Sure, the Wii has a progressive, cutting-edge control system. Sure, it includes some great software that personalizes the Wii experience. And sure, it’s brilliantly positioned as a useful Internet appliance that anyone in the family can use to communicate, shop, or check the weather. But even though the Wii can do all these things, its fundamental purpose is to play games.
The Wii doesn’t play just any games—it plays great games and, in some cases, groundbreaking games (mostly due to the unique wireless controller system). The Wii can work in a backward-compatible mode to play Nintendo GameCube games and lots of old-time games through the Virtual Console, as well as modern Wii-specific games. In this chapter, I look at all these types of games.
When you go to a store to pick out Wii games, look for a few key features:
Multiplayer capability. Although many games are lots of fun to play by yourself, playing with or against a friend or relative gives a game another dimension to explore and enjoy.
Controllers. Make sure that you have the controllers needed to play the game. Some games require two Wii Remotes with Nunchuks, for example.
Appropriateness. If your children are going to be playing the game, be sure that the content is appropriate for their ages. Also be sure to read the cover notes to ensure that the content doesn’t conflict with your belief system. I once loaned an unopened game called The Vampire’s Masquerade to a friend, and he returned it in the same state a few days later. When I asked him why he hadn’t opened the game, he said his wife felt that the content encouraged Satanism. Everybody is entitled to his or her own beliefs, and that’s why I encourage you to educate yourself about games before buying them.
Strategy guides. For some games, such as Zelda, you may want to see whether a strategy guide is available. These books tell you how to beat the game and give you inside tips and tricks about the gaming universe. If you get frustrated with games easily, it might behoove you to pick up a strategy guide. Some strategy guides are also available online at no cost.
Rating. If you have visited gaming sites, you may have seen ratings for certain games. These ratings are not always in line with what your opinion is going to be when you play the game, but they’re a reasonable approximation.
Popularity. If a game is flying off the shelves and is not in stock anywhere, you can get a pretty good idea that the game is a good one. Buying a game on the basis of popularity alone is foolish, but taken with the other factors, a game’s popularity is worth considering.
Online Game Information
Rating and comparing games is much like rating and comparing movies; one man’s The Godfather is another man’s Dude, Where’s My Car? Still, most gamers accept a basic division line that puts games in either the good or the not-so-good category, which is where gaming Web sites come into the picture.
All kinds of Web sites review games and accessories for the Wii, but the following are probably the top five places to visit:
GameSpot (www.gamespot.com; click the Wii button)
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games)
Yahoo Games (http://wii.yahoo.com)
These sites have exhaustive lists of Wii games (Figure 8.1), reviews of already-released games, and even previews of games that are not yet released.
Many gaming sites also have videos of in-game action, strategy guides, cheats, codes, reader reviews, interviews with the game’s designers, and lots of other ancillary material to feed your interest in the game in question. Ultimately, the Web is a powerful tool for you to use when deciding where to spend your hard-earned money.
New Wii games are being released every week, so my giving you a complete, detailed picture of all the available games is impossible. But I can give you a picture of what’s good right now, as I write this chapter.
In this section, I look at six of the top games on the market—games that take full advantage of the Wii’s control system and are likely to go down in the history books as classic entertainment software (Figure 8.2). This collection includes two sports games, a sprawling adventure, a car-racing game, an action game, and two crazy family games that are more fun than a clown on fire.
Note
ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) standards came into practice in 1994. A volunteer effort by software producers in the United States and Canada, the ESRB rating system helps parents choose appropriate software for their children.
Genre: Car racingPublisher: UbisoftPrice: $49.99ESRB rating: E (Everyone)Multiplayer? NoControllers needed: Wii Remote
GT Pro Series (Figure 8.3) is the only game I’m recommending that doesn’t get a high rating from the major gaming sites. I like GT Pro Series because it includes a free racing wheel (see Chapter 9 for details on this accessory) and is easy enough for a 5-year-old to play.
