I am trying to find good games to buy for Christmas for the Wii. I just bought the system for my daughters. They are 8 and 10. They have a Xbox at home so are familiar with video games. I have seen them play Wii sports at a friends house and they had a great time. What other games out there would be good for the girls? I don’t get to the Dope as much as I used to but I’ll come back as much as I can to check. Thanks.
Rayman Ravin Rabids, Rock Band II (probably around a $100 itself), and there a a bazillion party type games, IMO you can’t have enough of these. They’d probably even get a kick out of Mario Galaxy. Other than Mario, I’d say those I listed are pretty gender nuetral and more importantly really fun.
If you’re concerned about the music used in Rock Band 2 (swear words are left out entirely, but “adult themes” may still be present), there’s always Lego Rock Band with family-friendly rock songs.
On that topic, if they’re Star Wars fans, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga has gotten good ratings, and I’ve enjoyed playing it myself. Stuffy already noted Rayman’s Raving Rabbids (the original game, by that exact name, has gotten better reviews than the sequels).
Mario Kart is probably my girls favorite game. Make sure to get an extra wheel though.
My 9-year-old stepdaughter would recommend Cooking Mama: World Kitchen, which seems to be a hit amongst her friends of that age as well. And she and her older brother are rabid over Mario Kart as well.
As well as seconding Mario Kart (five year old can play for hours) and Cooking Mama (aforementioned five year old will watch his mama play for hours), I would suggest Mario Party. Kids love it, they can play it alone or with others. Adults can have fun with it too. We have the Hasbro Family Game Night, but the kids would rather play the actual board games.
De Blob is great - my (now 9 year old) son loves it, and I enjoy playing it too.
And reviewing other answers, while the Lego Star Wars (& Indiana Jones) games are great, I think they are infinitely better on the Xbox than the Wii.
Animal Crossing: City Folk is a good choice. It’s a little like the Sims, only in a town with animals. Players can design clothes, befriend their neighbors, fish, garden, hunt fossils and so on. The girls can both play their own characters, living in the same house. It’s very sandbox-y. The Harvest Moon games are sort of similar but with more structure.
Boom Blox is a really great puzzle game. Jenga meets Tetris is how it’s usually described.
Okami, if they didn’t play it on the PS2, is beautiful and unique.
Our eight year old daughter loves:
Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey
Mario Party 8
And I’ll second Boom Blox.
Almost any of the Petz (Cats, Dogs, Crazy Monkeys) titles would be good for girls that age. Cute little animals that you get to create/control and then run them through a bunch of missions. You can probably find them used for $10-20.
**BoomBlox **looks like it needs some more love, compared to the others in the list. There is also a Sequel to BoomBlox, BoomBlox Bash Party. I have the Original, want the Sequel, and I havent even gone 25% into the first one yet. Great times using the Wii remote, after the included Wii Sports, this is a great “Only the Wii Remote can do this” type game. Who doesn’t want to throw balls at buildings to knock them down?
I wouldn’t say that it is tetris like at all. You have different methods of removing blocks from various buildings, including Jenga like grabing, baeball throwing, gun shooting, and chain reaction puzzle logic thinking. Tetris IMHO doesn’t enter play.
The Replay value [Wanting to play the same pieces of the game over and over and over again, long after “completing” the game.] on any WarioWare title can’t be beat. I don’t know about it’s availability though, I had to track down my copy of WarioWare Smooth Moves used, through Gamestop.
I have the game, but I have not spent that much time with it: Super Mario Galaxy is on a LOT of games of this Decade list. Can’t go wrong with a solid Mario platformer on a Nintendo System.
There are a lot more games I could recomend, but they would be for a 27 year old Guy. I am guessing that Fighting games are out, and that longer games with a story line with long movie like cut scenes are probably out of the picture.
I CAN NOT recommend Furu Furu Park. It may be 20 bucks, but the mini games it offers [In an attempt to be like WarioWare] are the EXACT same layout every single time. I bought it base on the fact that Arkanoid was in the game. Arkanoid gets tiring real fast, if you know the layout before you even start.
Also Remember, that the WII can play Nintendo Gamecube Games… **Just be sure to buy Gamecube controllers. **
And Finally, I don’t know if you will hook your Wii up to the Internet [You can opt to not download the Web Browser.] but it might be a good idea to pick up a Nintendo points card as well. Tons of GREAT old school classics for download purchase from Original Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Commodore and more. I assume your Xbox is a 360, Nintendo Points work in a similar manner to Xbox Live Points… but at a more agreeable, 1:1 conversion, [20 bucks will get you 2000 points.]
I’m following this thread for recommendations, but I can tell you that I’ve downloaded the old games from my childhood. SMB3 holds up. I just got SMB1 and don’t like it as much… not after playing 3. Didn’t like Zelda this time around, either. All are $5, so I’d definitely recommend Super Mario Bros 3. The only problem is that it uses the Wii remote like an old-fashioned Nintendo controller, so you’re not really taking advantage of the Wii. But for $5, it can’t be beat. My 6 and 9 yo sobrinos like it, too; (even though they are terrible at it).
The general concensus seems to be that it’s a better rental. I’ll try renting it and will come back with my opinion if I do.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a great multiplayer game. I know you said they were girls (so this one might be further down on the list) but I don’t think this is solely a masculine game.
If you get a points card, “World of Goo” is a great downloadable game.
You can download a demo from Wii Ware for 0 Wii points to try it out. (I didn’t like it, but it doesn’t hurt to try.)
Demos are evil things. I’m on the fence as we speak over Bit Trip Beat simply because of the demo. – I would get it instantly, if I could just buy 500 points, and not 1000.
Definite support for this.
Also for Boom Blox.
I thought De Blob was interesting, but frankly the game has no business being the Wii. Waggle the controller to jump? Bite me. The entire “waggle controller to do what should be a button press” thing needs to die in a fire.
Other stuff you may want to consider includes:
The New Super Mario Brothers. (Not sure how this one has eluded mention so far)
LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias - this one might be a download. I don’t actually own a Wii, but most sources indicate it’s not to be missed.
My Life As a King (Okay, I liked it!)
**Mario Galaxy **is amazing but might be a bit tough if they don’t have much gaming experience.
This may be unpopular, but when I was a 10-year-old girl my favorite videogame was Mortal Kombat. Which is pretty cool for the Wii and has lots of female characters (some with extra limbs). But that might get you in trouble, what with the violence and everything.