I loved Harvest Moon on the original GameBoy and it's SNES sequel, but I loathe dungeon crawlers*, so I was always torn with this game. The initial critical reaction was fairly meh, but it seems to have levelled to a solid AA with the best score of all the Rune Factory games, and everyone I heard speak of it loves it.

If only I wasn't so occupied university- and gamingwise, having just started Silent Hill V and several Wii games.. I know it'd be a bad idea to add RF: Frontier to the list of games that I started but didn't finish.

I'm not even completely through de Blob yet (beat the third-to-last stage two days ago).

Btw., I added Crystal Bearers to the hypes-list.

* I don't even like Diablo II. There I said it.

Awesome. But still no Tales of Graces :(

There, the images are working now.

Nice list ! But did anyone actually play excite truck?????????
And endless ocean 2 sounds cool

"worthwhile and entertaining"

To who exactly? If you're perfectly happy to be entertained by something a developer can knock together in an afternoon then fine I have no problems with that, but saying these games all have worth of critical acclaim is just bullshit, especially the ones that aren't even out yet.

Games i'm not going to argue with, either because I enjoy them, or don't but acknowledge them as praiseworthy:
All first party titles, with the exceptions of Disaster Day of Crisis and Animal Crossing: City Folk

Animal Crossing City Folk is a good example of how fans will bend over and take whatever is offered to them, the huge majority of the game is exactly whats

on offer for the DS but in SDTV resolution, it offers very little new content other than a crappy microphone and a dent in the wallet.

Disaster Day of Crisis is just aweful beyond words, it looks crap, it plays badly, the dialogue makes no sense whatsoever and what little fo the story
I was presented also made absolutely no sense. Shame because I was looking forward to it.

The rest of the list seems less like a hype list and more a list of everything anybody 'might' possibly like ever. Clutching at straws much? Most of the games on the list
are either vastly inferior to their versions on other consoles (exception being MUA, which I own on both Wii and 360 simply because I feel it makes decent
use of the wii controls) or are simply full retail minigames.

Things like Geometry Wars and Boom Blox are great games sure, but nobody can seriously expect and entire library of stuff like that to sate serious gamers for more than
a few weeks, and when the more refined offerings are things like Disaster Day of Crisis, Deadly Creatures or Umbrella Chronicles then count me out.

Sure there are a good number of high quality games there, but a lot of them are just pure crap. Sure any console has similar divisions of great games and

dissapointments, but theres no denying that other consoles offer a far great amount of high quality serious games.

That said, i'm glad the Wii is bringing back 2D platformers, Warioland was awesome if a little too short, and A Boy and His Blob is definately getting my money.

I love it, "the rest of the list" comments always are funny as they tend to mean "I have no clue about most of these games but I'll pretend I do, and if asked I might just use metascore to find some negative points" and that's just such a cute little attitude, especially when you see that "the rest of the list" includes games like Rune Factory Frontier, Little King's Story and World of Goo. People have different tastes, you don't have to claim games one likes are shovelware thrown out in a day just because you don't. You basically had 3-4 games to actually argue against, that's not so bad considering the size of the list. Thank you for reinforcing the simple fact the Wii has many great games, even if it's not what you wanted to do, as that's the only thing this list attempts to do, and not to place the Wii in your heart right next to your PS360 or whatever it is  you have. It's not a hype list when it comes to the already released games, the hype comment was for the upcoming titles which you don't comment on at all, but I imagine you have a similar opinion on those anyway, never mind the respected developers and promising concepts and previews involved, or if some of them are part of an established franchise or another promising, creative new effort. Serious games? The Path? No thank you.

I want to distance myself from Al3x's post. I appreciate the next to neutral tone, Drain, and I understand where you're coming from. Your post needs a better reply because thank god, you actually seem to know what you're talking about having played a lot of Wii games, but I'm afraid I'm too lazy now. Just two things:

1. The list was not made in an effort to pull likable Wii games from everywhere I could finnd them. If that was the idea, then I could just have drawn the 75+'s from metacritic, but I didn't as you might have seen, and there are a lot of games on the list that were critically stunned. The list is comprised of games that either I enjoyed because I played/own them (I have played about 25 of the titles in the list) or because I know people who bought them enjoyed them. Animal Crossing is such a case; I don't like Animal Crossing, never did, but I know a lot of people who have Animal Crossing on the Wii, and all of them love it. That's why it's on the list. I don't know anyone who regretted the purchase, that's why it's on there.

