10. 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.

9. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)

Showcasing the new MotionPlus accessory (eventually built into the 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, with highlights including fencing and throwing a frisbee for an adorable pooch.

8. 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 is equally impressive, but you really can't go wrong with whatever version you can get your hands on. When it comes to resurrections, it seems Retro is your go-to studio and DKC returned in fabulous form on Wii.

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

Ground-breaking as it was in the '90s, 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 certainly 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. 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 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).

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 and '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 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, 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. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (Wii)

Okay, okay, this didn't technically get its own release on Wii, but was rather an unlockable in the Wii version of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.

However, this is one of LucasArts' finest point-and-clicks from the golden age of the genre, and it appears here with Wii pointer controls which make a playthrough on your TV an absolute dream.

Staff of Kings itself isn't bad, either, but the inclusion of this all-timer as an easy unlockable makes it an essential and eminently wise choice for any Wii or Wii U-owning adventure game fan. It's perhaps the best bonus game-within-a-game you're likely to find, and rightly belongs in your personal museum.

4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

Xenoblade Chronicles is epic in scale and setting, and you'll spend many hours examining its incredible complexity, enhancing your abilities and exploring the world's ecosystem. Whether you play it on Wii, on New Nintendo 3DS, or on Switch in the sublime Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, it delivers a huge (and hugely enjoyable) JRPG experience that developer Monolith Soft would build on with its sequel and Xenoblade Chronicles X, although the original game was arguably never bettered.

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 text and pasting it back together in fascinating, surprising ways, flexing its beefed-up and confidently creative muscles with a huge variety of environments and obstacles, plus Yoshi and a host of new power-ups. It's an absolutely brilliant time. It may be missing from Switch's 3D All-Stars collection, but this game is truly worth hunting down a Wii for if you missed it.

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.

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 him 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, 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 (which received individual releases in Japan), Metroid Prime Trilogy is arguably one of the best compilation offerings in video games, ever. 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.

No love for Excite Truck? Thought Animal Crossing: City Folk might sneak in there? Remember, you've still got all the time in the world to rate your favourite games and influence the ranking above

You can still rate any games you like even after publication, and there's every chance they could show up in the rankings above — this is an ever-changing list that reflects the User Ratings assigned each game in the Nintendo Life game database.

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