Can you believe it's been two years since we last did this? It's certainly overdue. Nintendo's WiiWare service has been slowly and steadily supplying under-the-radar excellence ever since May of 2008, and we haven't advised you of our top picks in a classic countdown form since two summers ago. Well, we're correcting this oversight today. These are the top 25 games of WiiWare.
Before we get started, though, some clarification about the selection process -- I wanted to feature as many great WiiWare games as possible, and so that means joint ranking for sequels and series. Mega Man 9 and 10? Sharing a spot. Nintendo's Art Style games? All ranked as one. You may agree or disagree with the decision, but it lets us showcase a lot more variety than just having every other game be a different BIT.TRIP installment.
So check it out! It's WiiWare, ladies and gentleman. The best of the best, right now.
25
Released December 28, 2009
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Why It Made the List
We kick off our countdown with an impressive WiiWare-exclusive puzzler. The Magic Obelisk tells the light-hearted, fanciful tale of a young tree spirit named Lukus who's on a quest to put down roots. If he ever lets even a bit of sunlight touch him, though, his journey will be over -- he'll be frozen in place, his adventure over right on the spot. So it's up to you to manipulate towering obelisk objects in each environment to create shadow-covered safe zones for Lukus to walk through. You build protected paths of darkness for him to cross and ultimately come to the final, chosen spot where he'll finally root himself into the ground. If you liked Capcom's Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, this charming puzzler serves as an excellent follow-up to it.
24
Released December 29, 2008
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Why It Made the List
WiiWare has become a wonderland for puzzle game junkies over the past few years, and Nintendo's own first-party efforts have been some of the most memorable in the genre. Maboshi's Arcade was an earlier release from the company, arriving in the Wii Shop just under the wire in the service's first calendar year -- and it was an oddly compelling mixture of three game designs in one. The title tasks you to play "Circle," directing a spinning disc around enclosed arenas; "Line," controlling a spinning stick and launching flying pegs; and "Square," where you direct a cursor to set fire to blocks before they scroll off the screen. The challenge is in jumping back and forth between each of the three, which are all active on the same screen at the same time -- it's a pretty wild concept. And Nintendo must have liked its individual components a great deal, too, because one of them ("Square") was given its own standalone release on DSiWare as the inventive and addictive Flametail.
23
Released June 28, 2010
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Why It Made the List
Shin'en is a company well known for pushing the limits of every piece of hardware they develop for, and WiiWare got an exclusive title from them that did just that in the summer of 2010. Jett Rocket is like the Super Mario Galaxy of WiiWare, a visually brilliant 3D platformer that looks so good it's hard to believe it's just a downloadable title and not a full retail release. Its gameplay backs up its graphics, too, with a fun romp featuring massive boss battles, a variety of vehicles to ride and a smiling dolphin wearing a metal helmet. The adventure's a bit on the short side, but Jett Rocket impresses through its entire duration. Here's hoping Shin'en keeps up its envelope-pushing attitude on Nintendo platforms for many more years to come.
22
Released November 9, 2009
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Why It Made the List
I expected to see a lot more of Nintendo's famous franchises show up with digital spin-offs or sequels when WiiWare was first unveiled years ago, but the service has turned out to be much more focused on original IPs than much of anything from Mario, Zelda, Metroid or the rest of the main brand bunch. Excitebike is one fairly high-profile Nintendo series that did get the expected treatment, though, with the release of World Rally in 2009. It served as kind of a remake of the original NES Excitebike game and also a bit of a sequel, modernizing the graphics of the classic side-scrolling racer but keeping the gameplay firmly rooted in the foundation of the past. I'd love to see Nintendo take this same approach with a few other vintage hits from their back catalog before WiiWare goes away for good, too -- but, alas, my hopes for Ice Climber 2 still seem unrealistic.
21
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Released May 12, 2008
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Why It Made the List
The biggest brand name release to launch alongside the WiiWare service itself was undoubtedly Final Fantasy, though My Life as a King is probably not the kind of experience most players were expecting to come from the Final Fantasy franchise. It's a city-management/simulation design instead of a traditional RPG, casting you in the role of a youthful monarch who's in charge of selecting citizens to complete jobs for a growing village. Players who got over the shock of the genre switch soon discovered that My Life as a King was one of the deepest and most engaging WiiWare launch titles, and the game sold well enough to inspire the release of a follow-up -- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Dark Lord -- one year later. (Though it, too, completely swapped genres to become more of a tower defense design.)
