365 days of Wii, one of the most successful consoles ever. It’s selling like crazy, everyone is after it, and it is an absolute nightmare to find - so are there any good games out? I mean they’re all PS2 ports, there are swarms of mini-game compilations (not necessarily good ones), and so many cheap cash-ins that we feel bad saying how many. There have got to be some games worth playing! Don’t worry - there definitely are! We at nWaffle are going to list for you our Top 10 games of the past year. These are the games that didn’t make you question why you bought the Wii, but instead completely justified your choice. These are the stand-out titles that everyone who owns the system must check out. Let the countdown begin!

10. Super Paper Mario

Nintendo’s third RPG under the Paper Mario name, Super Paper Mario finally brings the franchise to the Wii. Mario has to stop a new adversary, the mysterious Count Bleck, before he destroys all dimensions with the power of the Chaos Heart. But he doesn’t have to take on this task alone. Accompanied by Princess Peach, Bowser, and an amnesia-stricken Pixl named Tippi, Mario sets out to once-again save the world.

The game takes the franchise back into a 2D side-scrolling environment with fairly traditional platforming. But that’s not all. Soon after setting out, Mario gains the ability to switch between 2D and 3D, providing for some absolutely devilish puzzle-solving and platforming. While more of an action-RPG as compared to the other Paper Mario games, Super Paper Mario undoubtedly provides one enjoyable experience. A big part of this is due to the absolutely genious writing. This game is undeniably hilarious. There are shots taken at itself, pop-culture, and gamers themselves. The only drawback is that some of the writing goes on for far too long. But for those who love a good, solid laugh, accompanied by a fairly well-told story, Super Paper Mario makes a great choice, and it earns its spot as our Number 10 Top Wii game.

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9. Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

Wario was once the very active nemesis of Mario, appearing in his own games to rival those of the red-and-blue clad plumber. But he has hit it big with the mini-game market. Not even mini-games - micro-games. Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is the continuation of Wario’s micro-game compilation of pure insanity. Using the Wii remote in some of the most versatile ways that the Wii has seen yet, players must interact with the quick, flashy scenarios on-screen. This could involve using the controller as a magnifying glass to focus in on an object, place the controller at your side and act as if you were using a hoola-hoop, and many, many, many more. The game has managed to be one of the best party titles on any system. It’s fun, addictive, and pure ridiculousness. While not much in terms of a single player title, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves provides some of the funnest and funniest multiplayer on the Wii. This title proves that if done right, it doesn’t matter if you look like a complete idiot playing a video game as long as you’re having fun.

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8. Battalion Wars II

Battalion Wars II is an action-based RTS. Using the Wii remote, you will need to command tanks, naval craft, air units, and a whole bunch of infantry as you fight to take down your enemy. With 6 playable races, 22 different unit classes, and 3 online modes, Battalion Wars II is a vast improvement over the Gamecube-original. While a bit light on the strategy aspect, the third-person perspective puts you right in the action, and you’ll be witnessing plenty of chaos on-screen as the world is torn apart by warfare.

The game’s overall style is absolutely wonderful. The visuals look great, and each race has such a distinctive satirical flair making fun of various cultures and their stereotypes. These include the British, the Americans, the Russians, and the Japanese. The game has a great sense of humour, and its strong gameplay isn’t exactly bad either. With solid replay value via the online modes and mission-by-mission ranking system, Battalion Wars II is a great title that receives a great spot at Number 8 on our list!

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7. Mario Strikers Charged

GOAL! Mario comes back to the sport of soccer for a second season. Mario Strikers Charged provides gamers control over their teams with team captains such as Bowser, Donkey Kong, Peach, and of course, Mario himself. Along with three swappable team-mates, both sides get thrown into an absolutely insane arena for the most ludacris soccer game you will ever witness. Lightning strikes the field, shells go bouncing around everywhere, special moves are being used in every-which-way, all to create pure mayhem.

The big thing of the title is the great online features. While one of the first online titles on the system, the developer Next Level Games, actually took the time and effort to create a solid online experience. With insane multiplayer, and a lengthy, challenging single player, Mario Strikers Charged scores and comes out at our Number 7 spot.

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6. Medal of Honor Heroes 2

About three months ago, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption proved how amazing the Wii was for the first-person shooter genre in terms of control. Everything up to that point was mediocre or worse. But Metroid’s control was perfect, and in my review of the title, I made it clear that it couldn’t be better. I have just been owned.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2, against all odds, actually outshines the controls of Metroid. Providing for more customization and adjustment to fit your play-style, the EA-developed WWII shooter feels absolutely amazing. The control is undoubtedly one of the greatest draws to the game, and they do a wonderful job. The game wouldn’t be nearly as good if the control were closer to EA’s last effort at a FPS title on the console, Medal of Honor: Vanguard. But while the scheme is pretty much the same, everything feels so much better. The most amazing part is is that this is a third-party developer achieving this. EA may have a bad rep, but they know what they’re doing on this console.

