Often imitated but never duplicated, the Nintendo Wii was a mid-2000s icon that sees play to this day. With its modest graphical power made up for by a cheap price point, ninja weaponry, and intuitive motion controls (courtesy of the Wii Remote), the Wii set the tone for Nintendo’s console philosophy going forward. Even now, there are not a lot of barriers to getting one. If you want to make the most of your Wii, here are 50 games to get you started!
1. Super Mario Galaxy – Riley
All new life carries the essence of stars, even all of you
Kicking this list off with a mighty contender: the legendary Super Mario Galaxy. It takes the 3D formula established in Mario 64, but kicks away the sandbox element and twists it into a stage-based platformer. Combining the best of both 2D and 3D Mario with the backdrop of space proved to be a wonderful addition to the series.
Without the sandbox limitation, Nintendo were able to blow open their ideas and create levels without the constraints of logical design. Blasting through a galaxy from planet to planet, powering up, and jumping on foes never felt so fun. What makes this experience even better is that once you beat the game, you unlock a playable Luigi. And who doesn’t love Luigi?
The music is wonderful, containing perhaps some of the greatest songs in video game history. ‘Rosalina in the Observatory’ is a personal highlight. The setting, extremely creative level design, immaculate control, and delightful soundtrack all contribute to the perfect Mario experience. What’s even better is that if you love this one, there’s so much more to enjoy in the sequel.
2. Wii Sports – James
Grandma, put the wrist strap on before you break the… TV…
A game that swept the nation, Wii Sports was remarkable. It brought families together, tore families apart, and broke many a TV set. Looking broadly, Wii Sports doesn’t seem like anything special. It’s a compilation of five sports games. Tennis (the best one), bowling, baseball, golf, and boxing. However, each of these has that famous Nintendo polish that to this day holds up. The unique selling point was the fantastic and accessible implementation of motion controls. This, of course, spawned a myriad of terrible rip-offs (Looking at you, Carnival Games).
If you’ve ever seen 28 Days Later, you know what the streets of Britain were like for weeks after the launch of Wii Sports. It’s just that good.
3. Ōkami – Melty
“I’m as plump as a dumpling, but I’m poisonous! Yes! Poisonous.”
Ōkami is a game loved by many people. You play as the sun goddess Amaterasu in the form of a white wolf. By wielding the Celestial Brush, your task is to travel through the world. You do this whilst fighting enemies and solving puzzles, painting your way through challenges.
On the Wii, you emulate the movements of the Celestial Brush by pointing the Wiimote at the sensor and drawing shapes that correspond to the abilities you want to use. This is arguably more challenging than using the analogue stick on other consoles, making bosses and quick-time challenges harder. People who prefer a challenge would excel at playing Ōkami on the Wii rather than competing consoles.
Visually, the game is incredibly unique. Using cel-shading and the art style of classical Japanese art—watercolour and ink wash paintings—Ōkami is an experience not to be missed. Getting insight into traditional Japanese mythology and folklore, Ōkami is a great way to learn more about Amaterasu, as well as other Shinto gods and goddesses.
4. My Sims – Melty
I hear they might even be coming in on the next train! I wonder what they look like...
Do you like The Sims? Do you like chibified characters? How about building? Yes? Then My Sims is for you. In this game, you show up in a town. However, this town is dilapidated. A town that has lost its spark over the years, along with its residents. When you meet with the town’s mayor, you learn that you are a builder with a unique ability. This ability allows your character to build and design buildings and furniture using ‘Essence’. Essence is essentially paint or patterns you can add to your creations, using resources around the town.
As it is a different type of town builder, My Sims is a staple in the genre. You develop the main area of the town by inviting people to live in the sections and opening their businesses. Following this, you can eventually unlock hidden areas with new items and new essences. This game was a great first instalment to the series, with MySims Kingdom following it and being an absolute showstopper in itself. Though the building mechanics can be a bit janky, it’s worth it for the cute storyline, characters, and interactions with the world.
5. Dragon Quest Swords: The Queen and the Tower of Mirrors – Azza
Dragon Quest: featuring Swords
Games like this are the reason why Wii Remotes came with hand straps and rubber cases. Dragon Quest: Swords takes you through a journey that requires the player to swing the Wii Remote to kill anything that pops up.
It’s fun enough as an RPG, and it has a plot that one would expect from the series. The characters are fun and quirky, not too dissimilar from Dragon Quest XIII. The levels and their layouts are varied, with a good amount of detail for the Wii.
Most of the gameplay requires you to hack and slash using the Wii Remote like a sword. I remember using a lightsaber Wii attachment to pretend I was swinging at the monsters. Don’t judge me, I was seven.
Overall, if you ever wanted to swing the Wii Remote while larping as a hero, then this is the game for you.
6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Dave
Bros broke boundaries with Brawl
Brawl doesn’t have the competitive legacy of Melee or the sheer comprehensiveness of Ultimate, but from an evolutionary perspective, it might be the most significant entry in the series. This entry introduced online play, Pit’s modern design, added more Zelda-style “stances” with Zero Suit Samus and Pokémon Trainer, hilariously powerful final smashes, and it’s where Smash first started including characters from other companies (Snake and Sonic). It hits a nice, sweet spot between simplicity and variety.
