The 21 Best Nintendo Wii Games of All Time

hi i'm john cartwright and i like the wii the wii catches a lot of flack because it tried to appeal to a new audience and therefore expanded the range of games made the entire industry better for everyone this is one of my favorite consoles of all time and it all comes down to the wii remote and yes i get it you don't want to play your games you know like this but the best wii games barely use waggle at all in fact the best feature of the wii is the sensor bar for pointing this enhanced so many normal games like resident evil 4 and metro prime and zelda motion aiming is still used in games today like breath of the wild and splatoon it was so good that we couldn't lose it because of the wii so without further ado here are the 21 best wii games but there's a catch this isn't really our list this is more your list this is voted for by the nintendo live readers and it's actually an ongoing list so if not happy with the results of this top 21 you can change that by going to nintendolife.com making an account and voting for excitebots come on excitebots and also up until the top five i'll be presenting these in a random order this is more of a list to honor the wii rather than make all the games fight together for the very best title so anyway here are the 21 best wii games as ranked by you tatsunoko vs capcom ultimate all-stars the wii didn't get an original street fighter game and so tatsunoka vs capcom is basically the wii's capcom fighter now at the time i didn't know what a tatsunoko was but honestly i didn't care though for reference they're a japanese anime studio the reason i didn't care if i knew them though was because the game itself stood on its own to this day tatsunoka vs capcom is one of my favorite capcom crossover fighters it's a bit more simplified than marvel vs capcom and because of that the gameplay feels so unique we've got capcom fighters like morrigan mega man walnut beautiful joe chun li ryu alex frank west roll and even more not to mention this was a wii game with online play and that was a pretty rare occurrence especially in a fighting game tatsunoka vs capcom filled a great gap on the wii and i'm so happy i made it onto the list sword is a divisive game it received great reviews at the time but many zelda fans criticized it for being too linear however in a post-breath of the wild world where we have the most open zelda game i think the expectations of skyward sword are now wildly different and people can appreciate it for what it is rather than what it isn't yes this is a rather linear game there's only one town and the areas are basically dungeons in themselves and i think that's fine now it's great that so many zelda games offer different experiences and ways to play and skyward sword is definitely a unique one this game completely revolves around wii motion plus and because of that it's kind of hard to take it off the wii this is the perfect platform for it the sword combat feels amazing a lot of the items like the beetle are some of the best in the entire series and while i could do without some instances like flying in the sky by moving the wii remote motion's just so deeply tied into the dna of this game and this art style is utterly beautiful the colors are just so vibrant and cozy skyloft is easily the coziest zelda town the characters too this version of zelda is absolutely brilliant and i love gruese please put gruesome smash i could do without fighting the imprison four times there's certainly instances of padding but when skyward sword shines it's such a good game oh heck yeah it's beat the beat rhythm paradise otherwise known as rhythm heaven fever this is one of my favorite games of all time the series is very simple you basically just press a button in beat with a rhythm that's that's basically the entire game but the zany humor the vibes the music they all make this such a wonderful experience i can't tell you how many times i've gotten through most of the song until just the very end where i miss one thing and i restart all over again not out of frustration but because i choose to for a game about rhythm there are no motion controls in rhythm heaven fever you don't shake the remote to a beat you don't dance all you do is press the a and b button there's really nothing more to it what this means though is latency isn't really a thing as soon as you press that button the b goes through so this is a really responsive game fever are some of my favorite games in the entire series i love this art style so much it's a shame this is the only console game because otherwise the series exists only on handhelds seeing this on the big screen with proper speakers really does a lot of justification for not only the art style but the audio design too megamix on 3ds compiles a lot of games from fever but i think there's still a lot of value on his own what i'm trying to say is it doesn't matter what entry you play just play rhythm paradise it's such a fun series and this is without a doubt one of the best ones in 2008 it was weird to go around someone's house and not see a wii and a copy of mario kart wii this game was a phenomenon selling 37.38 million units i played this at so many parties and while it's definitely the least balanced mario kart i think that kind of adds to the fun for basic play your skill level doesn't really matter that much you can be in 12th place get a bullet bill and all of a sudden be in first place there's a lot of stuff that could be called bs which stands for bad shenanigans but when you're playing with a bunch of friends it's hard not to just laugh i also played this a lot online and i mean a lot