Genre: AdventurePublisher: NintendoPrice: $49.99ESRB rating: T (Teen)Multiplayer? NoControllers needed: Wii Remote + Nunchuk
Zelda (Figure 8.4) is one of the most beloved gaming franchises of all time, and Twilight Princess doesn’t disappoint. It’s a complex, engrossing game that’s still easy enough for an 8-year-old to follow (if you allow an 8-year-old to play a T-rated game), and it’s all kinds of fun. The puzzles are enjoyable and challenging, the graphics are pleasing, and the controls (as expected) are out of this world.
Genre: American footballPublisher: EA SPORTSPrice: $49.99ESRB rating: E (Everyone)Multiplayer? Yes (up to four players)Controllers needed: Wii Remote + Nunchuk
The Madden series is by far the most popular football gaming series ever, and the Wii version opens the door to many gamers who find the controls in other versions too difficult to master. In Madden NFL 07 (Figure 8.5), you throw a ball by making a throwing motion (a large flick of the wrist), and you snap the ball from center by jerking up the Wii Remote. This game is a great deal of fun.
Genre: This game defies description!Publisher: UbisoftPrice: $49.99ESRB rating: E (Everyone)Multiplayer? Yes (up to four players)Controllers needed: Wii Remote + Nunchuk
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Figure 8.6) is one of the most hilarious games I’ve ever played. The game takes brilliant advantage of the Wii’s controllers, and the bizarre story is frighteningly compelling. Before you know it, you’ll be shooting bathroom plungers at cowboy rabbits and then flying a giant bat to pick up a pig and drop it into a farmyard.
If all that seems strange, be prepared to drum along to all kinds of music (a missed drumbeat can mean death) and then engage in the world-famous cow toss. Yep, you read that right: You grab a cow, spin it round and round over your head, and then release it to see how far you can get it to go. (The cow is often unimpressed.)
Rayman Raving Rabbids is quite simply one of the finest family games out there for any console. It’s great fun for all ages and a personal favorite of mine.
Genre: First-person actionPublisher: UbisoftPrice: $49.99ESRB rating: T (Teen)Multiplayer? Yes (up to four players)Controllers needed: Wii Remote + Nunchuk
Red Steel (Figure 8.7) definitely contains adult themes, the worst of which are violence and onscreen killing. You have to fight your way through detailed and realistic areas, using various weapons—guns, automatic weapons, and even ninja swords. Parts of the game can be a real workout (especially the swordfighting). Getting used to the controls takes a while, but after you do, the game’s a lot of fun.
Genre: MicrogamesPublisher: NintendoPrice: $49.99ESRB rating: E (Everyone; age 10 and up recommended)Multiplayer? NoControllers needed: Wii Remote + Nunchuk
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Figure 8.8) nearly defies categorization. The idea is that you must move through a map and defeat hundreds of microgames to win. No other game uses the Wii Remote in so many ways; the diversity of uses for the remote is truly impressive.
Despite the remarkable simplicity of the graphics and the microgames, Smooth Moves is highly compelling, and I recommend it as a fantastic single-player game for the whole family. That may seem like an oxymoron, but Smooth Moves lends itself to a group of people taking turns against the microgames.
The Wii is a great gaming platform, with plenty of games already available for it, and no doubt hundreds more will be available in the coming months and years. Add to that the plethora of Virtual Console games and the backward compatibility of Nintendo GameCube games, and the Wii becomes a true all-in-one system.
Note
Backward compatibility simply means that a console is capable of playing games created for earlier consoles. Sony PlayStation 3, for example, can play all PlayStation games to date. The Nintendo GameCube isn’t backward compatible, because the Nintendo 64 (the console that preceded it) uses a cartridge system, whereas the GameCube uses discs. But the Wii’s disc drive makes it backward compatible with the GameCube.
Wii users can rejoice: Not only are all GameCube games compatible with the Wii (indeed, the Wii has four GameCube controller slots and two memory-card slots), but also, the Wii’s Virtual Console provides access to many other old games.
In this section, I look at a few standout GameCube and Virtual Console titles.
Note
So many fantastic games are available through the Virtual Console that pretty much any one you pick will be a winner. Let’s face it—the games that make it into the Virtual Console are the ones that were good sellers 10, 15, and 20 years ago, so all of them should be good.
The Wii Shop Channel (covered in Chapter 7) gives you access to large numbers of old games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Nintendo 64 (N64), Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx systems through the Virtual Console (Figure 8.9). The following sections describe three of the best Virtual Console titles currently available.