2. I didn't include any hint of system wars other than admitting (as I still do) that many gamers would probably be happier with a non-Wii-only gaming system, and that equal lists can be made for all systems. And I'd like to keep this thread system wars free. This is not made to pursuade anyone to buy a Wii, or to justify purchases. This is, as stated in the preamble, a thread for Wii owners who still find enjoyment in the system to get inspiration for other purchases, and to have something in the back for the annoying people who insist that there's no fun to be had with the thing.
And that's thad. I don't consider an hour of entertainment with Mass Effect in any way "better" or more "real" than an hour of entertainment with Boom Blox, and there are very, very few video games I would use the word "serious" on; but that's system wars, and I have no intention of participating in that. All I'm saying is:

1. If you're a Wii-only user, there's tons of great options you have.
2. If you own other consoles besides the Wii, great! You shouldn't complain. But maybe see if the console really still sucks so much as it did two years ago.
3. If you don't own/play the Wii: Shut up about it. You're in no position to make statements about it's library.

It's difficult editing the list now, btw. I tried adding Godfather: The Blackhand Edition*, and all that happened was that Tomb Raider's caption disappeared. .___.
This image editing is seriously messed up, and what you see in the preview before clicking the confirmation button rarely matches what you get after clicking it.


* And to those who complain, here is what happened that made me want to add the game:
Someone suggested adding it, but I have never played it, nor any of the other versions.
I looked at it's wikipedia article, especially at the "Reception".
I read a few reviews. They all agreed that while the game is ugly, it's still the same great game, but with very well implemented control additions.
I read what the gamers had to say about the new  gesture-based controls. There was much approval.
I took a quick look at the game on youtube.
Then, because admittedly it's not entirely uninteresting, I took a look at it's metacritic score. Regardless of that score I would've added it to the list.

"

"worthwhile and entertaining"

To who exactly? If you're perfectly happy to be entertained by something a developer can knock together in an afternoon then fine I have no problems with that, but saying these games all have worth of critical acclaim is just bullshit, especially the ones that aren't even out yet.

Games i'm not going to argue with, either because I enjoy them, or don't but acknowledge them as praiseworthy:
All first party titles, with the exceptions of Disaster Day of Crisis and Animal Crossing: City Folk

Animal Crossing City Folk is a good example of how fans will bend over and take whatever is offered to them, the huge majority of the game is exactly whats

on offer for the DS but in SDTV resolution, it offers very little new content other than a crappy microphone and a dent in the wallet.

Disaster Day of Crisis is just aweful beyond words, it looks crap, it plays badly, the dialogue makes no sense whatsoever and what little fo the story
I was presented also made absolutely no sense. Shame because I was looking forward to it.

The rest of the list seems less like a hype list and more a list of everything anybody 'might' possibly like ever. Clutching at straws much? Most of the games on the list
are either vastly inferior to their versions on other consoles (exception being MUA, which I own on both Wii and 360 simply because I feel it makes decent
use of the wii controls) or are simply full retail minigames.

Things like Geometry Wars and Boom Blox are great games sure, but nobody can seriously expect and entire library of stuff like that to sate serious gamers for more than
a few weeks, and when the more refined offerings are things like Disaster Day of Crisis, Deadly Creatures or Umbrella Chronicles then count me out.

Sure there are a good number of high quality games there, but a lot of them are just pure crap. Sure any console has similar divisions of great games and

dissapointments, but theres no denying that other consoles offer a far great amount of high quality serious games.

That said, i'm glad the Wii is bringing back 2D platformers, Warioland was awesome if a little too short, and A Boy and His Blob is definately getting my money.

"

MeoWayne, you are at least able to respond in a friendly manner.

My problem with lists like these (for any console) is that they often gloss over terrible games simply because they aren't available on other consoles, or because they 'looked' good at one point or another and nobody has actually played them and formed an opinion on them (and if they have, in the case of some of them, Day of Crisis being case in point, they are insane if they still think it's worth praising) and that fact nobody is prepared to admit that a console lacks a certain genre or type of game.