alone this brawl and halo 3 were my go-to online games at the time and so i have a lot of really fond memories of this one there's also a really dedicated community that's still going for mario kart wii speedruns of this game are absolutely insane mario kart wii is like the melee of mario kart it had a great roster a great track selection it was a great party game and it's also surprisingly in depth it may not be everyone's favorite but mario kart wii has a special place in my heart at least you may know vanillaware nowadays as the developers of dragon's crown and 13 sentinels but back in 2009 they gave us miramasa the demon blade this is one of the most beautiful games on the entire system and the combat is just so fluid this 2d art style hasn't aged a day and while it was given new life on the playstation vita the wii version is still a great way to experience this on the big screen and also the disc called the wii u that's definitely a u don't tell me that's not a u this game came from the future we've had more games like this from indie studios as of late but at the time there was very little like miramasa this felt like a lost genre so it's great that it returned with such a quality entry now here's an interesting one new play controls pikmin 2. while this is without a doubt seen more as a gamecube game i can definitely attest how the wii controls bolster this game the wii remote has always been strongest as a pointer and just moving the cursor anywhere on the screen with the flexibility of the wii remote is almost immeasurably better than the gamecube controller if you're gonna play pikmin 1 or 2 i definitely recommend the wii version so interestingly our audience chose pikmin 2 which is definitely a very strong game i tend to personally lean towards the first pikmin i find the consequences of the countdown had a much more desperate vibe to the game making it more of a survival which pikmin 2 definitely is too but i don't get quite the same vibe either way though both games are absolutely tremendous although despite having less urgency i'd say pikmin 2 is the more challenging of the two they're kind of two parts of one greater whole so if you've played pikmin 3 deluxe recently definitely go back and play the first two games as well there's a brilliant multiplayer mode too that definitely still holds up and just like in other pikmin games there's a bunch of branded products too so you'll find things like a duracell battery it's definitely an interesting pick for this list but i can't debate that pikmin despite being a gamecube game is best played on the way fire emblem radiant dawn is an expensive game this is the sequel to the gamecube's path of radiance and for the longest time this was the last fire emblem on a console though i guess three houses has kind of broken that streak now you play with the wii remote on its side like an nes game and for the most part it's standard fire emblem affair so radian dawn didn't really utilize the unique aspects of the wii but it also didn't need to this is pretty much a gamecube game on the wii and that's absolutely fine this is the second game featuring ike as well so if you wanted to learn a bit more about him from smash bros this is a very good place to do so graphically i find this game's a bit easier to return to than the 3ds games i much prefer this art style and the music is absolutely amazing it unfortunately didn't launch in the series prime and because of that not that many people have played it and it didn't sell very well still this is a quality fire emblem that every fan should play the last story was part of project rainfall an attempt to localize three wii games the last story xenoblade chronicles and pandora's tower it was a big deal back then when these three games finally got localized and this one in particular is rather special it comes from sakaguchi the creator of final fantasy though we certainly had a few rpgs but very few had the caliber and legacy behind it of the last story i really hope you see this game again someday it may not have the reception and critical acclaim of xenoblade chronicles but this is still an amazing rpg that every we fan should play now who's ready for a very sad story there was a game that compiled kirby's dreamland kirby's dreamland 2 kirby's adventure kirby's dreamland 3 kobe superstar and kirby 64 the crystal shards but this game never left america that's right kirby's dream collection made the list despite being exclusive to america and japan and you know what i can't blame you guys for voting for this what an amazing collection while nintendo was giving mario a super nintendo rom on a disc for kirby they gave us something so much more special yeah you could get some of these on virtual console but games like dreamland and dreamland 2 were only on the gameboy which the wii couldn't play not only that but the collection itself was so well presented seriously this puts all stars to shame and there's even brand new challenge levels based on kirby's adventure wii this is how you do an anniversary collection it's still a shining example today metroid prime 3 corruption for many years this was the gold standard of doing a first person game on the wii the controls felt absolutely perfect it was like a keyboard and mouse only you can sit back and relax with it they really make the most out of motion in this game and because of that this is the most action-heavy game in the entire trilogy despite spanning across multiple planets too it's also the most linear and that's not necessarily a bad thing metroid prime 3 felt like the wii's blockbuster journey it's so big and bold and there's even voice acting which