While the single player is what you’d expect, the game boasts probably the best online experience on the Wii. Medal of Honor can host 32 players online, all-the-while maintaining a solid 60 frames per second. It works, and playing online with the most fluid console shooter control ever just adds to the experience.

On top of that, the game features an on-rails arcade mode which supports the brand-new Wii Zapper shell. Considering this, the 32-player multiplayer, and the absolutely amazing control scheme, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 provides a great experience, and is definitely a great value for what you’re getting. Finally the Wii has a solid FPS, and it’s a good one!

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5. Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure

One of the dumbest names around- I mean who are we kidding? But who cares! Capcom brings Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure, a solid Wii-exclusive, and a perfect example of a third-party developer taking advantage of what the Wii can do. You play Zack, an aspiring pirate joined by the golden monkey, Wiki. After being shot down from the sky, Zack encounters the ghost of the infamous pirate, Barbaros. After the specter offers Zack his ship in exchange for the remaining pieces of his long-lost treasure, you set out and your adventure.

Zack and Wiki is a point and click adventure game, very reminiscent of the classic Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island games on the PC. The puzzle-solving is just as clever and insane as those titles, and the Wii-mote only helps that experience. That’s because of the way you solve the puzzles. In each level, you are given a clear goal, but what isn’t clear is how to achieve that goal. You may not know how to cross a gap, or grab a key etc. When attacked by an enemy, when you shake the Wii-mote, Zack will shake Wiki like a bell and the enemy will transform into an item. It’s strange, but just try to bear with me. This item could be a saw, or a clamp, etc. You then have to approach your obstacle, and with the Wii-remote, do an action that involves that tool and use it to your advantage. The best part is is that the game doesn’t tell you what you have to do. Say you have a saw, you have to think, “Okay, so what would I do if I had a saw, and what motion would I have to make?”

This isn’t just a strange little concept that seems like a bit of fun. IGN, prior to the game’s release, championed Zack and Wiki like no other game, and blew the game into stardom and the eye of the public who originally glanced over the title. They couldn’t believe how people just glanced over the title with little or no interest, proving to be one of the great hidden gems of recent years. As a result, the “Buy Zack and Wiki Campaign” spread throughout the internet, and people who may have never noticed the game before were instantly curious. Unfortunately, the campaign didn’t spread fast enough, and the game didn’t sell nearly as well as it should have. But that doesn’t change the fact that Zack and Wiki is a beautiful, clever, and very funny game that has undeniable charm. It’s bound to mess with your head, and is the first real game from a third-party developer to show what the Wii can do in terms of creativity. Zack and Wiki has definitely earned its spot on our list!

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4. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

I hate half-assed ports. I hate it when we just get PS2 ports. I hate it when we get games we’ve played years before. But with all this taken into consideration, Resident Evil 4, a game that originally came to the Gamecube in 2005, is still on this list. It’s that good.

You play as Leon S. Kennedy, survivor of the events in Raccoon City in Resident Evil 2. Leon, now under direct order of the president, finds himself in a lonely, rural part of Spain, trying to find the missing daughter of the president, Ashley. But soon enough, Leon realizes that something is seriously wrong in the small village of Pueblo, whose inhabitants are hell-bent on killing him. Leon now must unravel the dark secrets which these townspeople are guarding. Why do they want Ashley? Are they human? Or are they something far worse? All-the-while, trying to discover who is really pulling the strings here, and what other terrifying nightmares this mission may hold.

Resident Evil 4 is widely considered as one of the greatest games to come out in recent years, if not one of the best games of all time. With stellar production values, fantastic control which completely re-invigorated the Resident Evil franchise, and a great sense of tension, this is a game that already has one hell of a reputation. The Wii controls only help. While taking a little bit to get used to at first, Resident Evil 4′s controls are ultimately enhanced due to the great accuracy provided by the Wii-mote.

This is the definitive version of Resident Evil 4. Along with the added content of the PS2 version of the game which the Gamecube version lacked, this version of Resident Evil 4 looks the best, plays the best, and is also marked at a lowered price of $39.99. Not a bad value of one of the greatest games of all time! Naturally, this undeniably memorable title, despite being a port, belongs on our Top 10 list, and still manages to impress despite being a two-year-old game.

