My Top Ten Favorite Wii Games

In the early morning hours of February 23, 2022, I finished my final Wii game, Zack and Wiki. It had been over six years since the last time I had fully finished all of my games on a game console and I was ecstatic. While I still have some games I want to replay on the console, my more than fifteen year journey with the Wii is primarily over. As I did over six years ago after finishing my final PS2 games, I want to reflect back and write about my top ten favorite games on the platform. Both retail disc games and downloadable original WiiWare games are eligible for my list, while any Virtual Console games I won’t be considering. The one exception I’ll make is for the original Sin and Punishment which came to North America for the first time on the service, but I’ll just say upfront it did not make the final list. Since I’m on the subject, I have to say the Virtual Console was one of my absolute favorite things about the Wii era. Being able to easily play some of my favorite retro Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games in particular and own them forever is incredible. While the Nintendo Switch Online subscription catalog apps have their own appeal, I’m genuinely sad Nintendo has moved away from the option to purchase retro games as we watch the Wii U and 3DS eshops prepare to shut down in 2023.

Coming up with a shortlist for my top ten Wii games was easy in the sense that the Wii, for all of its overly casual reputation, has an astounding array of absolute classics. I did debate over the order since some of these games I just haven’t played in over a decade which makes it harder to compare with games I’ve played more recently, but even so, I’m quite happy with the final list and I’m eager to share it. Before I get into it though, I do want to mention I plan to write a blog about the final Wii games I played, including Sakura Wars: So Long My Love, Pandora’s Tower, and Zack and Wiki. I always had some regrets that I didn’t do the same for my final PS2 games because I think it is interesting to talk about what I was determined to play before I retired the console. Since I only have one final Wii U game left to play that I’m determined to finish soon, I decided I’d expand my final Wii games blog to also include my final Wii U games, so it should come in the near future. With all of that said, let’s get right into it!

10: The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

When I first played The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, I thought it was the future of video games with how well it integrated motion controls into the entire experience. While it may not be until VR really takes off, that doesn’t take away how remarkable the sword gameplay in particular is. Having to think about the angle of your swings is such a cool experience and shines brilliantly in the sword duels throughout the game. While the motion controls define the experience, the rest of the game is great as well including a bigger focus on story and some very good dungeons. My second favorite change in Skyward Sword to the general gameplay is how it brings more dungeon-like gameplay into the three field areas you explore since it makes these areas more meaningful. My absolute favorite part of Skyward Sword are the final boss fights against Ghirahim and Demise. They are both incredibly cool, very intense, and so satisfying to conquer.

9: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

While New Super Mario Bros. U eventually topped it with the Luigi U DLC campaign, considered separately, New Super Mario Bros Wii is my favorite of the New Super Mario Bros. games. While it may lack the creativity of New Super U, New Super Wii just has excellent levels from start to finish that are a blast to tackle with friends. In addition to the new four player multiplayer, which is lovable chaos, my favorite addition to the game is definitely the new midair spin that grants you extra control in the air. While it’s better for consistency that later games mapped it to a button, shaking the Wii Remote to activate the mid-air spin for extra control feels so good here. I’m also very glad New Super Mario Bros Wii brought back Yoshi and introduced the Propellor and Penguin Suits and Ice Mario. The Propellor suit is a lot of fun as you really ascend rapidly to reach new areas or avoid falling into pits and it obviously shines in vertical levels. Ice Mario is probably the coolest new power up though since you can stand on enemies you froze as well as pick up and throw them. Collecting three big coins in each level returns from the original New Super Mario Bros. DS game and adds so much to the experience throughout as some of them are very cleverly tucked away and not easy to reach. If you collect all of them, you’ll have full access to the extra hard World 9 / Star World which I’m very happy returns here after being absent from the original New Super Mario Bros.

8: Sin and Punishment: Star Successor

Perhaps the hardest game to place on my list was Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. Like the original game, Star Successor is an on rails shooter that demands immense skill to conquer. Also like the original game, I’ve only played Star Successor once to completion in co-op with one of my best friends, Andrew. While I do want to play it again sometime due to its immense quality, my fond memories of Star Successor are so attached to that experience I’m not sure I’d want to without Andrew. While the original N64 game had some awkward controls mitigated by co-op, Star Successor takes awesome advantage of the Wii Remote’s IR pointer controls to make aiming a breeze. Each of the playable characters is armed with a jet pack and can freely fly around on screen. Since using a jet pack obviously makes the game easier where it isn’t required, you lose access to a score multiplier, but if you are just focused on survival like we were you’ll take every advantage you can get. Incidentally, Star Successor features an arguably better co-op mode than the first game considering a second player now gets their own targeting reticule to help out with even though only one character remains on screen. There are tons and tons of enemies to shoot at across wild landscapes, but by far the most exciting part of Star Successor are the numerous boss battles against huge over the top opponents. I don’t want to say the story is bad, but it is virtually completely overshadowed by the intensity of the gameplay challenges and boss battles. I’ll never forget when we conquered the game together in co-op, Andrew and I scored sixteenth on the US co-op leaderboards and thirty second when including Europe’s.

