Topic: Let's talk about the Wii library, a very underrated library imo!

[Phil]

It's crazy how good the Wii library was to me. I'm not just talking about Nintendo's output, which saw two of my favorite games of all time, both Super Mario Galaxy games, Xenoblade Chronicles, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, Punch-Out, Excite Truck and my favorite of the two-- ExciteBots, Mario Kart Wii (though my second least favorite 3D Mario Kart behind Mario Kart 64), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (very polarizing, though), Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and many more.

I'm more referring to a good portion of the third-party support, which was really pretty good. Yes, if you didn't have a PS3 or 360, you missed out on the biggest games from third-parties, but on Wii, you got versions of game series that were quite good, original games, and the last major home console to have lower and mid-budget retail releases at a regular pace.

I'm talking about games like Red Steel 2, both Resident Evil rail shooters (with Darkside being my favorite rail shooter of all time-- SO much content!), Sonic Colors, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, SSX Blur, both Boom Blox games, Need for Speed Nitro (am playing this currently and love the arcade-style racing and look that fits the Wii perfectly), Klonoa, Bully: Scholarship Edition, A Boy and His Blob, the MySims franchise, Kororinpa, MadWorld, Fishing Resort, Final Fantasy Fables, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, and many more.

I love the Wii's library, and I have great nostalgia for it despite being in college when it came out. What lesser known games do you like? What popular ones do you like?

[ejamer]

Third-party support was odd on Wii - there were many games released, but support always seemed kind of half-hearted from the big publishing studios. Instead of full, triple-A development a lot of my favorite games feel almost like "indie" releases because they were developed by smaller or secondary teams who wanted to create something interesting and unique instead of following the paint-by-numbers of a major release.

The games mentioned already are great, but I would like to add a few that I really enjoyed and played a lot:

Dragon Quest Swords - Didn't review that well, but what do you expect from a hack'n slash-based, on-rails, RPG? It's a weird genre mash-up and the motion controls take some effort to master... but it's also surprisingly cool once you can consistently (or at least usually) attack the way you intend to. With so many Dragon Quest remakes available on DS now, this game is one that I'm keen to back to and play through again.


Blast Works - Let's get past the rough part quickly: yes, this is essentially a remake of the free PC game, Tumiki Fighters. But Blast Works included a ton of additional content and polish, including four unlockable Kenta Cho games hidden and a full suite of tools for creating and sharing* your own awesome shmups. This is an unorthodox game to be sure, but one that enjoyed for many hours...

*Pretty sure that level sharing tools are no longer active, since all Wii online stuff was shut down a long time ago. When you try to go to the website where it was hosted, you get a "couldn't connect to database" error. But it was awesome while it lasted!


Endless Ocean - This series is incredible, although I spent a lot more time with the first game than the second. Sure, the graphics aren't HD and things look pretty rough when you aren't underwater... but the game world was absolutely packed with things to see and discover. This game was so peaceful and relaxing, but always leaving you wanting to see just a little bit more. The soundtrack was also great (and if not to your liking, could be replaced using MP3s on the SD card - try putting Echoes by Pink Floyd on and taking a dive).


Honorable mentions: Fluidity (WiiWare), Dawn of Discovery

[Evan_B]

I'm a huge fan of the Wii library- there are still games I'm trying to hunt down. I know a lot of people that would argue third parties were developing on gimped hardware, but I think, because of its similarities to the GCN, there was potential for them to polish the groundwork established on that system and play around with motion inputs.

I will always defend The Crystal Bearers, but I am also quite fond of Muramasa, which admittedly has a superior Vita port at this point. A decent action-RPG with mediocre story and solid, Pokemon-esque gameplay is Spectrobes: Origins.

[ejamer]

I'm a huge fan of the Wii library- there are still games I'm trying to hunt down. ...

What games are you still looking for?

... A decent action-RPG with mediocre story and solid, Pokemon-esque gameplay is Spectrobes: Origins.

This is one of the remaining holes in my collection - would like to grab a copy eventually because it looks like a solid title, but it's not really a pressing need due to having a massive shelf of games already.

[Order.RSS]

Never had a Wii but did play it with others sometimes, and I've played a few Wii titles on the Wii U since then. In terms of non-first party stuff, I kinda wanna highlight the Lego Harry Potter games. Especially the first one, since the whimsical nature of the game fits the storylines better. The second one is where the plot gets a lot more dramatic, so that doesn't jive as well I felt.

They're great titles with a lot of content and funny Harry Potter jokes, marred by a few bugs and for some reason they mapped at least 2 actions to every button which can get a bit aggravating at times. Genuinely surprised there's no Fantastic Beasts themed sequel on Wii U.

Also, Guitar Hero 3 was a cool title with decent song selection that I've played at parties a bunch.

[Evan_B]

What games are you still looking for?

I'm looking to get the No More Heroes titles- I already tried nabbing them in the past and got swindled...

And I have always had a fascination with Red Steel too.

