Top 10 Nintendo Wii Games for 2008

The Nintendo Wii has come out with plenty of games over the past year. Some of them were good, some of them were garbage, and others were excellent. The excellent games are the games that need some recognition, especially on a console like the Wii, as people are buying Nintendo Wii's left and right. Here is my Top 10 List of Nintendo Wii Games for 2008.

10: Madden 09 All Play.

The Madden vets already know that Madden 09 All Play is not your typical Madden game. On the Nintendo Wii, Madden 09 All Play is a bit easier to pick up and play than the regular versions of Madden that come out year after year on consoles with regular controllers. The routes for plays are very well defined on the screen, and you get to perform actions such as hiking the ball, throwing the ball, and juke moves with simple motions of the Wii Remote. I would like to believe that anyone who has been playing football video games for a couple of years would have the advantage against someone who just picked this game up because it seems easier to play than the rest of them (because it is), but I still think that this game is tons of fun without that "cute" look on some other Nintendo Wii games, so this game takes spot number 10.

9: Wii Fit.

Some say that Wii Fit isn't actually a game, but more like a computerized personal trainer. At some level, this is kind of accurate. With the help of the Balance Board and the Wii Remote, Wii Fit is able to measure your Body Mass Index (BMI), train you in yoga poses, have you jogging in place for a set distance, and even working with hula hoops. That's not to say that this isn't fun. With activities divided into he four categories of Aerobic Exercise, Yoga Poses, Muscle Conditioning, and Balance Games, and activities having to be unlocked by performing well on the existing activities, getting yourself into shape has never been so much fun. Honestly though, what really put this game on this list was the activities known as Balance Games. From tightrope walking to big ski jumps, the Balance Board is accurately able to track your balance for these games once you get the hang of it, and you'll forever want to improve your score.

8: Skate It.

Skate It is basically a port of the PS3 and XBox 360 versions of the game Skate, and it's not necessarily better, but it's different in terms of controls. On the PS3 and XBox 360, the tricks are done with the dual analog sticks, but on the Wii, the tricks are performed using movements of the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk. For a more realistic (yet slightly less precise) experience, you can also play Skate It on the Balance Board. According to www.ign.com, you can lean and bounce on certain parts of the board to do certain tricks. i haven't played it on the Balance Board, but the Wii Remote controls work just fine. This is definitely the best skating game on the Wii right now.

7: Wario Land: Shake It!

It's been a while, but Nintendo has given Wario another non-Microgame adventure to go on. In this game, a queen is captured by a greedy villain who has stolen a bottomless bag of coins, and now, it's up to Wario to save the queen and, more importantly for Wario, get the bottomless bag of coins. From the outset of the game, you have a number of moves at your disposal, and you'll learn more as the game goes on. It's a wonderful 2D adventure where you'll shake the Wii Remote to shake coins out of enemies, coins out of bags, free little creatures vital to your quest, and perform some neat attacks. The only issue that I have with this game is that it is a little slow paced, but it all pays off with it's easy to learn controls and levels that will have you coming back to find all of those goodies. For Wario fans, this game will not disappoint.

6: Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble (Virtual Console)

DKC 3 was originally released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1996, and was released for the Wii on the Virtual Console this year. It's exactly the same game as it was on the SNES, with some beautiful 16-bit 2D graphics, the ability to play as Dixie Kong and Kiddie Kong, each with unique abilities that will help you get through the various levels, and all of the secret hidden goodies, such as bonus levels, for you to find. This game defines classic, as it even requires you to hold the y button on the classic controller to run, something that fans of the classic Nintendo know too well, and definitely make this list because I love the classic games that have created the basis of what games are made of today.

5: Mega Man 9 (Virtual Console)

Like DKC 3, Mega Man 9 was released this year on the Virtual Console. Unlike DKC 3, Mega Man 9 is a brand new game from Capcom, but it still has its old school charm to it. You play as Mega Man in his classic glory, with eight levels available for you to play, eight bosses for you to beat, and eight weapons for you to claim from the bosses. If you don't know about Mega Man, then what makes this formula interesting is that some weapons do very well against some bosses, while with other bosses, you're better off using your good ol' Mega Buster. It's a great game, and it also comes at a great value.

4: Guitar Hero World Tour

Guitar Hero is a wonderful series of music games where you're given a controller that looks like a guitar and you're supposed to strum the "string" while pressing on the fret buttons to the beat given by the symbols and color on the screen. The better you do, the more points you get. It's a simple concept at first, but there's so much to master with Guitar Hero World Tour that it's absolutely a great experience. This year, you can also play the drums and a bass guitar (a la Rock Band, another good game that you could pick up if you prefer the sound track that it has to offer). Really, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2 could both take this spot, I just choose Guitar Hero World Tour because I'm more familiar with it. No doubt if you do decide that you want one of the games, you should research the sound track for each game and see which one you like best, but both are very good games.

3: Mario Kart Wii

The sixth game in the Mario Kart series is arguably the wildest of them all. This game has plenty of characters, plus the ability to play as your Mii character, 16 new courses as well as 16 course from the past Mario Kart games, and plenty of items to use against your opponents and unleash chaos upon the road. If you have a Wii Wheel, you'll be able to drive the karts and the motorcycles like a real car, with easy to learn controls. The motorcycles also have the added ability to pull off tricks if you go airborne with a shake of the remote, which give you a nice boost when you land. Four players can play at the same time, and that's where the fun is at. Mario Kart Wii is a very fun game that's guaranteed to bring laughs.

2: No More Heroes

Most people wouldn't put this game this high up on a top 10 list, or even in a top 10 at all. But I did. Why? Because No More Heroes is one of my favorite sword wielding games of all time, as it makes you feel like you're actually holding a sword and slicing your enemies up with it. You play as Travis Touchdown, a guy who wields a beam katana and "accidentally" becomes the 11th best assassin in the world. Suddenly, you're on a quest to become the number one assassin, but that adventure is not without it's twists. As the game progresses, you'll learn new moves and combos that can be accessed with correct slashes from the Wii Remote, you'll explore beautiful environments, and you'll engage in a number of side quests for money to customize your wardrobe and you weapon. I seriously enjoyed this game, maybe too much, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

1: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is what I believe the best game that the Nintendo Wii has to offer. If you're unfamiliar with Smash, the objective is to knock your opponent off the screen by attacking your opponent with attacks. Of course, there are plenty of characters from the Nintendo universe to choose from when doing this, as well as plenty of items to help you take your opponent out with. The multi player mode of this game allows a game to played a seemingly infinite amount of ways with the options available, and the single player modes are quite numerous as well. Even if you beat all the single player modes, there are still challenges to accomplish, stages to build, and you can go online and fight people using Nintendo's Wifi connection as well. The best part of Brawl is definitely the multi player fights that support up to 4 people at a time in either free for all or team battles, but the game as a whole is very, very awesome. Definitely a classic.