Recommend Me a Wii Game

My best friend, who hasn't touched a video game since the late 80s, recently bought a Wii for his two daughters. He picked up the usual titles like My Little Pony, Pretty Pretty Princess, and whatever else little girls are playing these days.

However, he also picked up Call of Duty: World at War.

Over the Labor Day weekend, we drank much scotch, ate many Husman's BBQ potato chips (now with extra trans fats!), and played through the entire game. Needless to say, after nearly three decades of not caring about video games, my friend is suddenly hooked. He also wants me to tell him what else he should be playing.

That's my problem. I'm a PC gamer. Consoles are not my bag, Wii's doubly so.

What's the Goodjer hive mind consensus on good Wii games outside of the staples like Wii Sports and Wii Fitness? Any other FPS's or similar games I could recommend?

No More Heroes. (With the warning that it probably should not be played with kids in the room). Edited to add: parts are frustratingly hard, so maybe not the best for someone new to games. It's still my #1 fun Wii game recommendation.

Metroid Prime Trilogy. Since he obviously missed all three titles, it is a great deal. Plus the games remain GOTY-quality.

Otherwise, Super Mario Galaxy is amazing, and one of my personal favorites is MLB Power Pros 2008 (if he's into sports). A dark horse would be Zack and Wiki. It's one of the best point-and-click adventures ever, for my money.

Resident Evil 4 was the first console game I ever finished. Zelda is a great adventure game. Super Mario Galaxy is really well done.

BoomBlox & BoomBlox Bash are both fun in single, multi-player and co-op mode.

World of Goo on Wii-ware

Possibly Rock Band or Guitar Hero

Warioware: Smooth Moves - excellent fun for all ages and the competitive nature is great for two friends to go back and forth with.

Best game on the Wii: De Blob

The little attention this game has received is mind boggling.

Boom Blox. He can play with the kids too.

RE4 Wii

Super Mario Galaxy

Mario Kart Wii and/or ExciteBots

Conduit if he liked CoDWW that much. Medal of Honor Heroes 2 isn't that great, but if your bud wants more fps games ....

Metroid Prime is sweet, but turns off some.

Super Smash Bros is a fun game for multiple folks.

My 8 yr old beat Legend of Zelda:WindWaker from the GC over the past month It's difficult not to love that game. You could grab that game, a Wavebird and a memory card under $50 I bet.

Any of the Lego games...

Yes, Boom Blox Bash Party.
RE4 is great too.

Shmup: Castle Of Shikigami III or BlastWorks
Racing: Mario Kart, but I prefer Exitebots Trick Racing
Party Game: Dokepon Kingdom
Sports: MLB Powerpros 2008
Adventure: Little King's Story or Zack and Wiki
Fighting: Smash Bros Brawl (Duh)
If you like pinball, the Williams collection is great. Most if not all of these are available used.

Oh, I forgot about WiiWare.
Bit.Trip.Beat rules.
FF My Life As A Darklord
World Of Goo
Mega Man 9
Swords And Soldiers

and there are VC titles, but check the recent Retro Games thread.

If he likes shooting stuff, RE4 is the way to go.

Mario Galaxy is great, though not everyone like primary colors. The Zelda game is pretty good too, and without some of the mind bending stuff from Ocarina.

Zack & Wiki Make a Porno! I also agree with pretty much everything else that others have stated. Bit.Trip.Beat does, in fact, rule, but really, anything and everything Bit.Trip is highly recommended.

I don't think I have anything new to add. Sorry. OH! Muramasa and Okami for crazy Japanese beautifuls! Also, Pokemon Puzzle League (N64), while drenched in horrible Pokemon everything, is one of the best puzzle games ever created. Rotohex (WiiWare) is also a really fun puzzle game. He should also really go ahead and get every Zelda game available. And Super Metroid. And ActRaiser. And all of the Lolo games. And, of course, all of the Mario platformer games. Oh, and Star Fox 64! Alright, I'll stop.

Don't forget about Gamecube backwards compatibility. A lot of great Gamecube games to be had, as well, but I won't bother getting into that.

MechaSlinky wrote:

Don't forget about Gamecube backwards compatibility. A lot of great Gamecube games to be had, as well, but I won't bother getting into that.

I was about to say this as well - the backwards compatibility opens up a large catalog of pretty much every genre to you - for dirt cheap in most cases!

For a retro Wii throwback, you can check out SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 and Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection.

There was also Deadly Creatures a while back, but that faded into oblivion almost as quickly as de Blob.

Co-op could be tons of fun with House of the Dead: Overkill, and Madworld is cheap now too - but in both cases, keep the kiddies at least half a mile away.

The Rayman Raving Rabbids games (1 and TV Party especially) can be a good, family friendly time for all.

Zak & Wiki - if he like to think, and doesn't mind some tough puzzles
Super Mario Galaxy - duh
Puzzle Quest

Order Up! is a surprisingly good and addictive cooking / restaurant management game. I picked it up for really cheap on Bill Harris' recommendation and I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

Jayhawker wrote:

Best game on the Wii: De Blob

The little attention this game has received is mind boggling.

