Super Mario Galaxy
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Mario Kart Wii
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Xenoblade Chronicles
Wii Sports Resort
Wii Fit (if you have the room to play)
These are the first party games that I both enjoyed and that critically reviewed well. I don't have much experience with the Wii's third party titles to recommend any.
Mario Galaxy 1 and 2
Wii Sports
Super Paper Mario is underrated and worth getting.
Warioware Smooth Moves
The two Zelda games are pretty good but available on other platforms so not really "must buy"
Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. are excellent but, again, similar to games in their series you can play on other systems.
Little King's Story and Muramasa are at least on other systems (though I don't know if they fixed the steam port of LKS yet), and are top tier games that most people did not play.
But Rhythm Heaven Fever and the Klonoa remake (given the creative title...Klonoa) are exclusive, and both started out cheap so hopefully they still are.
In terms of good games that haven't ever been ported to anything else, I'll add:
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - I might as well be recommending the Holy Grail as good luck finding a copy, let alone a cheap one. It's also resolutely old school, and I can't imagine everyone who only came aboard the series with the post-Awakening games finding it too accessible.
The Last Story - Another rare one, but a bit of a hidden gem. Somewhat outshone by Xenoblade at the time, but it's turned into the system most prized and collectable JRPG mainly thanks to never having been ported to anything else.
Pandora's Tower - The least of the three JRPGs that Nintendo of Europe bravely decided to localize for the rest of the world, but if you've got both Xenoblade and The Last Story, you're probably going to want to complete that set no matter the cost.
Madworld - This one can be picked up cheap, and why not? It's Platinum's debut game, after all. A bit shallow with the gameplay, but the visual style still looks fantastic and you can see the genesis of the combat system that'd make their later games must haves.
Red Steel 2 - A neatly themed action shooter and swordfighter. This was pretty much the pinnacle of motion controls at the time, and I don't think Skyward Sword entirely robbed it of that crown. Avoid the first entry in the series though; that's an unoriginal duffer that plays terribly.
@MorningRain I'm thirding Muramasa, simply brilliant and beautiful game.
Other than that, I'm seconding everything else mentioned so far: all great suggestions. And especially as you seem to love RPGs, you should absolutely invest in all of the great ones available on the Wii. Besides the RPGs already mentioned above, you should also try and see if you can get the following titles for reasonable prices:
Opoona (trust me, it looks childish, but is a VERY pleasant surprise to play)
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Rune Factory Frontier
Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny
Monster Hunter Tri
Arc Rise Fantasia
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Valhalla Knights: Elder Saga
Phantom Brave: We Meet Again
Honorable mentions for RPG type games are Dokapon Kingdom, Spectrobes: Origins, Shiren the Wanderer, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Baroque, Alien Syndrome and the rest of the Final Fantasy games available.
Other must have, unique or at least worthwhile titles, far as I am personally concerned, are the following, in alphabetical order:
(to make it a bit easier, I've added a * behind all of the ACTUAL must haves, with the added disclaimer that obviously, the type of game should interest you)
Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories *
Batallion Wars 2 *
A Boy and His Blob *
Cursed Mountain *
The Conduit 1 & 2 *
De Blob 1 & 2
Dead Space: Extraction *
Endless Ocean 1 & 2 *
Excite Truck *
Excite Bots: Trick Racing *
Ghost Squad *
Go Vacation *
Grand Slam Tennis *
Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack
Hot Wheels: Track Attack
Ivy the Kiwi?
Kirby's Epic Yarn *
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Kirby's Dream Collection
Let's Tap
Link's Crossbow Training
Lost in Shadow *
Metal Slug Anthology
Metroid Prime Trilogy *
Metroid: Other M
Need for Speed Nitro *
No More Heroes 1 & 2 *
Okami *
Punch-Out!! *
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition *
Rayman Origins *
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Sonic Colors *
SSX Blur *
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition *
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return *
The House of the Dead: Overkill *
The Kore Gang
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces *
Victorious Boxers: Revolution
Wario Land: Shake It! *
We Ski & We Ski & Snowboard *
Wii Party
Wii Play Motion
Xenoblade Chronicles *
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure *
And if you're really into light gun/on rails type of games, then you'll also find plenty of entertainment value in all of the other Resident Evil games that I did not mention.
One game not mentioned yet is Goldeneye 007. It's not the landmark release that the original for the N64 was, but it's an excellent FPS with a lot of production value. While the online multiplayer obviously isn't supported anymore, the single player campaign is a lot of fun to play through.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii is also very good. You know what you're getting into here, but it's a high-quality Nintendo release that I've played through a few times. The motion controls haven't aged well, but the game doesn't completely rely on it, and it doesn't take away from the experience.
Guitar Hero III, any of the DDR Hottest Party games, and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 are good memories I have on the Wii. I would also recommend each of these that have already been mentioned:
Donkey Kong Country Returns
The Last Story
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (or just hold out until the Switch version is released this summer)
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Punch-Out!!