[ShyGuy]

Don't forget Silent Hill Shattered Memories, Godfather Black Hand Edition, Trauma Team, and Scarface.

[MagicCow64]

Wii was a goldmine.

For third-party stuff I'll second Silent Hill: Shattered Memories as one of the most interesting concept games ever produced.

And add: Pandora's Tower is an engaging look at how the Castlevania series might have transitioned to 3D in a better world.

Dead Space: Extraction is the most articulated rail-shooter ever made and tied for best game in the series with the first mainline game in my book. Its approach to narrative also allows for genuine surprise in the medium, a true rarity. I think this has a PSMove port, but whatever.

Little King's Story is I believe still the only Pikmin-a-like ever made, and one of my all-time favorite games. I believe it has been ported to PC now, but looks to be butchered.

Zack and Wiki is a novel level-based spin on the adventure game genre and another one of my favorites.

World of Goo is the rare actually good physics-based puzzle. It's been ported around at this point, but from what I've read the Wiimote is still the best way to play the game.

MotoHeroz is a Wiiware game that looks super-shitty, but is actually the best take on the Trials formula.

[Phil]

I just got finished with a session of Need for Speed Nitro. I'm sort of happy I overlooked a lot of Wii games because I got a bunch complete for cheap.

Anyway, the game has 10 tracks with usually two shortcuts/alternate paths each. There are five locations and a huge assortment of cars. The racing feels really good, offering multiple control schemes, and you can use driving assist on or off. The career mode can be played with up to three other players locally, and this features different events at each locale, such as circuit races, elimination races, drift events, and more. It's really fun, though the cops can occasionally be pains in the you-know-what. I highly recommend it since it's so cheap to buy online.

[Khushrenada]

I was going to post this in the recent gaming purchase thread but never got around to it. Last month, I ended up buying Guitar Hero: 3, 5, Warriors of Rock, Smash Hits and Band Hero. Got them all along with another plastic guitar for 20 bucks for the Wii. Also got DJ Hero brand new and complete with turntable for $35.00. In addition, also picked up Rock Band: The Beatles and Animal Crossing: City Folk for around $8.00 each. Not on the Wii but for GameCube I found a copy of Mario Superstar Baseball complete for $10.00. That's $81 for 9 games or $9.00 a game which isn't that bad a deal.

Anyways, what started this spending spree is that I saw Rock Band: Beatles for $7.20 and decided to take it even though I'm not a Beatles fan. I just knew that was the only way those songs would be available. This got me nostalgic for the Guitar Hero / Rock Band games and I started looking up local used games and finding some of these deals that way. Testing the Guitar Hero games, it seems you can't buy any additional DLC content for those titles. This suddenly set in some panic on me because I remember wanting to buy a lot of songs with Rock Band and their DLC. So, I popped in my copy of Rock Band 3 and found out that the majority of the songs are still available for purchase. So, I ended up finally buying a bunch of the songs I'd always been interested in buying. Spent about $70.00 more dollars on that. And there are still others I'd buy. Thinking of putting down another $50.00 next month since I'm not getting a Switch for awhile at it's current price so might as well keep finishing up buying games I'd like for older systems.

As such, I've been playing Rock Band 3 again on and off for the past month and a half. I have to say that it is the best of the rhythm games of the Rock Band /Guitar Hero style. It's already got a good set list of games on the disc where I like about 50% which is pretty good for these games. Usually, it's less than that. But being able to add and acquire so many other songs that I do like from DLC to customize with stuff I really like makes the game so much better. It's the most fully featured version of the Rock Band game to appear on the Wii and it's a shame that its release was actually around the fall of the RB/GH rhythm game era because I think it is the best. I know it introduced the Keyboard and people were getting tired of more peripherals but I do like the Keyboard. I blame Guitar Hero more for the downfall. It's a shame that brand took down Rock Band with it. I wish Rock Band would have been able to outlast Guitar Hero and keep going strong. It was disappointing when RB4 didn't come to Wii U. Don't know how it's done sales wise but I can't recall anything majorly successful about it and I never hear anyone talking about.

Still, as much as people want to hate on EA (and there is plenty of reason to do so), they were the distributors for Rock Band 1, 2 and 3 on the Wii so they did something right so I got to give them some credit for releasing what is probably one of my top 5 Wii games. The Rock Band games were one of the few titles I kept playing during my lapsed gamer phase and after revisiting this series again, I still like it. Rock Band 3 is the third party title I most want to promote in this thread.

On a final note, picking up that pack of Guitar Hero games for really cheap made me wonder about that kid who dropped out of school to play Guitar Hero professionally. I remember how we talked about the stupidity of the parents more than him but what a dumb decision that seemed to be especially since the Guitar Hero craze did fade away. Turns out that he's actually done ok if that thread is to be believed and I don't see why not. It's nothing special but he did get his high school diploma and was in college so he's chugging along just fine in life and isn't the uneducated, unemployed, wash-out everyone thought he'd turn out to be.

