Despite the fair criticisms you could level against the Nintendo Wii, especially when it came to its innovative, if not a little problematic, remote-style controller, it’s just not true that its games have all aged poorly. The Wii was an interesting experiment that some struggled to make good games for, but many developers found ways to create Wii titles that are just as much fun to play now.
Let’s celebrate some of the best games the Wii ever saw by looking at the ones that you can pick up today and still enjoy.
1. Super Mario Galaxy
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
As far as we’re concerned, Super Mario Galaxy is still the best Mario game ever made. It stands to reason that it’s going to be part of any conversation about Wii games that play as good now as they did nearly twenty years ago. It’s hard to believe that this game was originally released in 2007, earning some of the best reviews in the history of the medium.
Super Mario Galaxy uses gravity as the gameplay centerpiece, building around it our expectations for a 3D Mario platformer. Everything you love about those games is present, from careful jumping, to defeating challenging enemies, and of course game’s sneaky ability to ramp up the difficulty as you’re finding yourself being drawn deeper and deeper into this remarkable world.
Super Mario Galaxy uses the Wii remote beautifully, offering fluid, addictive gameplay as you and Mario make the most of your strange surroundings. It’s still one of the best examples of how the Wii could produce some truly iconic games, ageless where it counts the most. Collecting the 120 Power Stars in Galaxy is wonderous and seems to genuinely inspire a natural, almost dizzying happiness. Not everyone loves this game obviously, but it’s an extremely small list of those who won’t, and it’s worth noting that it’s a Wii game inspiring this sort of response after so many years.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released at the beginning of the Wii’s lifespan and at the end of the GameCube’s, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess drew from the past while looking to the future. With a visual style that could be compared to the beloved Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess looked flawless and played with just the right amount of innovation and meeting expectations for a Zelda game. Tasked with saving Hyrule from being overwhelmed and destroyed by a place known only as the Twilight Realm, players are going to find themselves fully immersed in this 50+ hour main quest.
That’s because like any of the best Zelda games, Twilight Princess gives you a lot to do. Good cameras and controls, with simple gestures giving you the ability do a variety of things as Link, grounds you in an experience that you’ll come back to again and again. Twilight Princess also shares with the best Zelda games that quality of something that’s difficult to put down.
Exploring Hyrule, visiting diverse locations, including a wild west town and a mountain that requires skiing, and some of the best characters and villains in the series makes Twilight Princess a distinctive classic.
3. Pandora’s Tower
Developer: Ganbarion
Publisher: Xseed
A game that we also consider to be one of the best hidden gems for the Wii, you really can’t say enough good things about Pandora’s Tower. Making good use of the Wii’s Nunchuck was easier said than done, but Pandora’s Tower proved without question that it could indeed be done. A compulsory action RPG with a good story and great art style, Pandora’s Tower has you descending upon a massive fortress referred to as the Thirteen Towers. You must keep a curse from turning your special lady friend into a monster, and this is done by feeding her the flesh of the monsters you’ve slaughtered. Fun!
And it is a lot of fun. Playing like a more linear but still accessible and timeless Zelda or Metroid game, Pandora’s Tower has you battling not only brutal monsters, some of whom are quite powerful, but also time itself. If Aeron doesn’t get the thirteen pieces of Master Flesh in time, Elena will transform into a monster. That’s a game over.
Pandora’s Tower has engaging combat with a variety of weapons, including a sword and some neat melee options, but there’s also a significant puzzle-solving element to the game that keeps the experience from getting dull.
4. Wario Land: Shake It!
Developer: Good-Feel
Publisher: Nintendo
There’s something wonderful about the way Wario Land: Shake It! puts considerable shine upon an old-school look. With aesthetics and character design depth worthy of the Wii in 2008, Shake It also feels like a throwback platformer from the SNES days. It looked slightly out of place in the 2007 video game landscape, but it’s still one of the most effortlessly ageless Wii games you’ll ever play.
Using the Wii remote to do things like shake enemies or throw stuff, players will move across a vibrant, breathtaking world. Wario Land: Shake It! also features a fun story, with Wario effectively becoming the hero of the story because there’s a ton of gold on the line. He’s a great antihero, and Shake It! also gets an element of timelessness from the fact that this character is almost always a blast to play with in any form or fashion.
Wario Land: Shake It! doesn’t have a ton of variety in its stages, but it makes up for this by making Wario collecting coins or the timed rescue missions as much fun to play as possible. The controls and graphics and humor all help with this, but there’s also some incredible levels to explore, as well.
5. Donkey Kong Country Returns
Developer: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Donkey Kong Country Returns had a lot to live up to. It was the first new Donkey Kong Country game in quite some time, and it would be the first one to not be developed by Rare. Thankfully, developer Retro Studios created the perfect mix of a game that embraced tradition while trying to offer a new experience that would take advantage of new technology and new ideas. From a variety of subtle motion control gestures that let you realize DK’s full potential, to items new worlds that expand on this universe, the more ambitious aspects of Donkey Kong Country come off extremely well.
By moving the Wii remote and nunchuck up and down, for example, you’ll pound the ground in that familiar Donkey Kong Country way, and potentially unearth some valuable items. Like the classic SNES titles, Donkey Kong Country Returns rewards thinking outside the box.
Also, while Donkey Kong Country Returns offers a pretty stiff challenge to players, it’s not quite as rage-inducing as the DKC games of old. Everything else, including music and world designs, is evocative in the best possible way.
