I’m buying myself a Wii (and Guitar Hero) with my fantasy football winnings.
Since I’ve never owned a Nintendo product in my life, I’m not at all interested in the Zelda or Mario Brothers franchise.
I like to play what I call “solving” games; games where you have to complete a series of tasks, in a series of levels, to achieve an ultimate goal. When I had a PS2 I was into Tomb Raider, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, the Suffering, and similar franchises. However, the REALLY thick & heavy fantasy titles (like the Final Fantasy franchise) don’t really appeal to me.
I may buy a few sports games down the road, but they aren’t at the top of my list right now. I’m definitely not interested in fighting games like Mortal Kombat or similar franchises.
Anything off-the-wall that utilizes the Wii remote in a clever way (like Carnival Games) would interest me as well.
I don’t know if it would appeal that much to you but I thought it was a blast and it was really cheap, so I recommend Resident Evil 4. I was never all that interested in the franchise, but decided to pick it up on a friend’s recommendation. Definitely a lot of fun.
I’m in the middle of playing a game called Okami right now. I’ve only been playing it for a few hours, but it’s been pretty fun though. Since you’re a wolf there’s no guns, but there is fighting. There’s also at least some puzzle solving.
You should really try the latest incarnation of the Zelda series “Twilight Princess”.
You don’t really need to have played any of the others as they all seem to be the same story retold with newer graphics and puzzles.
It’s less platformy than a Mario game and less RPGish than a Final Fantasy game.
Don’t knock it till you try it.
Can I get a recommendation too? We’re renting a Wii for the holidays and want to try some of the fun athletic games (“athletic” meanng the games that require you to move). Is there a boxing game that will let me beat up my sister?
Trauma Center is a linear game where you do surgery and follow a story. Although, for me, it’s a game I don’t like to put down once I start as I didn’t remember all of the steps to complete a surgery.
Lego:Star Wars is hours of amusement with replayability too.
Any of the Rayman Raving Rabbids series and Wario Ware:Smooth Moves are great fun using the Wiimote in clever ways. RRR3 has a great dance game which is hilarious if you’ve got 2 or 3 friends/family playing along.
Wii Sports has boxing which, imho, is the best out there currently. Avoid ShoTime’s boxing game which is complete crap.
Boom Blox usually gets recommended in threads like this, and from this review sounds like it might fit the “solving games” criterion, though more towards the “puzzle” than “story” end of the spectrum.
You might also like Sam & Max Season One - it’s more of a point-and-click game but has some weird puzzle-solving (what object to use in a slightly demented fashion), and if you’ve encountered Sam & Max before, the humor tends to be seriously funny and weird.
The Adventures of Sam and Max - Series One. An old-style, Lucasarts-before-they-realised-that-they-could-put-out-any-old-crap-with-a-Star-Wars-licence point and click adventure game!
Otherwise, the first or third in the Rayman Raving Rabbids series are great party games if you’ve got a group of people and want to waggle some controllers, but they aren’t single-player games.
Alternately, try Rock Band or Rock Band 2.
But you’ll probably find that after a while the only time the Wii gets turned on will be to play Wii Sports.
Other than Mario Galaxy (best game ever), Bully: Scholarship Edition is my favorite game on the Wii. While it wasn’t developed for Wii, it uses the remote and nunchuk quite well (aside from the boxing matches, you can beat up anyone anywhere at any time). It’s an amazing game with a huge world– several neighborhoods that include an amusement park, cemetery, insane asylum, not to mention the school grounds (where you attend classes and play mini games). It’s all delightfully clichéd, like a million '80s movies in one. I’m surprised it’s not recommended more.
Overall, I’m not thrilled with the selection of games available for the Wii, but I find that Medal of Honour, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and Sonic: Secret of the Rings hold up well enough for occasional play. Wii Sports is beyond lame; I can’t imagine anyone going back to that well many times.
I’m going to agree with you on this one.
Wii Sports was more like a Wii system demo disc. I didn’t really think anyone actually played any of those games for more than 5 minutes.
I’ve heard good things about Trauma Center and Boom Blox. Really, the dem CD that comes with the Wii is garbage after you first play it. Your parents might want to try it out, but it’s a shiny coaster.
If you’ll be connected to the WiiWare store, you should download World of Goo. It’s a physics-based building puzzle game with a surprisingly compelling and mysterious plot. Reviewers seem to love, love, love it, and I (an infamous non-gamer who sticks to Tetris most of the time) was up until the wee hours of the morning for several days trying to finish it.
Warning: I’ve only played it on a PC, but if it’s just half as amazing and addictive with Wii controls, you will not be able to stop building with goo.
A game that sounds like it’s right up your alley is Zack and Wiki. It’s a point-and-click adventure game where you have to solve each level. You also use the Wii remote in a variety of ways.
My favorite Wii game is Mario Kart Wii. Best multiplayer game ever. Fun to play online, too.
I second wunderkammer’s nomination. Replayabilty is not great but it’s cheap (15 bucks) from the Wiiware store. It’s a lot of fun to figure out the various levels.
The Wii has a large number of games that are better on other systems (pretty much anything not designed for the Wii from the ground up is made worse not only by the graphics but also by the inclusion of whatever waggle mode they’ve got), and as such the only time it gets turned on is to play an exclusive game.
Now pending the arrival of my Sam and Max, the only time my Wii’s been fired up in the past twelve-months-plus is when either there are a group of us that want to play something mindless (i.e. a Rayman game) or when we want to play bowling or baseball on Wii Sports.
I’m not saying that the Wii’s bad for casual gaming, but Wii Sports is the one that you keep coming back to when you’re looking for something that’s casual, mindless and quick.
The fascination with Wii Sports is beyond me. The only people I’ve met IRL who like it are little kids and 40+ housewives. In other words, people who wouldn’t otherwise play a video game. It was a demo disc as far as I’m concerned.
The golf was kinda fun but ends as soon as you start getting into it.
The tennis can be mildly fun with 4 people if the mood is right, but otherwise lame
I’ve never not bowled a strike on the bowling, so I don’t understand how this is fun unless you have really low self esteem
The baseball was just hitting. Boring.
I cannot figure out the boxing and neither can anyone I’ve played with. Can you move your guy? Why doesn’t he punch when I punch?
My favorite Wii games so far have been Mario Galaxy (no need to have played Mario before to enjoy this), Mario Kart, and Mega Man 9 from WiiWare.