It's hard to describe what's missing without using words like 'serious' or whatever, im specifically avoiding hardcore because my definition of hardcore is different from the accepted, but games with a long and involving story are primarily what the Wii is missing, and it has more party games than the 360 has FPS's, it's just crazy the amount of party and/or minigames it has. And if people like that, that's fine, but for people who don't this is where the "Theres nothing on the Wii" comments are coming from, and what with an equal amount of minigame/short burst play games coming from other areas, including digital download and such like on other platforms, it's not hard to see why.

Steering away from the system wars subject (although honestly I don't think it as such, i'm just pointing out that the Wii lacks a certain type of game and is abundant with another, and that it's the reason people get bored of the Wii at the moment, including people who own one) if it's your only console, I still don't feel you should be happy to accept aweful products that are being put out for you.

As for Alex's comment about me not systematically going through each and every game on the list, how much free time to you think I have? It's also a pain in the ass scrolling up and down to view it each time, and the post would be huge, but if you want, i'll pick out the trash for you.

Animal Crossing: City Folk: Anyone who doesn't have this on the DS already probably doesn't own a Wii or want this game. And for those who do, there is no marked improvement, very few new features and almost no reason to spend the cash.
Disaster: Day of Crisis: It's aweful in every way, it combines horrid controls with ridiculous plot and dialog and horrendous game mechanics that result in a truly truly awful experience.
Deadly Creatures: Buggy gameplay and one of the crappiest combat systems ever. However it does have an interesting (ish) story and (in places) very nice visuals.
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party: Theres no reason to buy this if you own, say, any of 100 partygames, especially the original rabbids game. It has some laughs going for it though.
Tony Hawks Proving Ground: This was bad enough on other platforms, the Wii version is a joke, Unresponsive and finnicky controls combined with awful visuals.
Umbrella Chronicles: (coming from a HUGE Resi fan) is almost as bad as the survivor series, stupendous difficulty level and frustrating gameplay, plot and dialog has no meaning to anyone who isn't a Resi fan. At least HoTD Overkill has some comedy.

Need for Speed Carbon: While the Wii lacks in this style of racing game, Carbon is not the game to fill the gap, it's just as bad here as it was in it's other incarnations, awful context, terrible car handling, soundtrack of interest to only a very small group of people. Chav people.

Tomb Raider: Underworld: Aside from having stiff controls and bad visuals (the Wii is capable of much better but the developers ported it too lazily) it has a game breaking bug which (supposedly although I suspect it is less) effects one in four gamesaves.

Boom Blox Bash Party: Because you really need to look forward to another helping of Boom Blox. Even if you liked the first this is a little too soon and unless it has some drastic additions, pointless.

Of the rest, the only truly outstanding games are (ignoring the unreleased ones, obviously) Rock Band, Resi 4, Okami, Pikmin, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, World of Goo, No More Heroes, Mad World, Rune Factory, Kororinpa, Geometry Wars, De Blob, Zack and Wiki, and the first party titles (exclusing the above mentioned) and of those, when you consider how many are ports/re-releases, it's not hard to see why people who own more than just the Wii often complain about it's lack of games. And people who do own just a wii, have just as much right to complain for getting crappily handled ports, but it seems most people who do own solely a Wii are too fanboyed up to see they are getting bad ports.

In addition to this, Wii games often remain at a steadily high price (here anyway) they hover around or just below full retail, seemingly forever, especially first party titles, and when a lot of them are good only for short bursts of play you
can consider the price point of them a legitimate complaint, another reason the Wii needs some more lengthy and involving games.

Don't take any of this the wrong way, I love the console, I love its potential and I love some of the games it has, a couple of them are im quite confident to say, some of the best games this generation. However, on the whole anyone who can't see that the console has major deficiencies in it's library and is being treated badly in regards to ports, is a fool. If you're happy with just your Wii then more power to you, but as you can plainly see around the internet at large, most people simply are not and choose to own a wii + another current console simply because of the Wii's bottlenecked library and the quality difference with most ports.

My problem with lists like these (for any console) is that they often gloss over terrible games simply because they aren't available on other consoles, or because they 'looked' good at one point or another and nobody has actually played them and formed an opinion on them

that fact nobody is prepared to admit that a console lacks a certain genre or type of game. [...]games with a long and involving story are primarily what the Wii is missing, and it has more party games than the 360 has FPS's [...] i'm just pointing out that the Wii lacks a certain type of game and is abundant with another [...]I still don't feel you should be happy to accept aweful products that are being put out for you. [...]However, on the whole anyone who can't see that the console has major deficiencies in it's library and is being treated badly in regards to ports, is a fool. [...]