the first two games barely had i don't think it quite has the impact of metroid prime one but it's definitely my second favorite game in the prime series though to be fair prime 2 is also very good in 2007 samus felt like a front runner of nintendo she had three core games in the prime series a spin-off and came out in the same year as games like mario galaxy unfortunately that legacy wouldn't quite last but retro studios went out with a bang and soon that bang's gonna be reignited wii sports resort came out three years after the first game and utilized wiimotion plus if the first game was the showcase of the wii the sequel was the showcase of wii motion plus the entire game takes place on woohoo island a resort that nintendo tried to revisit many times this is in wii fit mario kart 7 pilot wings resort and so on understandably though because wuhu island is such a relaxing place the original wii sports is in my opinion one of the most intuitive games of all time but that doesn't mean it's very complex in adverts you'll see people lunging with their hands whereas in reality all you have to do is just kind of flick your wrist to hit a tennis ball it wasn't too hard to figure out how to throw a bowling ball or how hard to hit a golf ball this simple technology certainly worked but we sports resort turned things up a notch bowling and golf returned and while they may look the same they're fundamentally very different and while the original game had five sports wii sports resort has 12. though i felt all the sports in the first game were really well made and i'm not sure that's entirely true in the sequel but you can choose what to play yourself it was mind blowing to me playing swordplay for the first time and seeing the wii remote mirror my movements one to one every single twitch was perfectly mirrored in the game it was insane there's also a ton of value with challenges sub modes and of course the multiplayer wii sports and wii sports resort are simply some of the best multiplayer games ever made this was probably the most hyped i've ever been for a game super smash bros brawl i checked the smash dojo every single day and i remember going into school one morning going to the library using a school computer and checking the dojo and sonic was coming to brawl and i just had this giant smile on my face the entire time bro was such a big deal not only did it revive piercing give us pokemon trainer and solid snake and so many other characters but had a full-on single player mode and brought smash online for the very first time now the consistency of the online mode is up for debate but the fact it did it in the first place is still so commendable brawl felt like a true event and i was counting down every single day until its release in fact i imported this game because it came out much later in europe and i just couldn't wait for it smash has certainly gotten bigger and more refined but i don't think it's ever been as exciting as brawl was at the time this was just the biggest video game event a true celebration of the entire industry even branching outside of nintendo for the very first time and it was just packed full of modes and content now the actual game player brawl is pretty divisive but personally i still think it's a lot of fun yeah it's quite a bit floatier and of course sometimes you randomly trip but i think there's still a lot of value in each entry feeling distinct and to be fair to brawl it's one of the most distinct in the entire series this means in 2020 brawl and ultima are very different feeling games they can co-exist just fine and some things brawl does better some things ultimate does better no matter your view on the gameplay itself i don't think there's any denying that brawl's legacy was such a substantial thing on the wii the system would not be what it was without it kirby went 10 years without traditional console side scroller and when it came along it was epic yarn and while the game was really cozy it wasn't quite the kirby game that i expected but the following year a very traditional kirby game came to the wii in the form of kirby's adventure wii otherwise known as kirby's return to dreamland this game kind of set the groundwork for triple deluxe and robobot and even star allies they all shared a very similar tone and design philosophy but what made this one special was the multiplayer you could play as kirby meta knight king dedede or bandana waddledy with your friends not only that but kirby is hungrier than ever i mean look at this guy kirby slow down by shaking the wii remote while inhaling some of the bigger enemies you'd get these giant special abilities it may have taken a long time for kirby to return to console but this was worth the wait despite not being a zelda game okami is very often seen as one of the best zelda games this beautiful game set in japan may have started on the playstation 2 but it feels really good on the wii on other consoles you can draw using analog sticks which feels a bit clunky whereas on the wii you can just point and sway the cursor around it feels really natural at the time this was very comparable to twilight princess i guess because they both had wolves but i think despite the zelda comparisons these are still very different games okami is such an enchanting journey and is available on pretty much every console i'd personally now call the switch version the definitive version with its hd rumble and touchscreen support but the wii version is a real contender no matter where you play it okami is one of the very best games ever made nintendo revived a lot of 2d platformers for the very first time on console in over a decade we had