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3. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is an astonishing game, and on so many levels. From an incredibly well-detailed art-style, solid puzzles and gameplay, and what made it so appealing in the first place were the first-rate controls. Metroid was the first game to really prove the Wii remote as an excellent tool for the FPS genre, even though Prime classifies itself as a first-person adventure. It deserves that name, however, focusing more on exploration, discovery, and puzzle-solving than it does on just shooting. There are some sections where you won’t fire your gun (with hostile intentions) for nearly 30 minutes, but that just helps you appreciate the game’s design that much more.

So many areas will just leave you breathless as you just want to look and stare at them, trying to examine and appreciate every detail. The game is gorgeous, it sounds great, it plays great. It is great. The story is written wonderfully, and everything is just done so well. Prime is a game that satisfies. Easily the best in the trilogy, Corruption has plenty of action, less frustration, and such amazing controls that it’s hard not to be more pulled in by the experience than other Prime games. You are simply sucked into the game so much more with how interactive everything is, from opening a door, turning a switch, and even flying your own ship.

There’s really not much else to say about it. Metroid is just good. It does everything with such great attention to detail, such quality, and such mastery that it would be impossible to have this list without having this game on here. For every gripe, there’s about ten things to counter it. Retro Studios, a Nintendo-owned developer, really outdid themselves here, and should take pride in the amazing piece of work that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is. It’s absolutely shameful that Nintendo didn’t advertise this game more. Simply because this is a game for the hardcore crowd. It’s challenging, it’s lengthy, and it’s straight-up amazing. Sure Medal of Honor Heroes 2 has outshined this game in terms of controls, and sure there is no online. But you know what? Metroid is the game at Number 3, and it definitely deserves it. The Prime trilogy is over, but it ended on one hell of a high note.

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2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The final epic game on the Nintendo Gamecube. The first epic game on the Nintendo Wii. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess bridges the gap between the old and the new. But either way, it is damn good! Zelda, prior to its release, was one of the highest-anticipated games in a good, long while. And it shows. This is the game that convinced so many people to pick up the Wii, and it was hard to not believe that you got your money’s worth.

Once again, you play as a boy named Link, living a simple life in a simple village, suddenly thrown into a series of events beyond your control as some children from the village are snatched away by a group of monsters. But you discover that far more is at stake here than it seems. The world is slowly being engulfed in a supernatural darkness called Twilight. But whenever Link gets trapped in the Twilight Realm, he finds himself transforming into a wild wolf. It’s now your job with the help of the mysterious imp, Midna, the imprisoned Princess Zelda, and a small resistance, to prevent this evil from engulfing the world, and putting an end to the magic of the evil Zant. The story is really well-told. It’s darker, it’s deeper, and this is one of the best storylines that Zelda games have ever seen.

As always, Twilight Princess boasts that razor-sharp Zelda gameplay. While a little more linear, and a bit less-challenging, the game still provides an amazing adventure for you to experience. Sometimes, you will feel that this is just an improved and upgraded version of the Ocarina of Time formula, but considering that is undoubtedly one of the greatest games of all time, it’s not always a bad thing. You’ll be traversing vast, gorgeous landscapes, diving into expansive, intricate dungeons, battling enormous monsters, and taking some time on the side to play some minigames, converse with the populace, and to just explore the world around you. This is one thing that Zelda always does better than anyone else, and this game is no different.

But where the Wii comes in is one of the most compelling reasons. This may be simply a Gamecube game with ported Wii-controls, but they work. Swinging your sword is as easy as swinging the Wii remote, bashing your shield is simply done by thrusting your nunchuk forward, and your spin-attack is pulled off with a spin of the nunchuk attatchment. Shooting your bow and arrow has never felt so good as you point at the screen to take out your enemies with pin-point accuracy.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is simply amazing. While falling into the same formula most-recent titles of the franchise have practiced, this game does it just wonderfully. It plays amazingly, it feels incredible, and it is absolutely gorgeous the whole way through. What’s astonishing is that this is still just a Gamecube game, but still boasting incredible lighting, modeling, and straight-up art design. This is a Zelda game you want. It does nearly everything at a near-perfect level, and it is undoubtedly the most impressive launch title for any of the next-gen platforms. We can’t put this any clearer - Twilight Princess is simply amazing, and while one of the best Gamecube games, we can’t wait to see what project lead Eiji Aonuma and his team can do for the franchise from a visual, gameplay, and control standpoint for a ground-up Wii game. The bar is certainly set high with this near-perfect title sitting at our Number 2 spot!