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Wii Sports Resort
Also, surprisingly, you can still launch the Wii Shop Channel - even though you can't purchase anything there, you can still listen to the Wii Shop Channel music, which is one of the best parts about Wii ownership ever.
It's not a long game by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a lot of replay value, and supports multiplayer for up to 12 players with just a single Wii Remote and is one of the most fun games you'll ever play in a group/party setting.
It's a microcosm of all the things that make the Wii so special and is an absolutely brilliant and creative gem that I can't praise enough.
The controls in a few of the activities can be a touch obtuse, but it should by no means diminish your overall enjoyment.
The other thing about Smooth Moves is that it also exemplifies the worst things about the Wii with the handful of minigames in it where the motion controls stubbornly refuse to work.
Still, much like the machine itself, the good vastly outweighs the bad.
@ThanosReXXX Congrats, you win the award for the lowest Metacritic-scoring game I've ever seen anyone genuinely recommend
I only got round to trying Opoona recently. Found the intro section painful and uninspiring enough to develop doubts about ever returning to it to see if it gets better.
But I'd better not just rip into other people's suggestions without at least trying to contribute too, so... for me the Wii is defined by the Wii Remote and the motion controls. That first time I saw a trailer for the 'Revolution', it was the dream of motion-controlled sports games that made the impression on me, so I've got three sports games I consider must-have. If you don't like sports, well... pffft.
EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis - *requires Wii Motion Plus. Actually goes some way to feeling like you've got some real control over where the ball goes and thus comes much closer to delivering on the dream that Wii Sports doesn't quite fulfil.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 - Masters. You could probably take your pick of any of the iterations of Tiger Woods, this one tends to be more expensive but carries the prestige of the Masters so kinda feels the most sought after. I've not played all of them and can't remember what differences there are between them.
Pro Evolution Soccer - ok, so these games (again, you can probably take your pick of any of the various yearly editions and get bulk of the core experience) don't convert sports-like movements with Wii Remote into on-screen actions, but they do provide a genuinely different way to play football. You control one player with the nunchuck while being able to use the Wii Remote pointer to select any other player and drag out a path you want them to make a run along, which makes for a really interesting challenge of creating and exploiting spaces.
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
@gcunit Well, I'll admit that it's an acquired taste, so it won't be for everyone, and obviously, it's a personal taste thing. It does have generally favorable reviews, though. NLife themselves gave it a solid 7, and the Metacritic user score is a 7.9.
And according to this YouTuber, it could definitely also be seen as somewhat of an underrated title, and dare I say it: a hidden gem...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@ThanosReXXX Just for clarity, Opoona was not the game I was referring to re. lowest scoring recommendation. Opoona's score is nearly twice the score of the game I'm being unnecessarily uncandid about.
@gcunit Okay, then. Well, then I'm kinda curious as to what game you actually were referring to.
But regardless, I'd probably give you the same reply with the same disclaimer: it's obviously my own personal preference/taste, so needless to say that not everyone will agree.
P.S.
I'll definitely second Grand Slam Tennis. I've added/retro-fitted it to my list, because it's actually one title that I shouldn't have forgotten to mention. Personally, I'd also agree with any Pro Evo game, but seeing as the OP is American, I don't know if I'd easily be able to recommend a soccer game to them...
On a side note: hated the Wii remote controls, though, so I usually played them with a Classic Controller.
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
I came here to say WarioWare Smooth Moves as well, I love that game and it's very unlikely to ever come out on another console. Wii Sports Resort is one of my favourites too but you probably already have it.
And this has also already been mentioned here but Zack and Wiki is a very good puzzle/adventure game. It's quite difficult though, I've never managed to finish it.
Oh, and here's one that nobody's mentioned: Mario Sports Mix. It's not exactly a must-buy but it's a fun collection of four different sports with a good variety of stages/courts, and you can even unlock playable Final Fantasy characters.
I've got conflicted feelings of Zack and Wiki. I managed to finish it eventually, but it's definitely a mixed bag.
It's another of those games that's 90% great but the remainder is extremely frustrating with the difficulty being almost entirely down to poorly implemented motion controls. Unlike with Smooth Moves you're going to find yourself stuck at points until you can cheese your way past or just repeat until you're not thrown off by a stray wiggle.
@gcunit@ThanosReXXX I really enjoyed Opoona, It does have a slow start, but the world is quite interesting once you get past the opening segment.
Cursed Mountain I just couldn't get on with. Found it clunky, and just not scary at all. Pretty unique setting though. Silent Hill Shattered Memories and Project Zero 2 are far better in my opinion.
Fragile Dreams is up there with Deadly Premonition as the best bad game ever made in my opinion.
I take offense at Fragile Dreams being an ironic good game - IMO it's just straight up good.
As far as "so bad it's good" goes I highly recommend Arc Rise Fantasia. It's a mixed bag where the story and voice acting are a hilarious train wreck while the gameplay and mechanics themselves are genuinely solid.
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