20
Released August 10, 2009
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Why It Made the List
First announced with the name "Icarian" while in development, this next featured title in our countdown originally captured Nintendo fans' attention for its similarities to the then-dormant Kid Icarus franchise. The final product turned out to have little in common with Pit's adventures beyond a winged hero and some Grecian architecture though, as NyxQuest was a contemplative, leisurely-paced puzzler/platformer with some inventive uses of the Wii Remote controller setting its experience apart. Its ambiance and engrossing style keep it hovering here among WiiWare's best years after its release.
19
Released February 15, 2010
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Why It Made the List
Developer Shin'en has already shown up on our countdown once with Jett Rocket, a visually stunning action spectacle that grabbed our attention with its envelope-pushing style. Art of Balance proves the same team can succeed at pursuing the opposite extreme, as it's a calm, simple, physics-based puzzler that is equally stunning in its lack of motion on screen. The game challenges you to precisely position odd-shaped objects on top of one another in order to achieve perfect balance, and it's incredibly rewarding when you do so -- and frustrating when you fail. Yet you'll keep coming back again and again until you succeed, and that's why Art of Balance deserves its position here on our Top 25 countdown of WiiWare's best.
18
You, Me & The Cubes
Released September 21, 2009
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Why It Made the List
A bleak, dreary and somehow entirely heartwarming puzzler experience, You, Me & The Cubes introduces you to the humble Fallos. They're a simple people, with a simple purpose -- stay standing on top of giant, tilting cubes floating oddly out in the middle of a darkened limbo and don't fall off the edge. Your task is to launch these human-like creatures onto the spectral boxes in pairs, constantly balancing out their weights and positions relative to one another to keep everything safe and level. If you succeed, you move on to tougher challenges. If you fail, the Fallos fall into the endless, black abyss.
17
Released August 23, 2010
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Why It Made the List
An intriguing indie PC platformer originally released in 2009, And Yet It Moves brought its unique idea to WiiWare in an upgraded edition one year later -- and we couldn't be happier about that. The game's signature hook is that you can rotate the entire world around your character. See an impassable wall in front of you? Simply twist the environment around and make that wall into your new floor. And Yet It Moves is a great representation of what WiiWare has meant to independent developers -- without the arrival of digital download services like this, games of this kind never could have made it onto home consoles.
16
Released May 26, 2008
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Why It Made the List
One of Nintendo's most beloved and longest-running puzzler franchises, Dr. Mario debuted in the wake of Tetris two decades ago and offered an intriguing alternative to that classic Russian falling-block design. It proved to be so popular, in fact, that Nintendo has regularly updated it and brought it to nearly every console and handheld to come along since then. Online Rx, the Wii's native version, may be the best the game's ever been. With a slick presentation, robust array of options, Mii character support, online multiplayer over Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection and an all-new mode called "Virus Buster" controlled entirely with pointing Wii Remotes, this Dr. Mario truly earns his Ph.D.
15
Released September 29, 2008
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Why It Made the List
There are very few multiplayer game designs that have as long a legacy or as consistent a track record as the Bomberman franchise's battle modes, which helped establish what multiplayer with more than two people could be back in the 16-bit era. Bomberman Blast arrived as one of WiiWare's earliest releases back in 2008 and once again proved the staying power of the concept, giving Wii owners a new opportunity to square off against their buddies in cramped arenas, as well as lay down bombs at their feet and watch them explode in brilliantly satisfying pillars of flame.
14
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth
Released December 28, 2009
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Why It Made the List
Konami blessed WiiWare players with an onslaught of new games from its best old-school Nintendo franchises a couple of years ago, bringing the "ReBirth" series into the download shop. Contra ReBirth was a throwback to the frantic side-scrolling shooting action of Contra games long past, while Gradius ReBirth brought the Vic Viper out of retirement for one more interstellar alien-blasting mission. The most prominent of the series to me, though, was Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth. It humbly acknowledged the lacking quality of one of its franchises older installments (Castlevania: The Adventure for the original Game Boy) and crafted an all-new, remade quest around that old portable title's same scenario. You can't really beat a fresh new side-scrolling Castlevania game that pays homage to the past and is also exclusive to WiiWare.
