The 10 best Wii games of all time, ranked

There are usually two groups of people that look back on the Nintendo Wii. One side might look at the tower of shovelware on the console from companies looking to make an easy buck off the most popular system at the time, but the other will bring up the very high-quality titles you can play if you don’t mind swinging your Wiimote around a bit. Here are the ten best Nintendo Wii games of all time.

Related: The 10 easiest games of all time, ranked

The best Nintendo Wii games ever

10. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess was the first time a Zelda game had ever launched alongside a new Nintendo console. Since it was originally made just for the GameCube, it was also released on that console. With Link traditionally being left-handed and most of the world being right-handed, the game is mirrored to allow more people to swing the Wiimote with their dominant hand. Like any other great Zelda game, the dungeons here are filled with puzzles that are fulfilling to complete and the overall adventure never gets boring. Plus, Link transforms into a wolf in this game and is joined by Midna, one of the series’ best side characters.

9. Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is often considered the red-headed stepchild of the Smash series, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that it was a great step forward for what we know the fighter to be today. For starters, the first third-party characters were included with Snake and Sonic and the Subspace Emissary campaign was essentially a fan fiction story made official. This was really the first step towards Smash being a celebration of video games in general, rather than one focused on solely Nintendo.

8. Super Mario Galaxy 2

There are some who would put Super Mario Galaxy 2 at the top spot on this list, but it’s a bit lower on ours, although still an amazing game. This was essentially a retelling of the original Mario Galaxy with Rosalina’s side story stripped away. Yoshi made an appearance this time around and could be ridden, and there were some new interesting power-ups introduced. The level design here was still great, with small planet’s gravity pulling you in as you traversed around them. This series remains one of the crown jewels of the Wii.

7. Donkey Kong Country Returns

Until the Wii was released, Donkey Kong had had quite a bit of an odd road since his glory days on the SNES. With Donkey Kong Country Returns, that traditional 2D side-scrolling gameplay returned with a new ground slam attack that could alter the environment around you. While you were mostly going left to right, you could also jump into the background and foreground with barrel cannons and explore new areas as well. What was made here set all of the groundwork for a truly amazing game in Tropical Freeze on the Wii U.

6. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

The New Super Mario Bros. series may feel very drawn out and overdone these days, but back on the Wii it was still very exciting to have Mario return to his routes with a 2D platformer. This was also the first time that you were able to play four player co-op all at the same time. Yes, playing with so many people could be chaotic and cause some unwanted deaths, but that was truly part of the magic of the game and really fed into making it a blast to play. This game also introduced the Propeller Hat power-up, a nice inclusion that was fun to use.

Related: Every Nintendo console, and when they released

5. Metroid Prime Trilogy

Nintendo rightly gets some flack for overcharging on their older games, but Metroid Prime Trilogy was one of the few times where they actually gave players an amazing deal. All of the current Metroid Prime games packed into one disc for players to enjoy was a truly great deal for everyone, regardless if you had played them previously or not. Samus’ first-person adventures still remain highlights in Nintendo’s catalog, so having them all ready to go right away was a true gift.

4. Wii Sports

Wii Sports is the perfect pack-in game to come with the Nintendo Wii. It is largely the biggest reason why the console would reach such a wide audience of players. It caught the attention of everyone and made non-gamers interested in playing its versions of bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing, and golf. It was easy to understand and use for everyone and still can make family get-togethers a blast to this day. This little party pack made the headache to get the Wii at the time worth it.

3. Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 was originally an amazing game when it released for the GameCube, but when it was brought to the Wii with pointer controls, many considered it the best version of that title, even today. Using the Wiimote to point your shots with more precision felt great and was much easier to pull off than traditionally done in Resident Evil games.

2. Mario Kart Wii

Any time a Mario Kart releases, it is a big deal and that remained true with the Wii game. Controlling your driver by rotating your Wiimote felt great and there were some amazing tracks introduced in this game. The modding community has kept this game very healthy and alive to this day, with an exorbitant amount of characters and tracks added over the years that we highly recommend checking out if you ever want to go back to this game.

1. Super Mario Galaxy

The first Super Mario Galaxy was truly a great leap forward for everyone’s favorite Brooklyn Italian plumber. The ability to run around planets was a simple, but truly revolutionary thing for the time. It felt great and looked really cool to pull off. Also, we were introduced to Rosalina here, a character that had an interesting side story and remains arguably the most popular princess character to this day. There are plenty of Mario games that have taken control of the gaming industry, but this one can be planted right near the top of that list as well.