option to play using the old-school control style made this a truly excellent update of a classic boxer where it's all about watching your opponent.

17. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)

A co-development between Intelligent Systems and Nintendo SPD, Radiant Dawn is a direct sequel to Path of Radiance and could even accept save data brought over from its predecessor which boosted character stats. It was well worth doing, too, as Radiant Dawn was noted for its high difficulty and any advantage was welcome.

This Wii entry brought back dark magic into the fold and increased the scope and number of characters in comparison to Path of Radiance, but wasn't the sales success Nintendo had hoped.

Despite being proclaimed as absolute pinnacles of the series, with many fans citing one of these two as their franchise favourites, the GameCube and Wii entries represented a low point sales-wise, which unfortunately signalled a retreat back to portable hardware only. Indeed, it would be 12 years until the series would grace a television screen once again.

16. Wii Sports (Wii)

You played it, your mum played it, your granddad played it; more to the point, you all enjoyed it. Drawing people in with a gimmick is relatively easy, but Wii Sports managed to genuinely entertain entire families and get them playing video games together for an extended period — perhaps for the first time ever.

This pack-in brought huge numbers of people together in silly Mii form and showcased the potential of motion controls to gamers from all generations. It's quite simply one of the most important video games ever made, and the most killer of apps.

15. Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii)

Taking Kirby back to his classic game style following a couple of genre departures, Kirby's Return to Dream Land was a worthy return and yet another glittering gem in the Wii's platforming lineup.

With all the colour and creativity you'd expect from HAL, and a ton of content to delve into, this was a wonderful trip to Kirby's land of dreams.

14. New Play Control! Pikmin 2 (Wii)

Some might say this is the finest version of the finest Pikmin game, offering the best of all worlds with Wii Remote pointer functionality and a surprisingly good multiplayer component, too.

The sequel might make the fruit look tastier in gorgeous HD, but Pikmin 2 is still the gold standard of the series in our book, whether you play on GameCube, with some New Play Control! on Wii, or on Switch.

13. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Showcasing the sort of swordplay we'd hoped Twilight Princess would contain, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was a beautiful entry in the series which dared to try some new ideas, something the franchise desperately needed at the time.

It arguably didn't get everything right, and why Nintendo ditched the beautifully accurate IR pointer in favour of a gyro alternative which required constant re-centering — especially when everyone already had the IR sensor hooked up anyway! — is still a source of confusion for us. We found the MotionPlus swordplay itself excellent, though.

Chronologically, this is the very first game in the Zelda timeline, so it's pretty much required reading for series fans. While it has its naysayers, we look back on our time with Skyward Sword very fondly.

12. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

Following the online exploits of Mario Kart DS, it was almost a given that Mario Kart Wii would follow suit and include the ability to play against the world — thankfully, despite the console's rather anaemic online capabilities, the experience was nothing short of stunning.

From the outside, the Wii entry might have sacrificed some of the kart racing series' personality, but the online multiplayer with support for up to twelve players, optional motion controls (who could forget that plastic wheel accessory?), and additional vehicles and characters helped make it one of the most accessible entries in the series.

Successful, too. It sold a staggering 37.38 million copies.

11. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)

Introducing Wii Remote control into Retro's Prime template, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was an excellent conclusion to the trilogy (well, until the next entry eventually makes it a quadrilogy), a series of games that proved Samus could not only survive the jump into 3D first-person shooting, but absolutely flourish in that genre.

Prime 3: Corruption as a separate release was subsequently rendered a tad redundant with the release of the entire trilogy on one glorious disc, but this is still a cracking shooter on its own.

10. Okami (Wii)

This was arguably the game which proved that third parties had mastered the grammar of the 3D language Nintendo invented with Ocarina of Time. Okami is a gorgeous Japanese adventure with an oddball cast of characters, fabulous music, and an unforgettable art style.

The HD version on Switch is probably the best way to play these days, but the Wii port of Clover's PS2 original was a delight back in 2008.

9. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)

The third entry in the scrap 'em up series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the first to introduce Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake, and included the lauded Subspace Emissary mode.

Picking up the baton from the celebrated GameCube entry, Brawl pushed the series in an all-encompassing direction as far as content was concerned, and set the precedent for the 'more is more' approach to stages, fighters, music, and more that kept Masahiro Sakurai occupied eight-days-a-week for many years after.

8. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)

Showcasing the chonky new MotionPlus accessory (eventually built into the updated Wii Remote Plus), Wii Sports Resort offered the kind of motion-tracking fidelity many of us had imagined the Wii would offer out of the gate.

Highlights of this game — which introduced Wuhu Island and expanded on the original game with a bunch of new activities — included fencing and throwing a frisbee for an adorable pooch.

7. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

This revival of Rare's treasured Donkey Kong Country series came after developer Retro Studios had successfully reinvented Nintendo's Metroid as an exploratory first-person shooter, so we shouldn't have been surprised that the team was able to recapture the spirit of that 16-bit platformer series three console generations later with Donkey Kong Country Returns. However, just how good the 2010 game turned out still came as a big shock.

The 3DS port was equally impressive, although having played the excellent Tropical Freeze, it's tougher to return (ahem) to Returns these days, even Forever Entertainment's Switch port which combines the two versions into an HD dish with the tiniest dusting of tweaks.

Still, when it comes to resurrections, Retro was Nintendo's go-to studio for a long minute there and DKC swung back in fabulous form on Wii.

6. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Wii)

A remarkable breath of fresh air for a franchise that was getting a little stale, this put the Resident Evil series on an action-based path away from the fixed-camera, pre-rendered, 'staged' survival horror of the previous games.

What you lost in nail-biting tension was more than made up for by the brilliantly chunky gunplay and impeccable progression through a story that continually ups the ante and adjusts difficulty automatically to keep you on the edge of your seat without pushing you off entirely.

While the additional pointer controls arguably make the Wii version a little too easy, you've still got the option to play with a GameCube controller if you wish (or that chainsaw variant if you're proper hardcore). Subsequent remasters might have upped the resolution, and the remake is a marvel in its own right, but there's a genuine argument that the Wii Edition of Resident Evil 4 remains the best way to play this genre-defining classic, even all these years later.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

As groundbreaking as it was, the 3D Zelda formula was starting to look a little tired by the mid-2000s, so while Twilight Princess is a very fine game, it lacked the impact of its predecessors.

The additional 'waggle' implemented in the Wii version didn't live up to the ideas of 1:1 swordplay we'd imagined, either. And did the entire world really need mirroring just to make Link right-handed? Still, at the time this was the only way to play the game in 16:9 and it made for a satisfyingly meaty Wii launch title in North America.

Not one for the purists, perhaps — you'll want to track down an expensive copy of the GameCube version for the left-handed, canonical geography of Hyrule (or just play Twilight Princess HD on Wii U).

4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

2010's Xenoblade Chronicles was epic in scale and setting in a way few games of the era were, and this isn't a title to rush through. You'll need many hours to examine and enjoy its incredible complexity, enhancing your abilities and exploring the world's ecosystem as you go.

The creativity Monolith Soft employed in producing this world was staggering. In terms of presentation, the immense landscapes remain a delight to traverse. While some close-up camera angles expose the Wii's graphical limitations, the art design more than compensates. Although some of the voice acting is hit-and-miss, the soundtrack is superb, genuinely enhancing the experience.

The sublime Definitive Edition on Switch is the easiest and best way to catch up with the first entry these days, but this game delivers a huge (and hugely enjoyable) JRPG experience wherever you play, laying a foundation that Monolith would build on with its sequels.

3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

With Super Mario Galaxy 2 Nintendo gave us that rarest of treats — a direct sequel to one of its finest games. While anyone who played and fell in love with Super Mario Galaxy would have been overjoyed to hear there was more on the way, the expectations couldn't have been higher. Somehow, Galaxy 2 expanded on the first game's inventiveness, turning up the colour dial to eleventy-stupid.

