Game Suggestions for the New Wii Owner, Part 4

If you’re like me, you recently obtained a Wii and have almost no idea what games released over the past three years are worth playing. I asked for advice from friends, family, coworkers, and Twitter followers, and I received quite a few suggestions. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 revealed 15 games I was told I needed to play, and today I present the next five games, in no particular order.

Okami

Okami (rated T) is an action-adventure game that was originally released for the Playstation 2, but enough fans demanded a Wii port. The art design is reminiscent of Japanese ink drawings and has been highly praised by the press and players. I watched a trailer, and it felt like I was watching an animated painting. The game play should be familiar to fans of The Legend of Zelda games, so expect puzzles and action. There is a Celestial Brush, which allows you to summon gusts of wind or create columns of water to walk across, among other things. Using the brush requires ink, which is a limited resource.

I haven’t played this game, but a lot of people told me I need to play it even before I was asking for Wii game suggestions. It seems the game didn’t sell very well, and a friend told me that the Wii controls are better in some areas but worse in others. Still, the Wii version does feature a widescreen mode, and if you can get past the controls, it probably looks better on the Wii in general.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Speaking of, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (rated T) was reviewed as the best Zelda game to date by a number of reviewers. Like any Zelda game, exploration and puzzle-solving are the main focus. The general storyline involves the hero, Link, trying to prevent Hyrule from becoming consumed by the darkness of the Twilight Realm. When Link enters this parallel dimension, he turns into a wolf, which gives him certain abilities. Of course, besides the sword and shield, there are the typical bombs, arrows, and boomerangs, as well as several new items.

It was released for the GameCube as well as the Wii. I heard that the game takes advantage of the Wii remote, so I held off on buying the GameCube version. Now I have a Wii, so I can finally learn how the latest Zelda title is for myself. While some friends told me that it was a fairly formulaic Zelda game, others said it was a must-have if you own a Wii. I’m a fan of the series, so I plan on getting it.

Geometry Wars

Geometry Wars: Galaxies (rated E) is a frantic action shooter. You control a ship and can move and shoot in any direction independently. At first the enemies are fairly easy to take care of, but as you advance, more and more appear on the screen. The longer you survive, the bigger your score, and you keep playing until you lose your last ship. The graphics remind me of a modern version of the classic vector graphics from years ago.

Galaxies has both single- and multi-player options. It keeps track of your high scores and can upload them to an online leaderboard. It also has Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved included, so you can play the same game that was originally released on Xbox Live Arcade.

Baroque

Baroque (rated T) is a role-playing game that is inspired heavily by Roguelikes such as NetHack. You start outside of Neuro Tower and you are trying to reach the bottom of it. Each time you enter, the dungeon layout is randomly generated, which means that no two adventures will be the same twice. As you gain experience levels, you get more powerful, but if you die, you are returned to the outside and have to restart at experience level 1 with all of your items missing.

Sounds punishing. Interestingly enough, the player’s death advances the plot sometimes, so it’s not always bad, and you can make use of certain locations in the dungeons to keep some of your weapons, armor, and items. I’m a fan of NetHack, which is a complex, rich game, and it sounds like Baroque is similar. Reviewers and the person who suggested it warn that the difficulty curve means it isn’t for everyone, but I definitely want to give it a try.

Excite Truck

Excite Truck (rated E) is a truck racing game. If you ever played Excitebike for the original NES (which, by the way, is getting an updated sequel available through WiiWare), this game is being called the spiritual successor. While the main focus is on racing, coming in 1st place isn’t the main goal. Throughout a race, you’re trying to earn stars by doing tricks and stunts. The raceways features hills and cliffs, allowing plenty of opportunities to make crazy jumps. There are items that deform the road so it changes completely, making the tracks fairly dynamic.

It was a Wii launch title, and I remember playing it at a video game store’s kiosk. While I like the Mario Kart series, I’m not generally a fan of racing games. Still, I enjoyed trying to do tricks and jumps, and I found that you can earn stars by getting really close to obstacles such as trees and rocks as you speed past them.

20 games down…

Only one more day left. Make sure to come back tomorrow to see the next 5 games in this series. Feel free to use one of the icons below to suggest this series to others, and make sure to leave a comment below to let me know what you think about these choices.

See the rest of the series:

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