13
Released June 2, 2008
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Why It Made the List
We've already established that WiiWare's been a service serving up second chances for games released on other systems and formats in the past, but Toki Tori might be the very best example of that trend in action. This fantastic little puzzler was first released in portable form for the Game Boy Color almost a full decade ago and never really got the attention is deserved on that under-the-radar form. WiiWare brought it back to life, boldly reimagining its visuals and giving its bright yellow bird a much bigger chance to find an audience.
12
Released June 8, 2009
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Why It Made the List
Swords & Soldiers represents the other side of the multiplatform coin on WiiWare, as instead of being a game that debuted elsewhere and then came to Wii it first showed up here, found great success and then moved on to become available on lots of other systems. You mine resources, build up armies and assault your enemy just like any good RTS, but everything happens in a strict left-to-right side-scrolling stage. If you've picked up on the buzz about this one through some of its more recent re-releases and still haven't played it, why not give it a try in its original WiiWare edition?
11
Released March 15, 2010
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Why It Made the List
Accurately described as Punch-Out!! with weapons, Ghostfire Games' Rage of the Gladiator takes the first-person fighting perspective of Nintendo's classic boxing design and pushes it into a fantasy-themed medieval coliseum. You wield sword and shield against an over-the-top array of opponents coming at you with everything from their own melee weapons to magic spells, dodging and blocking their attacks while you counter with your own. It's fast, it's fun and it's unique to WiiWare.
10
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
Released August 11, 2008
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Why It Made the List
Striking into the Top 10 now, praise and recognition must be given to the wonderful revival that the point-and-click adventure genre has seen over the last few years. Developer Telltale Games has almost single-handedly been the force behind it, and WiiWare has enjoyed two great episodic series from them -- Tales of Monkey Island and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Both are incredible, but the originality of Strong Bad wins the position here on the countdown. Playing as the wacky Internet-famous cartoon character is a joy as he explores the world made famous by HomestarRunner.com, and the humor factor of each of this game's five episodic installments is undeniable. Trogdor!
9
Released December 6, 2010
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Why It Made the List
Fluidity is a puzzler about a puddle. You control a flowing, fluid body of water by manipulating the environment to get the liquid to pour, pool and collect together just the way you want it to -- even changing its state of matter in order to make forward progress. This is one of the most recent WiiWare releases featured on our countdown, having just shipped into the Wii Shop late last year.
8
Released March 22, 2010
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Why It Made the List
A freeware indie PC classic famously created by just one guy, Cave Story was Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya's free gift to the Internet for over half a decade before somebody finally started giving him some cash for his incredible accomplishment. Those paychecks started flowing thanks to this first for-profit port of the game, which excellently converted the PC original into an upgraded WiiWare form. Cave Story has since gone on to establish itself on DSiWare as well, and a 3D remake is coming to Nintendo's 3DS soon. All these ports and attention should clue you in to the fact that it's a heck of a game and one absolutely worth your time, attention and Wii Points. (Though you could still always seek out the freebie PC edition if you're short on funds.)
7
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Released June 1, 2009
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Why It Made the List
Square Enix resolutely never offered storyline sequels to its main Final Fantasy series installments for several years, but that trend has been breaking through the past half-decade or so, allowing us to finally know just what happened after the final curtain closed on Final Fantasy IV. The After Years brings us back to the world of Cecil, Kain, Rydia and all the rest, letting us follow their further adventures a generation after the conclusion of the original story. It's a wonderful way to expand the experience you first had back in the '90s with the original game, but if you never did play FFIV you can correct that oversight through the Wii Shop too since it's on sale in Virtual Console form under its old Final Fantasy II numbering.
