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.
Bringing two-player cooperative play to the series' chaotic mix of surgery, touch/pointer-based gameplay and drama that makes ER look like a trip to the school nurse, Trauma Center: New Blood made you feel like a regular Dr. Clooney with a Wiimote in your hand instead of a scalpel. It also featured proper character dialogue and diabolical schemes behind the scenes. Let's just hope it's not this dramatic in a real Emergency Room.
And yes, we know the character's name in ER wasn't Dr. Clooney. We know and we don't care.
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.
Releasing at the zenith of the plastic instrument craze, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on Wii intergrated the Wii Remote's rumble and speaker into the gameplay — hardly a game changer, but a welcome addition in a game which plays largely the same regardless of platform. Rock on.
Pandora’s Tower delivers an involving resource and time-management RPG experience with an imaginative action and combat system. Its overall aesthetic, as well as its focus on a relationship between two characters, are bold design choices that work well as long as you’re willing to invest in the game world. It’s a pity that the experience, most notably the action segments that take up a large part of the 12-15 hour adventure, are partially undermined by technical failings: as a result it’s questionable whether many will engage in multiple playthroughs in pursuit of happier endings. This title has much to recommend it, as long as you’re willing to look beyond some of its faults.
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.
A purist might argue that Rock Band 3 suffered from some bloat where its predecessor offered the most streamlined four-man bandplay ever. Each to their own, of course, but when you look at Rock Band 2's playlist and streamlining of the basic experience offered in Harmonix's first entry in the series, the purists might have a point.
SEGA found a new home for its light gun games on Wii, and House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return was a must-have title for fans of the series or genre - two classic games fused together perfectly.
Although House of the Dead 2 now feels a little dated, its younger zombie-brother remains excellent, a gore-fest with hours upon hours of zombie-blasting arcade action. Depth and longevity seekers need not apply and should be redirected to a close cousin, Capcom's Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.
Winding back the clock to Mega Man's NES roots 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.
Nintendo missed out on any GTAs on its home consoles, but Rockstar's Bully was much more than a consolation prize. Set in the Bullworth Academy, aspiring miscreant Jimmy Hopkins must negotiate the pitfalls and perils of private school life in an open world game that plays a little like a teenage GTA. The Molotov cocktails are replaced with stinkbombs, the AK47s with slingshots.
With an appropriately mischievous and juvenile setting (which arguably suits the sandbox gameplay even better than GTA's mature mayhem), this was a great addition to the 'mature' shelf in the console's library.
The Wii might not be the first system that springs to mind when asked to think of classic horror games, but Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is up there with the greatest titles in the genre — all the better for really making use of its host console's features, whether it's the speaker in the controller or intelligent use of motion controls to draw you into this reimagining of the Silent Hill series' first entry.
by 