7: Fortune Street

There’s no game I lament being trapped on the Wii more than Fortune Street which is essentially Monopoly with a stock market. If you are a competitive person and have some competitive friends and family, there is no better Mario party game than Fortune Street. There’s so much strategy to Fortune Street that is far easier and more fun to tap into than most board games due to the influence of the stock market. Every time you pass the bank, you can buy stocks in an individual district on each board. You’ll want to do this as you can make huge returns on your investment if the stock price increases due to you and your opponents investing in their properties. While ideally you alone invest in yourself and claim all of the rewards, a very viable strategy is to invest in a competitor’s district to either reap rewards in their investment or to discourage them from doing so altogether. Interestingly, you can swipe properties from anyone for five times the value which can be a truly decisive move in the course of the game. Since the game handles all of your money and the math tied to each decision, you really can just focus on strategy. I have so many fond memories of playing Fortune Street, but my favorite remains the time my friend Andrew, my brother Jared, and I were all inconveniently late to dinner at a restaurant because we just had to finish our game first.

6: Cave Story

While I vastly prefer and recommend the original, free PC version of Cave Story these days due to how Cave Story was essentially swindled from its creator, Pixel, I won’t deny the Wii port of Cave Story introduced me to an amazing game. You can no longer buy this particular version, but all subsequent for purchase ports are tainted by the sordid publisher so please consider the praise for this entry towards the original game and for Pixel entirely. Playing Cave Story for the first time is like discovering a legendary classic Super Nintendo game you’ve somehow never heard of. You control a robot named Quote and are soon blasting away tons of hostile enemies in the cave system you woke up in. The most interesting thing about the gameplay is that your weapons level up as you grab bouncing triangle picks up, but decrease every time you get hit. There’s thus an interesting push and pull dynamic to combat that demands your engagement. The second most interesting thing about Cave Story’s gameplay is the jetpack that radically transforms both combat and traversal and is ultimately essential to master. While the core journey of the game is excellent, what truly cemented my love for Cave Story is the super hard hidden level. After unlocking it, which is its own journey, here your skills are truly put to the test from aggressive enemies, spikes everywhere, and an absurdly tough true final boss. I’ve only conquered it a few times and it is always immensely satisfying.

5: Super Smash Bros Brawl

I’m not sure I’ll ever be more excited for a video game than Super Smash Bros Brawl. I rewatched the first trailer revealing, Meta Knight, Pit, Zero Suit Samus, Wario, and Snake countless times and woke up early every weekday to check the Super Smash Bros Dojo website anxiously excited to learn every new detail about the game. When I got Brawl at launch, I played about ten hours on the first day and was blown away not just by the game, but all of the exciting and engaging content in it from the number of characters and stages (which seems quaint today), to the staggering number of modes, the Kirby Air Ride inspired challenges, and of course the full-blown Kirby Super Star inspired story mode, The Subspace Emissary, which was filled with amazing cutscenes. While I much prefer the faster speed of Smash Ultimate today, at the time Brawl slowing down the action was very welcome to me as Melee was just too fast. Brawl also introduced my favorite character in the series, Lucas from Mother 3. Lucas was the inverse of Ness for his special moves, but importantly all of his normal A moves are unique. He is the rare fighting game character whose entire kit, stats, and feel resonate with me and I’ve enjoyed playing him here, in Smash 4, and to this day in Ultimate. I have endless memories playing this game with friends and family and I loved it was such a staple in my college dorms. While Brawl’s time is over, I still have immense fondness for it and I still miss some of the specific creative ethos behind it that led to the lavish Subspace Emissary for example that did not return in Smash 4 and Smash Ultimate.

4: The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess was another game I had immense expectations for. I had never fully enjoyed the Wind Waker and aesthetically it never quite worked for me even if I appreciate it more today. Twilight Princess was a return to form to the darker edges of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask and looked to be a colossal adventure. And it was! When I saw the title screen video play on my TV for the first time, I knew Twilight Princess would be special. Twilight Princess paints a much larger, crafted world than any Zelda before it. In the fields, you often have plenty of room to ride Epona around and engage with awesome horseback combat. My favorite part of the game is definitely the dungeons which are the best in the whole series. While they may not be too tough, they have tons of creativity. Some have unique settings like a yeti’s house or a city in the sky and they all take advantage of the now multiple properties of your items such as the boomerang having a wind effect or the iron boots also having a magnetic property. My favorite item in the game is definitely the double claw shots which lets you swing across gaps like Spider-Man. The boss fights in Twilight Princess are also very memorable. My favorite is definitely the dragon Argorok as you have to claw shot through the sky to dodge his attacks, climb on him, and ultimately drag him to the ground in the middle of a fierce rain storm. While much more basic compared to Skyward Sword, I have a lot of fondness for the motion controls in Twilight Princess. The basic shaking input to swing your sword is so generous you can pour yourself into it while aiming with the IR sensor of course works very well. Overall, Twilight Princess lived up to the long hype and remains not just one of my favorite Zelda games, but one of my favorite games ever made.