"I don't consider an hour of entertainment with Mass Effect in any way "better" or more "real" than an hour of entertainment with Boom Blox, and there are very, very few video games I would use the word "serious" on; but that's system wars, and I have no intention of participating in that. All I'm saying is:

1. If you're a Wii-only user, there's tons of great options you have.
2. If you own other consoles besides the Wii, great! You shouldn't complain. But maybe see if the console really still sucks so much as it did two years ago.
3. If you don't own/play the Wii: Shut up about it. You're in no position to make statements about it's library. "

I'll pick out the trash for you.
Animal Crossing: City Folk

Disaster: Day of Crisis

Deadly Creatures

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party

Tony Hawks Proving Ground

Umbrella Chronicles

Need for Speed Carbon

Tomb Raider: Underworld

Boom Blox Bash Party

Of the rest, the only truly outstanding games are (ignoring the unreleased ones, obviously) Rock Band, Resi 4, Okami, Pikmin, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, World of Goo, No More Heroes, Mad World, Rune Factory, Kororinpa, Geometry Wars, De Blob, Zack and Wiki, and the first party titles (exclusing the above mentioned)

That's a hella long post, and it makes a lot of good points. I've just found out the deadline for one of my projects has been moved forward so havn't the time to form a super long response, out of respect however I will respond with this.

"So you're saying that a Wii owner, two and a half years after the release of the console, can have a library of 20+ outstanding games on his or her shelf. Great. Exactly my point."

No, i'm not.

Or rather I am, but with a caveat.

Anyone who owns just a Wii at this point, fine, those games are good, however, many of them are inferior versions of a product (not just in comparison to their rival counterparts, but in terms
of what the Wii is capable of, graphically and in terms of controls, a lot of developers simply are not utilising properly, sometimes even playably) which is available (in many cases cheaper) on
another platform, if you guys are happy to let developers cash in with lazy ass ports then go right ahead, i'm going to sit here and die a little inside because consumers can't see when they
are truly being screwed, but are quick enough to lash out when they 'think' they are being screwed.

Once you add another console into the mix (either one) and remove the inferior ported versions of games, that list grows dramatically smaller, and yet again once you take a good hard look at
what's available, and realise it's almost all of a particular style or genre, that doesn't leave you a lot of room for maneuver unless you are a HUGE fan of the minigame/short burst game style, I could
go on to mention the visual style prevalent on the Wii, but I happen to like that particular style. Once you've removed products that consumers really should not be happy with, it doesn't offer a lot of variety
whether you like to think so or not.

Ok sure, you could argue that cruddy products about wherever you look, but you just have to take one look at Deadly Creatures combat system, or Mad Worlds lack of combat depth, or No More Heroes
constant repetition of arduous non-plot tasks to realise that there is a real problem with style over substance and not a lot of variety in style at that.

As consumers you shouldn't take this lying down, but you're obviously happy to do so, so i'll leave you to it.

People who own solely a Wii are the ones who should be furious beyond belief at what they've recieved (when weighed against what Nintendo promised when the Wii was released) but I guess you're all too happy pouring hundreds of thousands of hours into Smash Bros to notice.

Also, add Opoona to the list if you can still edit it, it's really good (even if it is yet another example of that cutesy style on the Wii. I like that style, but seriously, it's 2 out of 3 games)

You could call me spoiled or w/e for owning more than one console, but if I owned just a Wii i'd be very angry at the shoddy quality of ports, poor use of the Wii's hardware (games can actually look
incredibly good on the Wii) and constant overuse of one (or two) particular style/s. That's not the fault of the gamer, that lies with the developer. Heck, I AM angry about it and I own more than just a Wii,
I desperately want to enjoy my Wii more. But (until A Boy and His Blob hits) it will remain in the box.

(Also, I just want to point out, how do you know Boom Blox will improve on the original formula? Sequals have a horrible tendency to be crappy, especially these days, and even if it's not, really, how much further can you take the basic concept of the first one? Not enough to warrant another retail purchase i'd wager.)