Quoted for truthiness.

Here's a recap of what I've seen here and can reccomend, re-ordered in a different way that may help.

[color=red]Mainstream[/color] - Should appeal to most people
Super Mario Galaxy
Metroid Prime Trilogy
The Conduit - Between the Metroid game and this, he will have a good intro to FPS games that's a really good intro. My wife, who hates struggling with the controls in FPS's enjoys this one.
Resident Evil 4
Mario Kart Wii
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[color=blue]A Different Feel[/color] - May need some special consideration before buying into, but all quite enjoyable with an open mind
Punch Out!! - Tons of fun if you are into pattern recognition with a boxing exterior. It's plays a lot like the NES version, but with a good update.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Okami
New Play Control Pikmin
Little Kings Story
Overlord Dark Legend (only if he likes the previous 2 a lot)
De Blob
Zack & Wiki
Mega Man 9 - For the retro fan in all of us. (WiiWare)
World of Goo - Couldn't get into it myself. (WiiWare)
Swords & Soldiers 2D side-scrolling simplified to work pretty good on a console RTS. (WiiWare)
No More Heroes - But from what I heard, it's only good if you have the patience to wade through the annoying open world in-between sequences.
Madworld & House of the Dead Overkill - Both these and No More Heroes are NOT child household friendly

[color=green]Party Games[/color] - Good for the family time fun
BoomBlox & BoomBlox Bash - As suggested by many others. I can only confirm the first is tons of fun.
Rayman Raving Rabbids (1 & TV Party, like suggested by Aus_Tbird - I concur, having playe 1, 2 & TV Party.)
Bomberman Blast - 1-8 players via 4 WiiMotes + 4 Gamecube controllers (WiiWare)
Tetris Party - 1-6 players not sure how 5&6 join in (WiiWare)
Dr. Mario Online Rx - 1-4 players (WiiWare)
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves - If frantic micro-game remote passing is your thing.
Rock Band - can't reccomend Guitar Hero (3) as I stopped enjoying it after I played Rock Band.

[color=darkblue]Honorable mentions[/color] - for multplayer action only, but not so much on the 'party' thing
Lego Star Wars & Batman - up to 2 players
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - up to 4 players - old launch era game, but decent beat em up fun.

For shooting, House of the Dead: Overkill and Resident Evil 4 are awesome.

MadWorld is fun, but a little boring slogging through the overly easy parts. No More Heroes is also great, but similarly has spots of boring slog.

Metroid Prime is great, Mario Galaxy is awesome. Mercury Meltdown Revolution is a good time.

World of Goo is really cool.
Wii Sports Resort(I know, you said none of this) is really fun. I especially like the archery(3 bull's eyes in a row once) and the 100 (!) pin bowling. Frisbee catch with the cute little puppies is fun. We've named our puppies, they're that cute.

Goo is, like, $5 on the Wii store and Wii Sports Resort will definitely want a 2nd MotionPlus, but the giggles of glee as my son whackwhackwhacks enemies off the 50 foot platform in sword fighting is priceless.

I say Don't treat the Wii like any other console. It's not a 360 and it's not a PS3. It's more like that ancient original Pong machine your grandmother had from the 70s. It is its own little universe of gaming glee, and if you don't try to force it into the mold of "next gen console"-dom, it can be a lot of fun.

Thanks for the awesome suggestions, everyone! I'm sure I can hook him with one of your recommendations.

duckilama wrote:

I say Don't treat the Wii like any other console. It's not a 360 and it's not a PS3. It's more like that ancient original Pong machine your grandmother had from the 70s. It is its own little universe of gaming glee, and if you don't try to force it into the mold of "next gen console"-dom, it can be a lot of fun.

Wise words. I suppose that is why you are the one true duckilama.

I haven't picked it up yet, but Muramasa: The Demon Blade looks awesome, gonna grab that sometime this week.

Here's my top 3:
super mario galaxy (this is a must)
world of goo (the most innovative game I've seen in a while)
mad world (stylish and pretty cool, but violent)

Fairly new to the Wii myself and I've found that my wife is enjoying world of goo, boom blox bash, and wants guitar hero world tour and she DOESN'T usually play video games. Not knowing how old your friend's children are I would also recommend Diego's Rescue Safari, my 3 year old is able to play and has quite a good time.

I didn't notice anyone mention (I've been known to not read well) that the Wii will play GameCube games so your friend could also pick up a bunch of GC games and controller fairly cheap if he's desperate for more gaming.

MadWorld is really short, and it's incredibly repetitive within that short time. I'd advise a rental. Zelda, Metroid, Smash Bros., those are the kinds of games that will last you a while. I don't remember if it was mentioned that if getting Smash Bros., a Gamecube controller is really the best option to play with.

I love Mario platformers, though I prefer the 2d type.

I sold my Wii a year ago and the only game I actually miss is MLB Power Pros, though I would like to see Muramasa in action.

garion333 wrote:

I love Mario platformers, though I prefer the 2d type.

Super Paper Mario is a 2D platformer. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is also a 2D platformer.