6
Released October 20, 2008
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Why It Made the List
The Wii's library of games is overflowing with Party This and Party That, as countless publishers have tried to claim a piece of the casual market that Nintendo so capably captured with the console's introduction. Few party games have been as enjoyable as this new take on an old classic, though, as Tetris Party expertly fuses together the most famous puzzle game design of all time with a wealth of new modes and options that make it perfectly appropriate to fire up the next time you've got a bunch of friends over. Tetris Party did so well as a WiiWare download that it even got an expanded retail release later on -- but this digital original and its permanent spot on your Wii channel still gets the more enthusiastic thumbs-up from me.
5
Mega Man 9
Released September 22, 2008
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Why It Made the List
You can consider this position an even tie between Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, as both titles are fully deserving of recognition on our Top WiiWare countdown. They're old-school Mega Man. Old-school, 8-bit Mega Man made to look and play exactly like the first six installments in Capcom's classic series did way back in the NES era. When Mega Man 9 was first revealed and long-time fans found out they'd be getting an all-new, classic Mega Man game after such a long time, many of them fainted with joy (myself included). When Inti Creates came back a second time and brought us yet another sequel in Mega Man 10, I thought I'd died and gone to old-school gamer heaven. Could we dare to hope that Mega Man 11 might now happen someday? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm not counting out anything after the incredible shock of 9's reveal.
4
The Art Style Series
Released 2008 – 2010
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Why It Made the List
We're cramming as many incredible WiiWare games as we can into this countdown, and that means Rank #4 is going to be shared as well -- by all of the games comprising Nintendo's incredible Art Style series. Some have been better than others, but all have been bold and unique game designs that have captured our attention and imagination as each has been released. Orbient sends us sailing through space. Rotohex had us spinning and sorting a hexagon of colors. Rotozoa brought us into the miniature world of microscopic organisms, Cubello made us blast apart matching colored cubes, and Light Trax reminded us a lot of Tron's light cycles (seen from a long distance away). Each of the installments is inventive and well worth your while, and the success of these games inspired even more to show up for Nintendo's portable DSiWare service.
3
Released May 12, 2008
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Why It Made the List
One of the very best WiiWare games to ever go on sale did so on the service's very first day. LostWinds was a launch title for WiiWare way back in May of 2008, and its magical adventure swept us away and had us begging for more. And then we got it! The even more sensational LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias arrived in October of 2009. Separately the games are incredible, and together they form one of the most fun journeys you can undertake on Wii -- using the Wii Remote to command the wind and guide young Toku on his quest to save his homeland.
2
The BIT.TRIP Series
Released 2009 – 2011
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Why It Made the List
Is it cheating for me to rank six games all together in the #2 spot? If it is, I don't care -- because the whole BIT.TRIP experience is just that good. Gaijin Games is a studio that has invested more time and effort into the WiiWare service than any other third-party developer, and the final product of their efforts is an enormous success. BIT.TRIP is a cycle of six different games -- BEAT, CORE, VOID, RUNNER, FATE and FLUX -- that collectively tell the tale of the intriguingly blocky hero Commander Video, his journey out into the cosmos, and his return home. The games are all retro stylish, fueled by wonderful music and absolutely addictive to play. The saga wrapped up with the release of FLUX earlier this year, meaning you can now download the whole thing from start to finish in the Wii Shop. Or, if you'd prefer, you can wait just a bit longer for the release of the physical compilation disc, BIT.TRIP COMPLETE, which will collect all six titles for Wii later this year.
1
Released October 12, 2008
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Why It Made the List
Was there ever any doubt? WiiWare's crowning achievement plopped onto the scene in the service's first year of existence and no contender since has yet been able to dethrone the great glob of goop. World of Goo is a sensational puzzle design that expertly brought Wii Remote pointer controls together with a fantastic construction mechanic and a whimsically dark aesthetic. It's gone on to great success elsewhere in the gaming industry, getting ported to a variety of other platforms and formats. But back in 2008 it was all about the Wii, and we loved it so much that we named it our Game of the Year that year -- beating out all challengers, downloadable or retail. If you're just checking out WiiWare now, this is one download that's absolutely indispensable. Check it out!
And that's a wrap, WiiWare fans. Check in your comments with the box below before you go and let us know if you agree with the rankings, advise us about any true winners we missed and how you'd reorder this list if it was all up to you. And then get downloading -- there's got to be at least one or two great games you've just seen that you missed the first time around.