new super mario bros wii kirby's return to dreamland and the best of the bunch the banana bunch donkey kong country returns this was handled by the metro prime developers retro studios and at the time that sounded absurd how can they possibly make a donkey kong game never mind living up to rare well not only did they live up but in many aspects they surpassed rare when putting this against new super mario brothers you can feel the quality shining off the screen it's not even funny how much more effort was crammed into this here's a tiny thing i love see these frogs that are jumping back and forth they're not jumping for no reason if you zoom in you can see a fly that they're trying to catch and that's the reason they're jumping now why am i talking about that because everything in this game is contextualized every platform is stitched into the environment everything makes sense this is a living breathing world and while it's still believable it doesn't let its groundedness get in the way of fun this is still a wacky and zany adventure and it's hard to believe it gets even better in the sequel tropical freeze which in my opinion may be the best 2d side scroller ever made and returns is built on the same groundwork this is also available in 3ds and while that has a few new levels i'd still say stick with the wii version the double frame rate really adds a lot to the game and i know not everyone likes shaking to roll but honestly i never really found it to be a big deal if anything it feels pretty good i got my wii on christmas with wii sports banana blitz and twilight princess and i remember sneaking up until like four in the morning just playing this game this was what i got wii for twilight princess felt like the biggest nintendo game ever at that point the scale and production values were through the roof and in a time where many people didn't appreciate wind waker this was exactly what they wanted a more realistic and more mature zelda game now public perception may have swayed a bit since then and many people prefer wind waker but twilight princess is still a very special game it's definitely heavily inspired barker in year of time but it does everything that game did on a much grander scope the story feels deeper and more emotional the dungeons are more elaborate there are two hookshots and it has midna any game of midna is a good game of course this was intended as a gamecube game and was given wii controls at kind of the last moment but much like breath of the wild not that many people experienced it on the original platform this may as well be exclusive and for the most part it uses motion pretty well the aiming spectacular but attacking just by waggling the wii remote does get a bit old pretty fast you also can't directly control the camera like you can on gamecube so that's kind of missing too fortunately the wii u version has all the benefits of the gamecube game with the motion aiming of wii making that my favorite version to play but no matter where you play it twilight princess is an essential zelda game that every single fan should play alright let's get real resident evil 4 is likely my favorite video game [Music] that's it it's just miraculously paced from beginning to end and the fundamental gameplay is so good everything is built around the limitations of the controls and because of that this game hasn't aged a day like yeah you can't move while aiming and because of that the enemies will sort of hobble towards you while they're close and run from a distance it may not be as horror focused but it still gives you that feeling of overcoming dread you'll take down swarms of villagers and cults and chainsaw men and while you feel vulnerable you're also the most powerful thing on screen resident evil 4 is a stone cold classic and 13 years later the wii version remains my definitive version the hd versions have issues such as accelerated aiming which makes your cursor go haywire if you shoot an explosive and also quicktime events require more from you because of a framerate bug the wii version represents the game in its most polished state and then some this is the gamecube build in widescreen with all the extras of the playstation 2 version and then the definitive control scheme shooting in a game has never been as fun agile or accurate as resident evil 4 wii edition it is so much fun to aim in this game you literally just point at the screen and there you go no matter how many times they release this game they can never top this control scheme i'm a weirdo who owns seven versions of this game and i always come back to the wii one playing mercenaries with the wii remote and nunchuck just feels so right i can do things in this version i can never do on gamecube or switch or xbox or playstation it takes something that's already outstanding and improves upon it with just a controller and by the way this box art is one of the very best of all time this one we don't talk about all right this is going to be divisive super mario galaxy ranked just above mario galaxy 2. people are always so tall in these two games because at their core they're both mario galaxy and with gameplay as good as this you really can't go wrong with either title but our readers rated mario galaxy 1 just below mario galaxy 2. this game was simply astonishing to play for the first time every single level felt like a roller coaster of emotions just throwing more and more ideas at you putting mario in space presented endless possibilities and the platforming was more exciting than it's ever been before sure mario is a bit more stiff and less agile than mario 64 and mario sunshine but it completely works in the context