3: Metroid Prime 3 Corruption

It was hard to choose between Twilight Princess or Metroid Prime 3 Corruption for the third slot on my list, but I’m giving the edge to Metroid Prime 3 Corruption because from top to bottom the quality of Prime 3 is unquestionably amazing. After a set piece prologue that takes after Halo, you’ll soon be on your own to explore the multiple planets of Metroid Prime 3. Under the advanced control setting which minimizes the targeting reticule’s dead zone, you have astounding control over Samus’ aim such that the game had to become more action oriented than past games even though it is still far more forgiving than a traditional shooter. Beyond aiming, there’s some really fun uses of motion controls throughout, whether it is intuitively operating levers to open doors or ripping off the shields of enemies with your enhanced grapple beam. Traditional Metroid Prime gameplay remains as compelling as ever, whether it is using your scan visor to soak up as much lore as possible or figuring out where puzzles are in the environment and how to solve them. While all of the planets are interesting to explore, the standout planet is definitely, Elysia, which has a striking atmosphere accentuated by an incredible theme song. Really though, every element of Prime 3, from the awesome action that gives rise to incredibly, satisfying boss fights (the first Ridley fight in particular is absurdly cool) to the awesome sense of exploration through areas that are all overflowing with atmosphere and further enhanced by the stellar soundtrack, all combines together to make Metroid Prime 3 the epic conclusion the original Metroid Prime trilogy deserved. 

2: Xenoblade Chronicles

I have written at extensive length why Xenoblade Chronicles is so special to me over the years and I think will be doing so for years to come because it remains one of my all-time favorite games. Xenoblade is the true successor to Final Fantasy XII’s offline MMORPG legacy and builds upon its foundation by offering astounding, fantastical environments to explore on the backs of two deceased robot gods and by offering rich combat to enjoy that requires you to manage special attack cooldowns and your positioning on the battlefield to emerge triumphant. Shulk and his friends’ journey to avenge those they have lost in the war against the Mechon robots is a true, emotional epic. While the cutscenes are well directed, a huge amount of character is built upon the constant banter between party members during battle. I still can hear lines such as “I’m really feeling it!”, “This is the power of the Monado!” and “Now it’s Reyn time!” with full clarity in my mind today. While the combat and progression are awesome, I can’t speak enough to how rewarding exploration is in the game. The best zones, like the iconic Gaur Plains and Valak Mountain, offer tons of verticality and complex cave systems to explore that weave throughout the world. Exploring these zones is deeply satisfying just for the sake of it, but finding and fighting all of the boss monsters further offers an incredible sense of reward. Finally, I have to touch on the amazing soundtrack of Xenoblade Chronicles that adds so much to the experience whether it is the triumphant sense of exploration in the Gaur Plains theme, a wonderful sense of calm in Satorl Marsh’s night theme, or just a feeling of supreme blood pumping action in the boss battle theme You Will Know Our Names.

1: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the absolute best games I have ever played. It has a laser focus on quickly exploring and extracting everything that is fun out of new ideas and mechanics before moving on to the next and Galaxy 2 has a ton of new ideas. While Mario’s movement mechanics are more limited in Galaxy compared to his other 3D adventures, this time Nintendo is fully interested in exploring the limits of them and Galaxy 2 is all the better for it. New power ups and items abound like Cloud Mario which is my favorite Mario power up of all time since it allows you to create three cloud platforms anywhere you want which is incredibly powerful. Another awesome item is the drill that lets you tunnel into planets and emerge on the other side which forces you to really engage with levels that feature it. I also love that Yoshi is very prominently featured in Super Mario Galaxy 2. In addition to his flutter jump and long tongue, by eating different fruit Yoshi gains wild powers temporarily such as inflating like a balloon and dashing at incredible speeds. I said it earlier, but it can’t be overstated just how many new ideas Galaxy 2 has to explore within it as far less of its challenges repeat content. Aside from a conceptually cool, but still weak final Bowser fight, the bosses are otherwise across the board excellent in Galaxy 2 and are so much fun to overcome. Bowser Jr. with his many mechanical robots steals the show as figuring out how to destroy them is just as fun as doing it. Overall, the core journey of Galaxy 2 is amazing and I love that it features two awesome post game challenges in the hunt for 120 Green Stars scattered throughout every level (a few in particular are very tricky to reach) and the final challenge of the game, The Perfect Run. The latter is the first truly hard post game level in a 3D Mario. The Perfect Run strings together many different challenges that test all of your skills and if you take one hit you fail. It truly is an absolutely memorable capstone for Mario’s best adventure and my favorite Wii game of all time.

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Thank you for reading my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I always love hearing from my readers, so definitely share your favorite Wii games and memories with me on my Twitter @JustinMikos. Until next time!