Yeah, this year looks good for the Wii. Finally some actual worthwhile (in my eyes, at least) 3rd party exclusives. The ones I'm really pumped for are Little King's Story and, maybe a little less, The Conduit. Cosmic Walker looks interesting.

I just wanted to point out you mislabeled Excite Truck as Excite Bots.

Yeah, I know.  And the list is missing some titles. But the moment I try editing any of it, the whole things fall down into a complete mess, image-wise. I'll wait before a major update is necessary before I temper with it.

What is this crap list. Most of those games are mediocre at best on a system which is leading worldwide sales, it's shameful.

Wii for the good of gaming seppuku yourself.

Rofl. Anyway...

When will ya update this Meo? Just wondering. Maybe you can simply build it in a text editor and just paste it all here, and keep the file for future edits. As long as the text color when pasted is right, and the pictures aligned ok, that should work just fine.

I must say those listed games are all pretty good. I don't need to be convinced that there are good games on the Wii. I am tired of this argument.

This list could be so much better if Battalion Wars 2 was a first party title.

It's going to be a very long time for Dragon Quest 10 to come out but, I loved DQ8 so much it's going to be worth the wait.

Well, here's a little moving picture update.

Wow Meowayne, you looking for a job with Nintendo's marketing department or what? This is impressive! You picked good selections for each game, and the transitions are nice. The text postioning and font really work too

Ah. Remember those marketing VHS tapes Nintendo gave out when the N64 launched? With all the game videos? Those were the days.

This vid was actually done in Windows Movie Maker. Take my advise: Don't. Do. It. Never again, man. That was quite a pain.

But glad you liked it. :D

Can't see myself making another one, though. A 1.6ghz PC just isn't made for video editing.

"I would have maybe used more epic music, but thats hardly a gripe"

Plus, it wouldn't really fit. I love the Wii, but Wii games I would definatly not put into the "epic" corner, if we're speaking of the general definition of Epic games, as in "realistic-ish gritty grand-scale battles with cutscenes in between" that flood the other two consoles. Not that such games cannot be great - but the Wii isn't really the console to look for them. That much is clear.

The music is from the Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack, btw. Very recommendable.

Murammassa, endless ocean 2, sin and punishment, and little kings story are my must buys for Wii this year.

Meowayne said:

"Well, here's a little moving picture update.

  

A bunch of titles are missing for pacing reasons. Watch in high quality, rate, leave user comments and before you answer, remember that I love you all. Let's see how much I will regret having spend the time making this so close before E3. "

No thanks. :P
You know how much bandwith I wasted downloading 20-30meg videos just to edit out 3-second-clips? Arghblarghl.

I just had my first rounds of Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer. Wow, that was suprisingly quick, smooth and technically impressive. Finding a match of 8 players is a matter of seconds. Why can't all Wii games be like this?

Also, I'd like to highlight Geometry Wars: Galaxies. A ver yoverlooked title that is better than it's predecessors in almost every way.

" Arghblarghl.I just had my first rounds of Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer. Wow, that was suprisingly quick, smooth and technically impressive. Finding a match of 8 players is a matter of seconds. Why can't all Wii games be like this?"

Lack of modes is a big bummer, though. : /

Started No More Heroes yesterday. A good, refreshinigly weird piece of gaming. If only the fighting stages were a bit less repetetive! I am looking forward to NMH2 a lot more now; If it is like the first one with the annoyances ironed out (and maybe with M+ support ._. ), it should be spectacular.

I'm glad you liked NMH! As far as originals go for the Wii, its my number 2! (SSBB)

Coming back to the "could've used more epic music" comment: Yesterday I rediscovered a track, that, looking back, I wish I had used instead of the sonata: "Bolero" from the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack.
It would've required different structuring and a little shortening, but even if you listen to this track with the video as it is, it already fits quite nicely. Try it, it certainly increases the excitement-factor of the music. :>

Smash Bros. was never for me, btw. Since the original release on the N64, I try these games every six months, trying to like them. But I always end up remembering why I dislike them so much. : D

Might be time to include all those games on the "upcoming" thread you made into this one, and make this the go-to. 

Nice list. Enjoyed the video too.

damn paper mario games are fun they need to make more

Meowayne, you need to make an '10 version