Tip
When you go to Web sites such as IGN.com’s Wii area, the old games available through the Virtual Console are newly rated, which allows you to get a fresh perspective on whether various games are worth their cost.
Genre: PlatformerPublisher: NintendoPrice: 1,000 Wii Points ($10)ESRB rating: E (Everyone)Multiplayer? NoControllers needed: Classic Controller or GameCubecontroller
Super Mario 64 (Figure 8.10) is one of the all-time best games, single-handedly responsible for getting the N64 off the ground. As a matter of fact, many gamers bought their N64s just so they could get their hands on this game.
Genre: PlatformerPublisher: NintendoPrice: 600 Wii Points ($6)ESRB rating: E (Everyone)Multiplayer? YesControllers needed: Classic Controller or GameCubecontroller
Super Mario World (Figure 8.11) is a side-scrolling platform game from about a thousand years ago—and amazingly, it holds my children’s interest. Even though the kids have access to some of the best games on the planet, they’re more than willing to spend an hour on this one.
Genre: Action/adventurePublisher: SegaPrice: 800 Wii Points ($8)ESRB rating: E (Everyone)Multiplayer? YesControllers needed: Classic Controller or GameCubecontroller
The concept of ToeJam & Earl (Figure 8.12) is that the characters have crash-landed on a funkified planet, and now their spaceship is in a bunch of pieces. They must explore the planet and recover the ten ship pieces necessary to get off the world and get home. ToeJam & Earl is a peculiar game, but it’s surprisingly fun and a great two-player game for kids.
Operations Guides
When you are playing a Virtual Console game, you may wonder what you are supposed to do for a manual—which you don’t get when you download a game through the Wii Shop Channel.
Complete manuals are included with every Virtual Console game. To get a manual while you’re playing one of these games, just press the Home button on the Wii Remote and then click the Operations Guide button. The Wii displays the Operations Guide (manual) for the game you are playing. Figure 8.13 shows Super Mario 64’s Operations Guide.
Tons of GameCube games are available (some of them available for a song at game-trading stores), and the GameCube is still for sale everywhere, so it’s safe to say that GameCube games are still in development. Because the Wii is backward compatible, all GameCube games are available to you. I suggest that you visit Web sites such as GameSpot and IGN.com to read about games before you buy them.
The following sections discuss just a few of the games in the venerable GameCube catalog.
Genre: Action/adventurePublisher: LucasArtsPrice: $39.99ESRB rating: E (Everybody)Multiplayer? Yes (cooperative)Controllers needed: Classic Controllers or GameCubecontrollers
Lego Star Wars II (Figure 8.14) is one of the most surprisingly enjoyable games of recent years. The game features all the Star Wars characters (in Lego form) and leaves you to take them through the entire story arc of the original Star Wars movie and its sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V) and Return of the Jedi (Episode VI)—the first three movies from way back in the 1970s and early 1980s.
I can’t say enough just how much fun this game is. The cooperative multiplayer feature is a blast, and I’ve spent countless hours with both of my sons working through the game as the likes of Obi-Wan, R2-D2, and even Chewbacca.
Genre: Action/adventurePublisher: NintendoPrice: $9 (used)ESRB rating: E (Everyone)Multiplayer? NoControllers needed: Classic Controller or GameCubecontroller
Luigi’s Mansion (Figure 8.15) puts its protagonist in a haunted mansion that’s chock full of ghosts and other annoying spirits. Luigi must use his handy-dandy ghost vacuum to suck up the enemies while he works to find his way out of the mansion.
Genre: Action/fightingPublisher: NintendoPrice: $29.99ESRB rating: T (Teen)Multiplayer? YesControllers needed: Classic Controllers or GameCubecontrollers
Super Smash Bros. Melee (Figure 8.16) takes the main characters from famous Nintendo games such as Link from Zelda, Mario and Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, and even Samus from Metroid, and puts them in an all-out fight in a variety of settings. Although Super Smash Bros. is a fighting game, there’s no real violence—more like cartoon fun. The game has no recognizable weapons, violent actions, blood, gore, or anything else that most parents would consider inappropriate.