 

For almost a whole year, this was the Number 1 game on this platform. But that title has just been claimed by another… I think you know who.

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1) Super Mario Galaxy

This wasn’t a hard one. Want to know why so many adults look back at Mario games fondly? Because of games like Super Mario Galaxy. This is a game that excels to perfection in nearly every area. But not because it’s a Mario game, and not because it’s so damn good. It’s because it’s just so much fun. That’s what Nintendo has always been about, and this is a clear representation of that belief.

With Princess Peach captured once again by Bowser, but this time, being pulled into outer space, it’s up to Mario to jump from planet-to-planet, beat up koopas, and save the princess once again. Guided by the mysterious (and quite honestly, far more attractive) Rosalina, Mario uses an observatory to help send him to a huge assortment of galaxies to explore. Each galaxy is filled with unpredictable w0nders as you don’t know what you’ll find in each one. Gravity will pull you every-which-way, and you can very well find yourself walking upside down on a spinning planetoid, running around as you collect Star Bits, coins, and other little treasures. This was promoted as being the first worthy successor to Super Mario 64, and in nearly every way, it is.

Mario Galaxy is unquestionably, the best-looking Wii game that we have ever seen. It’s smooth, it’s crisp, and it’s all art design. Each galaxy looks amazing, and you will constantly be in awe of the magical worlds Nintendo has created. There are so many throwbacks to the original games with the return of various suits like the Bee Suit, Boo Suit, and more, but we won’t spoil them all now.

Nintendo went above and beyond here. This is the platformer that will define platformers for years to come. It does nearly everything right. But while not a perfect game, it’s still an amazing game. Even the inclusion of allowing a second player to pick another Wii remote to pick up Star Bits, hold back enemies, save you from falling, or even just to screw you over for fun is a great inclusion, allowing non-gamers to get in on the action as well.

Let’s keep this one short and simple. With absolutely stellar platforming, gorgeous visuals for any system, fantastic art design, an absolutely ludacris amount of polish, and a factor which is nothing less than pure and simple ‘fun’, Super Mario Galaxy does something truly amazing - it does everything right. Yeah, it’s not the hardest game ever, but who cares? It’s fun! You can’t come away from this and not be smiling. It’s Mario! It’s the charm of those classic games, its the style, the flair, and the rock-solid gameplay that makes each Mario game worth playing. There’s no other way of putting it. If you were waiting for a new adventure, this platforming plumber is exactly what you’d want. Super Mario Galaxy earns its spot here. It has continued to impress with each bit of progress that we have made in the game. This is one to be remembered, and remembered it will be. We at nWaffle are proud to list Super Mario Galaxy as the Number 1 Wii game to come out since the system’s launch last year! This is a game that earns its wings, and soars higher than any game before it. Congratulations, Nintendo!

 

 

 

BUT WAIT!!!!!

 

We would like to present…

The Special Achievement Award

to

 

 

If this game wasn’t on the Top 10, it still needed to be mentioned. Simply because this game alone is the cause for the Wii’s success. Wii Sports, the game that is packed-in with every North American and European Wii, has done more for the system than any other game. This is the game that has managed to get the world hooked on Nintendo’s strategy. Seniors, children, and plenty of other non-gamers have all been able to pick up Wii Sports and enjoy it instantly due to how simple and effective the controls are. Concepts like “swing like it’s a tennis racket,” or “punch like it’s really boxing” have managed to make video games so accessible for non-gamers. While only a couple of the game modes are really exceptional, they are all a lot of fun in groups, providing for an exceptionally enjoyable party console.

Wii Sports has become a phenomenon. It has taken the world by storm, and with good reason. Nintendo has proven its strategy. People of all ages can play video games. People of all ages can enjoy the games. And this is the gateway to begin that. A lot of people have only bought the system for Wii Sports, but they’re happy. Wii Sports is everywhere. It’s on the internet, the T.V., and in magazines. This is the game that has hooked people to the system, and while it may be shallow, it’s fun. Like Mario Galaxy, it just comes down to the fun factor. And with Wii Sports, that fun factor is most-definitely there.

This is the game that proved the Wii. This is the game that proved that validity of the concept, and this title has helped change the way the world looks at games. It has gotten everyone off the couch and getting active, while having fun at the same time. People have been losing weight due to the amount of time they’ve been playing this pack-in title. Wii Sports may not be a mind-blowing game, but it has done more than most people give it credit for. We honour you, Wii Sports. Thank you for what you have done for the system, and for us.

Runner-ups:

Elebits

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Trauma Center: New Blood