6. Super Smash Bros Brawl
Developer: Game Arts
Publisher: Nintendo
Super Smash Bros Brawl was another Wii release with a lot to live up to. The game had to follow up the juggernaut success of Super Smash Bros Melee on the GameCube, and it had to be another game that could implement the Wii’s unique controls effortlessly if needed. Nintendo accounted for this by creating a fighting party game that controls well no matter what you’re using. Meaning those who stick to the Wii remote can get just as much out of playing as someone who brings their old GameCube controller.
But good controls aren’t enough to make a truly special game, let alone another Super Smash Bros game that can be considered a legitimate masterpiece. Brawl builds on everything you’ve come to expect from this series, with more characters, bigger and more interactive worlds, the ability to build your own stages, and a deep, deep dive into Nintendo history and lore.
The combination of lighter gravity with a slower pace makes Brawl a somewhat controversial departure in certain essential ways. Super Smash Bros Brawl may not be for absolutely everyone, but more often than not, you’re going to get into a fighting game that truly goes at its own speed and looks for other ways to be riveting.
7. Kirby’s Return to Dreamland
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
It’s not a surprise that Kirby’s Return to Dreamland got a Switch remake in 2023. While the game dramatically overhauled stuff like graphics and sound, the remake leaves intact the depth and surprisingly intense challenge that Kirby’s Return to Dreamland brought to the Nintendo Wii in 2011. If you’ve only got the Wii version on hand, you’re still playing one of the best Kirby games made so far.
The cute graphics and funny cut scenes are here as always. Kirby is adorable as hell, as we all know and accept as an objective truth, and Kirby’s Return to Dreamland keeps the cartoony colorfulness going in spectacular form.
However, once again, the depth of gameplay here is perhaps what gives Kirby’s Return to Dreamland a singularly epic feeling. As is standard, Kirby can suck up enemies to gain their powers. Return to Dreamland features 20 standard abilities, each with varied move sets and benefits/weaknesses that must be weighed across a longer quest than with past traditional Kirby games. 100%ing this game is going to take quite a while, and some of that post-game content is absolutely brutal. Kirby’s Return to Dreamland offers everything you could want from a platformer in any format.
8. MadWorld
Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Sega
The first thing you’re obviously going to notice and appreciate with MadWorld is its eye-catching, offbeat art style. Imagine a playable version of Frank Miller’s iconic Sin City, and you get an idea of what to expect from a three-color palette of black, white, and stunning flourishes of red. MadWorld never stops being a wonder to behold, and these are the sort of graphics and visual style that never fully goes out of style.
That’s fine, but what about the gameplay itself? How does MadWorld hold up 15+ years removed from its Wii release?
As long as you don’t absolutely despise QTEs, which MadWorld uses in abundance in cooperation with the Wii remote, the gameplay is going to age flawlessly for you. The story itself is a brutal noir tale of a police detective leaving the force to join a savagely violent TV show that rewards creative sadism. This leads to vicious combat that combines QTEs with Wii remote movements for finishing touches to opponents and more.
The gameplay of MadWorld emphasizes mutilating someone in the most elaborate way possible. Additional challenges add a number of minigames, and while none of this is very deep, it’s one of the most entertaining Wii remote-specific games on the console.
9. Endless Ocean
Developer: Arika
Publisher: Nintendo
Endless Ocean easily stands alone among these well-aged Wii games, if only for a premise that focuses on exploration to a degree that almost nothing else really matters. It’s a far cry from the intense, relentless action of many other Wii titles we’re covering here. Endless Ocean effectively comes down to one thing, and that’s exploring the ocean.
There’s an inherent tranquility to simply moving across a boundlessly beautiful, mysterious ocean. Different diving activities are offered, including cave diving, wreck diving and exploration, or simply swimming and identifying marine life that can later be found at your aquarium.
Endless Ocean never rises above the goal relaxation, and yet the game’s detail and sheer size of its playable area can generate excitement in its own truly original way. There’s still a sense of completion when you play Endless Ocean, and if the exploration appeals to you, there’s a lot of game here for you to enjoy. There’s also a couple of sequels, including the 2010 Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep, and the recently-released, long-awaited third entry Endless Ocean Luminous.
10. No More Heroes
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Ubisoft
A good hack and slash adventure game will always be a treat to pick up and play. This is a thought that you can definitely apply to the outstanding No More Heroes. The first of a series that got a new game as recently as 2021, No More Heroes is another Wii game that takes familiar gameplay to a different but still supremely fun place. Players portray an anime nerd who wins a beam katana in an auction, and suddenly finds himself running with a crazed crowd of kill-or-be-killed assassins.
Let loose in an open-ended, fully free-roaming world, No More Heroes comes at you quickly and messily. This is one of the more frenetic examples of a genre that’s already pretty hectic in its gameplay to begin with. “Kill or be killed” becomes a mantra as your protagonist Travis Touchdown uses his beam katana via the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Movement is comfortable for anything you do with your weapon, and this includes performing a number of wrestling moves by using your remote and Nunchuck.
No More Heroes also keeps you busy with numerous side quests, earning money to buy new equipment and more. You’re going to need it if you plan to wipe out all ten of your targeted assassins. No More Heroes doesn’t have a lot of patience for players who can’t keep up with the top tier killers, but not to any prohibitive or cruel degree. This game never dips below being an exhilarating action game.
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