This was EAD Tokyo tearing up the textbook and pasting it back together in fascinating, surprising ways, flexing its beefed-up, confidently creative muscles with a huge variety of environments and obstacles, plus Yoshi and a host of new power-ups. It's a brilliant time.

To argue over which Galaxy is better is pointless, really — they're both wonderful and utterly essential, so if you never got around to playing the sequel, carve out some time as soon as possible. Inexplicably, it was missing from the 3D All-Stars collection, but it arrived on Switch eventually. Even if it hadn't, this game is truly worth hunting down a Wii for.

2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Where Sunshine faltered, Super Mario Galaxy truly did shine. Taking Mario into space gave Nintendo the opportunity to play with gravity and give the character a whole new (final) frontier of planetoid playgrounds to blast between, setting the stage for endlessly creative snippets of platforming perfection.

All that aside, there's also Rosalina and the Lumas' story to enjoy if you go looking for it; an affecting and underrated aspect of an utterly sublime game.

It's available to play on Switch (in two flavours, in fact), and you really should — Super Mario Galaxy is an infectiously fun trip through the cosmos which begged the question: Where could the plumber possibly go next?

1. Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii)

Collecting the original Prime trilogy in one handy package with new Wii controls, difficulty options, and other enhancements for the earlier GameCube entries, Metroid Prime Trilogy is arguably one of the best compilation offerings in video games, ever. The enhanced versions of the first two games were released separately in Japan as part of the New Play Control! line, but in the West we got this thrilling uberdisc.

Purists may point to a handful of missing visual effects compared to the originals, but whichever way you look at it, this is a spectacular package — the best way to play these games, and a hardcore crown jewel on the most casual of consoles.

And there we are — the finest Wii games available to humanity! Such a variety of genres and quality games from all developers, and so many we should catch up on.

Nintendo Wii FAQ

Before we finish, let's answer some common questions readers have about the Wii and its catalogue.

When did the Wii come out?

The Wii release date was slightly different depending on where in the world you lived, although the three major territories all got it in 2006.

It launched first in North America, followed by Japan a couple of weeks later and the following week in Europe and Australasia.

Here's when Wii released in each of the three main territories:

  • North America: November 19th, 2006
  • Japan: December 2nd, 2006
  • Europe: December 8th, 2006

How many Wii games are there?

According to Wikipedia’s list of Wii games, a total of 1612 Nintendo Wii games were released for the console.

The exact number of releases varies depending on the territory (Europe, Japan, North America), but you'll find all Wii games listed by region on that page.

Can you play GameCube games on Wii?

This depends on the model you have. The original Wii is backwards compatible with GameCube games and has controller and memory card ports for its predecessor under the flap on the top side of the console.

Later Wii models — specifically the RVL-101 revision without a stand and the Wii Mini — removed backwards compatibility with GameCube games, unfortunately.

What's the best-selling Wii game?

According to Nintendo, Wii Sports is the best-selling Wii game, with 82.90 million copies sold. Wow!

It's worth remembering that Wii Sports has a pack-in with many Wii consoles (and Nintendo sold 101.64 million Wiis in total), so it's unsurprising that it's the most popular Wii game.

In terms of software that was sold separately, the next best-selling Wii game is Mario Kart Wii, which sold 37.38 million copies worldwide. In 2018, a decade after the game launched, we reported the figure as 37.14 million, which means Nintendo managed to shift a further 24,000 copies in the Switch era. Crazy!

You can check out Nintendo's Top 10 if you're interested in the rest of the Wii's best-sellers.

How can I add a game to this article?

Disagree with this ranking? Do you think Excite Truck or Animal Crossing: City Folk need some love? You can find all Wii games using the search tool below (or via our huge database) and score your favourites out of 10.

Note. In order for games to become eligible, they need a minimum of 50 User Ratings in total for a chance to show up in the ranking.

Feel free to let us know your thoughts on this ranking, as well as your personal Wii highlights, in the comments!