[KeyBilly]

Rock Band 3 was a lot of fun with family.  Nice purchase.  My non-gamer Wii franchise find was Just Dance.  That series, which I made fun of for a long time because of the IGN reviews, works for party games and is still one of the best ways to get a dynamic cardio workout.  The Kinect became the ideal way to play (and also has Dance Central, which is more like Rock Band), but the Wii was where it started.

Otherwise, there aren't many third party games that stand out.  Zack & Wiki was one of the more memorable.

[Phil]

Rock Band 3 was a lot of fun with family.  Nice purchase.  My non-gamer Wii franchise find was Just Dance.  That series, which I made fun of for a long time because of the IGN reviews, works for party games and is still one of the best ways to get a dynamic cardio workout.  The Kinect became the ideal way to play (and also has Dance Central, which is more like Rock Band), but the Wii was where it started.

Otherwise, there aren't many third party games that stand out.  Zack & Wiki was one of the more memorable.

But my initial post! :X

[ejamer]

...
Otherwise, there aren't many third party games that stand out.  Zack & Wiki was one of the more memorable.

See, this sounds like the mainstream opinion voiced by people who didn't invest much time playing the interesting niche games on the system.  When I talk to people who actually played Wii games before judging them, they usually have a handful of "...but Game X was awesome!" anecdotes.


When Wii came out, roguelike games weren't in fashion the way they are now so it was great to play games like Baroque, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, and Shiren the Wanderer on the console. Also notable that those three games have such different target audiences, really making the genre accessible to anyone.  Of course now indie roguelikes are a dime a dozen - but those three games are still excellent titles worth playing for newbies or gamers experienced with the genre.

[KeyBilly]

You may be right.  I did not give the games you mentioned a chance, because they didn't appeal to me based on what I read and saw about them.  I guess my kind of niche third party games for the Wii were Z&W and Another Code: R.  I did try (and buy) many others, including some listed by Phil, but ultimately found them to be lower quality imitations of games on other platforms or conceptually good with lacking execution.  For me, the Wii was primarily a Nintendo console, and it was worth it for that.

[Phil]

Zack & Wiki was a game that I felt would have been better served for the MotionPlus. Obviously, Capcom didn't know that would be a thing, but so many of the gestures required just didn't work usually for with 100% accuracy, making the later levels incredibly frustrating, rage quit inducing even.

[KeyBilly]

Hmm, I didn't have that issue, but I did find the controls in Skyward Sword inconsistent.  It is funny how differently people experience games.  I guess the positive is that the Wii had such a diverse selection of niche games that most of us have good memories from them.

[ejamer]

Zack & Wiki was a game that I felt would have been better served for the MotionPlus. Obviously, Capcom didn't know that would be a thing, but so many of the gestures required just didn't work usually for with 100% accuracy, making the later levels incredibly frustrating, rage quit inducing even.

I thought the controls in Zack & Wiki were extremely good for the majority of the game, but agree there were a couple of specific actions that didn't work very well. The sword fighting close to the end in particular was rough. It forced a handful of attempts in that penultimate level before I understand what motions would and wouldn't be interpreted correctly.


That wasn't enough to turn me off from the game though - Zack & Wiki is definitely one of my favorite gaming experiences from the Wii generation.

[ejamer]

... Another Code: R.  ...

Is this good?  I imported, and am eager to play eventually because it sounds like an interesting game. It just hasn't bubbled up to the top of the backlog yet (and probably won't for a while since I haven't finished the DS game either).

[KeyBilly]

I enjoyed it.  It is very low key and relaxed in pace, similar to the original.  The only thing that made me a little uncomfortable was that it leaned more heavily into the "what it's like to be a teen girl" theme.  But, aren't we all teen girls on the inside?

[ejamer]

I enjoyed it.  It is very low key and relaxed in pace, similar to the original.  The only thing that made me a little uncomfortable was that it leaned more heavily into the "what it's like to be a teen girl" theme.  But, aren't we all teen girls on the inside?

I dunno... I watched the entire run of Sailor Moon, does that help?

[pokepal148]

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a decent brawler with a co-op mode.

Also the Virtual Console has a weird spot here. I went on the Shop Channel to get Lost Winds 2 and World of Goo and i also grabbed Ristar, and Actraiser (I also got Axelay only to find out that i could have gotten it on the Wii U eshop so I used some loose eshop credit to cover the upgrade fee. The Wii Virtual Console isn't dead yet which is good because i'm interested in getting games from it. 

[Evan_B]

Yeah, the Wii has some incredible VC options, including the Phantasy Star series. Fantastic RPGs.

[pokepal148]

Also they actually improved the Wii shop channels download speeds so it's on par with the eshop now.

[KeyBilly]

I dunno... I watched the entire run of Sailor Moon, does that help?

I think you are more than qualified, and a gentleman of fine taste.

[TheSevenYearSwitch]

This was posted on a reddit: a nintendoage user has complete set of Wii games: http://imgur.com/a/5oeAN and the post from nintendoage: http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?StartRow=1&catid=5&threadid=170644