The 50 best Wii games
30th Nov 2012 | 16:00
The
50.
No 'hardcore' or 'mature' games on Wii? Platinum's orgy of mayhem is bloody and brilliant. 84%
49.
The bestest lightgun game on Wii (and there's stiff competition). 85%
48.
Tremendous 2D Mario action. Almost a new game when you sync extra remotes. 85%
47.
It's Ryu vs Battle Of The Planets. 85%
46.
A fab intro to MotionPlus, and a great minigame compilation too. 85%
45.
This gorgeous RPG finally arrives in the UK. The plot's a little generic, but it's plenty of fun. 85%
44.
MotionPlus fixes Red Steel 1's slight issues. Only Skyward Sword offers better swordplay. 85%
43.
Who knew being a surgeon / paramedic / forensics expert could be this difficult (and this enjoyable)? 86%
42.
The Rabbids ('Les Lapins Crétins' in France) hop into a shopping trolley for a collect-a-thon. 86%
41.
A real treat for Disney historians. A floaty nightmare for anyone else. 86%
40.
Bright, breezy and very, very fast, this is easily the best 3D Sonic on Nintendo formats. 86%
39.
Addictive family gaming. Star Wars and Indiana Jones sets also available. 86%
38.
Painty-rolly sequel fixes the first game's wonky jumping. The result? Platforming heaven. 87%
37.
Be honest, you'll never play Wii Fit again. So why not try this one instead? 87%
36.
Sequel to an obscure N64 classic sees Treasure back to their blasting best. 87%
35.
It might be a little woolly at times, but HAL have knitted together a fine platformer here. 87%
34.
Team Ninja merge first-person and third-person space exploration. 87%
33.
Retro platforming worth beating your chest about. 87%
32.
Plastic turntables make concrete DJs of us all. Cheaper than a flight to Ibiza and some DJ classes. 88%
31.
'2D Mario in a 3D world' has been bettered on 3DS, but still a funny RPG. 88%
30.
Block-tumbling physics game designed by Steven Spielberg. 88%
29.
The simple farming life of Harvest Moon, stretched into a full-blown agri-RPG. 88%
28.
Misunderstood music-making toy allows you to toot your own horn / harp / dog suit. 88%
27.
Relentlessly, maddeningly difficult platformer, but always fair (and fun) to go with it. 88%
26.
A little too chaotic, even by Mario Kart standards, but it's easily Wii's best online game. 88%
25.
Snap shots of aquatic fauna and discover treasure. A perfect comedown after zombie slaying. 88%
24.
Classic plastic singing / drumming / guitaring. Sadly Band Hero kit isn't cross-compatible on Wii. 88%
23.
Fiendish rhythm-based challenges set to insane visual prompts. 89%
22.
Half role-playing game, half side-scrolling hack-'n'-slasher. 89%
21.
Mesmerising grid shooter with a fully realised single-player structure. 89%
20.
Watch the tutorials, and this MotionPlus delight offers deep, rewarding tennis. 89%
19.
Surprisingly faithful to the HD versions. There's online multiplayer, too! 89%
18.
Pokémon for barbarians - explore a beautiful world and slay its beasts. 89%
17.
Thoroughly terrifying ghost hunter makes its way to Wii. Inessential minigames can't mar the pure horror at its core. 89%
16.
This endearing RTS-in-a-garden was originally a Cube game, but it's better on Wii. 90%
15.
Cross Monkey Island with Mouse Trap and you're halfway to understanding what this nautical but nice point-'n'-click adventure is all about. Witty banter and taxing puzzles combine to form a charming experience. 90%
14.
If you like your swordplay kitsch with a side-order of manga-geek, then you can't really go wrong with either of the No More Heroes games. They're violent, cool, witty and slightly rude in equal measures. 90%
13.
Alas, Fatal Frame IV is so scary that no store outside Japan dare stock it. But you can get the Japanese version working on your British Wii with a free patch. Visit fatalframe4.net and they'll tell you how. 90%
12.
The plastic guitar fad might be over, but it's important to remember that Rock Band and Guitar Hero succeeded because they were great games - and this is the best of the lot. New Pro peripherals make Rock Band 3 the ultimate finger-blisterer. 91%
11.
Rockstar reined in the intoxicating freedom of Grand Theft Auto by transplanting the gameplay into the regimented environment of a boarding school and sending teachers out to make sure you didn't skip the minigame classes. Astonishingly it worked. 91%
10.
Capcom attempt to out-Zelda Zelda with this enigmatic tale of a wolf-goddess armed with a celestial paintbrush that can interact with the world around you. In the end, the Sun Goddess doesn't quite outshine the Twilight Princess, but it's still one of Wii's leading lights. 91%
9.
You'll need to put on a space helmet before reading, as otherwise your squeals of delight will wake Australia: this stunning package crams three excellent Metroid adventures onto one disc - with updated Wii controls! 100+ hours of scanning and shooting. 91%
8.
Sadly, only nine people bought this adorable real-time strategy tale of a young king and his army of faithful villagers who'll go wherever his royal sceptre demands. Why not push the sales into double figures? Or are you one of those weirdos who hates grinning? 92%
7.
Forget Skyrim's sludge 'n' drudge greyscape - if you want to see just how beautiful an RPG can be, then why not spend an hour or hundred in Xenoblade's enchanting world, which has sprouted up from the backs of the corpses of two warring gods? 93%
6.
Manic, energetic scrapper that makes up for what it lacks in finesse with volume, humour, multiplayer hi-jinx and some of the most exhaustive fan service ever. Short of Mario hand-feeding you meatballs, you won't find a more intensive Nintendo experience. 93%
5.
You know you're trucking with a special survival horror game when you enter an abandoned village armed to the teeth and you still end up browning your Wario boxers. The extra precision of the remote makes one of the best games ever even better. 96%
4.
After an hour, you've herded goats and rescued a cat. After six, you're walking upside down above a lava pit. After 40, you're hookshotting across a temple in the clouds. A stirring, impossibly epic adventure. 97%
3.
One moment you're ice-skating in outer space; the next, you're bouncing on a conveyor belt made of Battenberg. Such is its energy and thirst to explore new frontiers that even the emergence of a (marginally) superior sequel fails to make this any less than essential. 97%
2.
Producer Eiji Aonuma finally lays the ghost of Ocarina to rest with this, the Zelda that rewrites all the rules. The Skyloft setting is a wonderland, and the MotionPlus swordplay allows you to 'be' Link like never before. 98%
1.
This platforming masterpiece scoops up the myriad ideas that erupted from Mario Galaxy's bubbling volcano of creativity, and stretches each and every one of them out like a Technicolor accordion. Then it adds about ten billion more of its own, simply because it can. Tactile, joyful and totally ace, this is easily the best game ever made. Any better, and the human mind simply wouldn't be able to process it. 98%