Brawl also has the Subscape Emissary. Which is really dope. Not even Ultimate boasts a single-player mode as gripping. It’s a cinematic experience that can be played with a friend, so you can even do real-life crossovers!
7. Dewy’s Adventure – Melty
An adorable Eau-d to nature
I have to admit, I had never heard of this game until I began researching for this article. Despite this, I watched a long play of it. Ignoring the awful voice acting at the beginning, I was enamoured. Dewy is an adorable little dewdrop and the main character in this story. However, instead of moving him around to advance through levels, you must move the world using your Wii Remote. Kind of like those wooden labyrinth toys.
If this were the only aspect of gameplay, I’d say it was rather one-sided. Kind of boring. Not to worry, there is even more. Since Dewy is made of water, you, as the player, can manipulate his form. How, you ask? Temperature. Using the D-pad, you can increase or decrease the temperature of the world. In doing this, you can manipulate Dewy’s state of matter and give him new abilities. Making him colder will turn him into an icy Dewy, whose ability is spinning into enemies. Increasing the temperature will turn Dewy into steam, allowing him to use lightning attacks.
You may be asking: Does tampering with the temperature affect the world, too? The answer to that, my friend, is yes. Yes, it does. Some levels can only be completed by altering the environment. This gives the game a great puzzling aspect, allowing you to use the critical (as well as the creative) side of your brain to manoeuvre your way through the levels. To make things even better, the game is not that expensive second-hand (as of writing), so you can try this game out for the low-low price of £1.50.
8. MadWorld – Dave
I find it kind of funny. I find it kind of rad
MadWorld is a brutal, black and white (and red all over) beat’em up published by SEGA and developed by Platinum Games (it was their debut!). You play as the chainsaw-wielding Jack Cayman, a contestant in “Deathwatch”, a televised death game housing bloodthirsty fiends, body-mangling weapons, and soul-annihilating messages from their sponsors.
The sadists among you will find this title short but sweet. In each level, Jack has to rack up enough points to move on and then compete directly against the next cartoonishly monstrous boss character. You get points with murder. You get more points by mixing up the murder. You’re incentivised to experiment by the limited-time Bloodbath Challenges that sporadically show up and give you extra points for performing specific acts of ultraviolent unaliving.
This superfluous subheading only exists for SEO purposes. If I had my way, it would meet a grizzlier end than the average MadWorld goon
It’s not as challenging as some of the other games in Platinum’s oeuvre, but nonetheless holds your attention in a pneumatic vice. One jaw of this vice is the visual spectacle: Jack delivers coups de grâce with cinematic camera angles and intuitive motion control inputs. The auditory jaw is even more impressive: MadWorld has phenomenal music that juggles smooth hip hop production, rap lyrics that verge on horrorcore, and appropriately aggressive guitar strumming. There’s also live “slay-by-slay” commentary for everything you do, featuring the talents of John DiMaggio and Greg Proops.
With visuals evocative of comics like Sin City, an idiosyncratic hip hop soundtrack, and a premise that ensures you’ll see no shortage of memorable characters like Herr Frederick Von Twirlenkiller and The Black Baron, there’s an argument to be made that this is the most stylish game on the Nintendo Wii. SEGA is unlikely to revisit this (or its pseudo-sequel, Anarchy Reigns on the 360 and PS3), so the Wii and its backwards-compatible successor really are the only places you’ll be able to experience this.
9. Red Steel 2 – Dave
2 Red 2 Steel
The first Red Steel was a first-person shooter about some dude beefing with the Yakuza that aimed to demonstrate how the Wiimote could be used to wield in-game weaponry immersively. The guns felt alright, but the swordfighting, while fun, didn’t convey the artful and deliberate movements the trailers presented.
Red Steel 2 corrects this with the Wii MotionPlus. This Wiimote add-on provides more precision by tracking more than whether you’re waggling the Wiimote on an XYZ axis. The striking East meets Wild West setting is a fresh coat of paint for this sequel. One gets the sense that Ubisoft either wanted to reinvent the IP as a Trigun-esque mish-mash of modernity and molasses… or capitalise on someone’s grandparent thinking this was the Red Faction game their kids were talking about.
10. WarioWare: Smooth Moves – Melty
The Samurai: You can feel the spirit of the samurai in this form. It’s said that your breathing affects the outcome.
I’m not the biggest fan of Wario, and I’ve not actually played the Wario Land games; however, Smooth Moves is a constant in my Wii roster. With quick-paced mini-games as its main mechanic, it has the perfect gameplay for someone like me, whose attention is hard to grasp.
The mini-games all have a unique art style and a different way of holding the Wii-mote. Every new form is described before it’s needed by a slow-talking narrator, and then you’re thrust into speedy gaming, including squats, point-and-shooting, and balancing. Some of the mini-games tend to be a bit cheeky; your grandmother might not appreciate helping someone stick their finger up their nose, but your 5-year-old nephew probably will.
It’s a fun game to play alone, but it also makes for a fun party game. Although there is no 2-player mode, I’ve found that swapping the player between rounds is a great way to get the family involved and always results in tonnes of laughter. There’s something quite endearing about seeing your brother-in-law hold a Wii Remote up to his nose and pretend to be an elephant.