It’s hard to believe the Wii’s heyday came and went, and Nintendo was somehow worse off for it. Despite undeniably being one of the greatest consoles of all time– capturing a fervor the mediℱum hadn’t seen since the NES– fans have soured on the Wii with time, often citing its motion controls and casual focus as its downfall.
That t🥀he Wii brand tanked itself with the Wii U certainly hasn’t helped the Wii’s legacy, either. But in spite of some games with truly dire motion controls, Nintendo did know what they were doing with the consoles, as did many developers. When done right, motion controls can elevate any game.
10 Got Them Right: No More Heroes
No More Heroes 3actually coming out is as shocking as it is amazing, but it’s unlikely it’ll use motio🐷n controls half as well as the originalNo More Heroesdid. With the WiiMote,No More Heroescould tear down the fourth wall and bri🍬ng players into the game’s world in a way that was both charming and off the wall hilarious.
Need to charge Travis’ beam katana? Start stroking. Getting a c🍃all from Sylvia? Put that WiiMote up to your ear. Better yet, the game found a nice blend between motion controlled combat and traditional button presses. Tilting the WiiMote changes height of his Beam Katana, giving swordplay depth.
9 Didn’t: Mario Party 8
The idea that Nintendo could ever release aMario Partygame on the Wii without capiꦬtalizing heavily on motion controls is ridiculous. This was always meant to be the game’s fate; butMario Party 8isn’t bad because it has motion controls. It’s bad because it has bad motion co🧜ntrols. Few games are as exhausting to play asMario Party 8.
Flail your arm, flick your wri💮st, shake until you🏅’re sore–Mario Party 8shows no mercy and worst of all, the minigames are often as simple as they ca🐠n be.Mario Party 8is home to one of the worst setꦏ of games in the franchise, sure to exhaus👍t any group who tries to suffer throughMP8.
8 Got Them Right: Resident Evil 4
The definitiveResident Evil 4port for those who just w🥀ant to blaze through the game scoring headshots, the Nintendo Wii does wonders for the game’s gunplay, making taking out Ganados so much smoother. This does make the game considerably easier, but that jus༺t gives players an excuse to try out the harder difficulties.
The Wii’s directional aiming even ends up complimenting the game’s tank controls rather nicely. As the game is designed with Leon stopping to shoot, the gameplay🧜 loop flows very naturally from beat to beat. While the HD edition is nice, this is still the most dynamic way to play throughResident Evil 4.
7 Didn’t: Game Party
One of the lowest-rated Wii games ever made,Game Partywas universally panned for its controls💞. The Wii was notorious for its thirꦐd-party shovelware, andGame Partyis a good representative of the lot on a whole. Low poly textures, ugly models, mini-games that never go beyond the surface level, and motion controls that clearly w༒eren’t playtested enough,Game Partyhad it all.
It would be fair to say thatGame Partyis probably the worst overall game on the Nintendo Wii, but it’s also a game that’s not really ♏trying and obviously only exists for a quick buck. There’s no real effort on display. That doesn’t give it a pass, but nobody plays a game likeGame Partywithout immediately understanding what it is.
6 Got Them Right: WarioWare: Smooth Moves
There’s no such thing as a badWarioWaregame. Eveꦛn the worst o๊nes are fun to kill some time with.Smooth Moves🔜is an entry that fans either love or hate, but no one can deny that it pulls off its motion controls with a finesse few other Wii ga🦂mes can name claim to. With well-paced mini-games, opportunities to breathe, and a zen approach to the art of motion controls,Smooth Movesshould’ve been bundled with the Wii overWii Sports(another amazing game.)
UnlikeMario Party 8,WarioWare: Smooth Movesuses𓂃 motion controls not out of some obligation, but out of a genuine desire to explore what’s possible with the controls. It’s one of the most inspired games on the console.
5 Didn’t: The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Twilight Princessnotably launched with t🐼he Nintendo Wii and garnered critical acclaim right off the bat. While the Zelda Cycle would see it derided for being derivative, the pendulum would swing in its favor again as fans would come to realize just how hypercompetent of a gameTwilight Princessis. So long as you play with a traditional controller, at le▨ast.
While the Wii’s𝐆 motion controls do wonders for aiming with the bow (to the point where it’s reason enough to play through the whole game,) using the WiiMote as a sword completely butchersTwilight Princess’ genuinely very rich swordplay– a problem that would have been mi🍨tigated by just letting players use their GameCube controllers.
4 Got Them Right: Punch-Out!!
It’s tragic that the series never saw another game after this entry,ꦿ but honestly, ifPunch-Outnever ret♊urns as a franchise, it at least went out on the highest of highs. This is one of the best games on the Nintendo Wii, representing everything that made the console great.
It’s accessible with a high skill ceiling. The motion cont🌺rols are engaging, but the game can be played with traditional controls. Even accessories like the Wii Balance Board🀅 are compatible to make the boxing feel truer to life.Punch-Out!!is a masterclass𓃲 in both game design and how to do motion controls right.
3 Didn’t: Ninjabread Man
Infamously considered by many to be the worst game on the Nintendo Wii 🔯and one of the worst video games of all time, period,Ninjabread Manis an unmitigated disaster on every front. Unresponsive controls blend horrifically with a terrible gameplay loop an🌱d even worse level design.Ninjabread Manis an exercise in one’s patien✅ce, especially with its motion controls.
It’s not even worth the nove✅lty of playing thrꦿough the “worst Wii game” sinceNinjabread Manisn’t so bad, it’s good. It’s just a bad game overall. It’s boring, tedious, and mind-numbing with motion controls not so much implemented,🍎 but forced into the already bad core design.
2 Got Them Right: Okami
Okami’s motion controls are so good, you’d be forgive✃n for assuming the game was designed with the N𒀰intendo Wii in mind. Originally a PlayStation 2 exclusive,Okamistands out as one of the most beautiful games ever made, both in terms of its art style and artistry within the medium. It’s one of the few “Zelda clones” to actually outdo most entrieꦚs in the series.
The motion🧔 controls are seamless, the WiiMote becoming the player’s brush. It’s so smooth and well handled that all future versions ofOkamijust pale in comparison as a result.Okami, likeResident Evil 4, is just better on Wii.
1 Didn’t: Wii Music
Wii Musicshould have been the Nintendo Wii’s secondWii Sports. It should have been Nin♌tendo showing off the future of motion controls yet again, but the technology simply was not there. 🍌While a novel idea and a cute one,Wii Musichas no real depth and its “gamepla🎃y” is completely devoid of nuance.
It’s the bare minimum of motion controls masked by everyone’s favorite Nintendo hits. Frankly, it’s disappointing and a rather ugly stain on t♋he Nintendo Wii’s otherwise first-party track record. Worse yet,Wii Music’s E3 reveal stands out as one of the worst reveals ꧅Nintendo has done, fumbling the “concert” ౠcompletely.