Hidden Gems on the Wii?

[UBERTRON777]

Seeing as the Wii is the most financially successful system it has a plethora of developers and publishers just begging to join in on the money making. Sure this creates a lot of shovelware but shouldn't there also be a handful of unknown, unnoticed, and forgetten gems on the platform? Even this early in the consoles life? I think that there probably is and I am very curious as to what these games might be. I'm not expecting these games to be fantastic but I do think that there could be quite a few good, quirky games that are out there on this tiny console. Any interesting, unrecognized finds?

[vejita]

I think Zack and Wiki is a neat find, since I normally would not have sought it out on my own. A couple of friends told me it was worth it, and I think that paid off.

[equalsign]

I really enjoyed Speed Racer, Dokapon Kingdom, and Mercury Meltdown Revolution. I haven't played these next few, but I think they might fall into this category and are on my want list. I'm not that versed in Wiiware, so most of these are disc based releases.

Action:
Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars
Chicken Little: Ace in Action
Obscure the Aftermath
The Simpsons Game
Monster Lab
Bonsai Barber (Wiiware)
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Disaster Day of Crisis (PAL, JAP)

Shooter:
Castle of Shikigami III

Puzzle/Sports:
Alien Crush Returns (Wiiware)
Kororinpa: Marble Mania
We Love Golf!

Adventure:
The Dog Island
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

RPG:
Rune Factory: Frontier

Traditional Adventure:
Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars (Director's Cut)
Sam & Max Season One
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

Real-Time Strategy:
Swords & Soldiers

Games People Know About, But Aren't Buying Anyways:
Excitebots: Tricks Racing
Deadly Creatures
House of the Dead Overkill
Mad World
Klonoa

[emwearz]

If you like adventure games Z&W is awesome, Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars with its new Nicole scenes is worth playing all over again.

[brokenpavement]

Wiiware:
Bonsai Barber is quite fun and unlike any game I've played before.
Neves Plus is a fun block puzzle game, and it has like 500 puzzles for $6.
I am infatuated with all of the ArtStyle games on WiiWare.
Bubble Bobble Plus is excellent.
The Bit Trip games are enjoyable, yet they can be quite frustrating.


Wii retail games:
Castle Shikigami is a decent shmup, but I prefer the Ultimate Shooting Collection that has 3 Milestone shooters for like $20.
Williams' Pinball Hall of Fame is fantastic! If you have any interest in pinball, then it is a must-have.
Octomania is a very fun puzzle game that can be found for like $10. (Beware, the voice acting is atrocious.)
Samurai Shodown Anthology is a great compilation for a very reasonable price.
Blast Works is a novel side-scrolling shmup that is part Gradius, part Katamari Damacy.
Deadly Creatures was a fun game from start to finish.
Harvey Birdman is fun and reminiscent of Phoenix Wright for the DS; Only downfall is that the game is quite short.
Agree with all of the Zak and Wiki love. It's a great adventure game.


Hope this helps some! Let me know if you try out any of the mentioned games; I would like to hear your opinion.

[Erik_Twice]

Dokapon Kingdom,

How is it? It seems an interesting game.

[Cassidy]

There was a thread a while back that asked an identical question and had some great games in it.

[equalsign]

Dokapon Kingdom,

How is it? It seems an interesting game.

It's fun as long as you've got friends with plenty of time that don't take their games too seriously and are willing to play mean without holding grudges. The gameplay is extremely simplistic and mostly random. With four human players expect 40 plus hours to complete the story. Don't even touch it if you don't have people you can play it with.

A good part of the fun for my friends and I came from creating our own little memes and such. We still reference it to this day . If you were to get it though, I have to recommend playing as female characters. The ending of the game is about 30 times better that way .

[UBERTRON777]

Thanks for all of the recommendations. Bonsai Barber looked really fun. I have Zack and Wiki and it's great. Does anybody know if these games are good?

Dragon Quest: Swords
We Tap
We Catch
Bit Boy!!
Baroque
Death Jr.
Dragon Blade
Maboshi's Arcade
Major Minor's Majestic March

[ejamer]

Thanks for all of the recommendations. Bonsai Barber looked really fun. I have Zack and Wiki and it's great. Does anybody know if these games are good?

Dragon Quest: Swords -- It's very simple and not very long. Less of an RPG than an on-rails sword game. But it's kind of fun and the story isn't bad. I only recommend this game if you can get it cheap... but am very happy with the copy I traded for.

Bit Boy!! -- Good concept. Poor execution. I don't hate the game, but can't really recommend it to anyone.

Baroque -- I want to love this game, but it has too many little issues. You are much better looking for Chocobo's Dungeon instead in my opinion.

Maboshi's Arcade -- Simple puzzle gameplay, but quite fun. Very good if you want a cooperative puzzle game.

Can't comment on the others.





Some games that I recommend that aren't mentioned above are:

de Blob -- Interesting game, well worth trying. Weird platforming with color. Reminds me of Jet Grind Radio a little bit.

The Munchables -- Um... Pac-Man meets Katamari? Unusual game but good silly fun (especially if you like poop humor)

Trauma Center New Blood and Trauma Center Second Opinion -- Excellent use of Wii, and some fun games too. The storylines get a bit silly, but hardcore challenge and fun controls make them worth playing.