of the game galaxy still looks stunning today for a wii game replaying this in hd and mario 3d all-stars it could have passed for a brand new switch game that complemented by the amazing orchestral score just makes this game feel timeless 20 years from now mario galaxy will still look and play beautifully the first game was given a slightly more cinematic feel and i say slightly very lightly because there's there's barely any cutscenes in this game but i think the opening kind of sets the tone for the rest of the game to follow but i can go on and on about this game there are so many things that make it feel distinct the power-ups like being mario and the ghost mario the levels like gusty garden and space shun galaxy everything just comes together to make what was then the best mario game ever made and i say then because three years later came mario galaxy 2. now your opinion on this is just going to be personal preference but to me mario galaxy 2 took the foundation of the first game and somehow made it even better mario galaxy 1 had so many ideas that game felt complete but somehow they had so many more ideas that mario galaxy 2 feels even more fresh it's more than just adding yoshi although there is something in itself almost every level to me just feels more exciting and unique there's the cloud power up where you can make your own platforms by spinning in the air what an ingenious thing for a 3d platformer and yeah yoshi's here and yoshi's pretty much a power-up in himself right but then they gave power-ups to the power-up this game just encapsulates joy yes it's very similar to the first game and that's okay because the first game is also one of the very best games ever made there is no such thing as too much mario galaxy and a decade later people are still asking for a third game the wii wasn't exactly known for jrpgs let alone any rpg so while other platforms got nino cooney and final fantasy 13 and eternal sonata and so on and so on the wii was left with little but scraps however does that really matter when they got the very best rpg of the entire generation arguably of all time it was a long journey to get xenoblade localized but when it finally came along the wait was so worth it this game somehow made the wii hardware feel giant it takes place on the bodies of two giant gods and no matter where you look you can see yourself contextualized in the world of their body sometimes you look to the sky and see far-off places contextualized world building in a game has never been this thorough and so the setting of the bionis and the mcconus are two of my favorites in the entirety of this medium schultz adventure is an emotional roller coaster and the entire party are some of the best to ever be in an rpg dunban and ricky and melio and sharla by the end of the game these guys feel like family the game's probably best played now on switch in the definitive edition with upgraded graphics and music but the core gameplay hasn't changed all that much so playing on wii is still a very solid choice it was a journey to get this game and now has two ports and two sequels and monolithsoft is seen as one of the best assist studios for nintendo what a legacy to set for a game that we had to fight to localize but it was worth it xenoblade chronicles is one of the very best games of all time and to our readers the second best wii game so what's the first metroid prime trilogy yes we had prime 3 earlier but to this day prime trilogy is the best package in the entirety of gaming metroid prime 1 and metro prime 2 have been enhanced for the wii with widescreen and the same excellent control scheme from metro prime 3. with prime 1 in particular being seen as a candidate for the very best game of all time this is the best way to possibly present it if you've never played any of these games do yourself a favor and buy this collection because honestly you don't need other games for a long time this isn't just any collection this is a collection of some of the very best games ever created you've got prime one the most consistent one prime two the daring one and prime three which back then was not an old game but was still included in this collection gaming just doesn't get that much better than metroid prime trilogy and while i'd love for this to be re-released the magic of the wee remote kind of made this more than just a collection it's what gave these games new life and taking that away might change things prime one and prime two were like goldeneye with their single stick shooters they were quite dated in their control schemes this really does a lot to update them to modern standards if you could only get one wii game this should probably be the one it's that good so what do you guys think about this list are you thinking where's zach and wiki where's fragile dreams where's excitebots let us know in the comments below and also be sure to waggle that subscribe button for even more lovely nintendo content thank you so much for watching and we'll catch you next time bye everyone paw paw oh it's not loaded

Channel: Nintendo Life

Views: 351,488

Rating: 4.8771276 out of 5

Keywords: Nintendo Life, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Switch, NX, New 3DS, Nintendo UK, Jon, Best Games, Nintendo wii, wii, motion controls, wii remote, zelda, mario, super mario galaxy, wii sports, skyward sword, twilight princess, rhythm heaven, nunchuk, mario kart wii, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, okami, punch out, Metroid Prime trilogy, xenoblade chronicles, pikmin 2, donkey kong country returns

Id: L6F_QBKeXfU

Length: 25min 1sec (1501 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2020