Top Five Wii Games You Never Played - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 30 June 2011 / 15,534 Views

Five Wii Titles While We Wait for Zelda

Nintendo has been almost completely quiet on the Wii's line-up up until this point. And with mini-game collections filling the second half of this year, fans are are a bit disappointed. With Kirby Wii and Skyward Sword not set to hit until late this year, the Wii's line-up looks rough as we sit here at the end of June. While there isn't anything new coming out in terms of core experiences (unless you're in Europe), the Wii's has a back catalog of fantastic titles. Here's a look at a handful of titles you might not have picked up the first time around that could help you and your Wii survive until the end of this year.

Zack & Wiki Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Back in a time when third party support for the Wii was still uncertain, Capcom decided to step up to the plate with this exclusive point and click puzzle/adventure title. Unfortunately, it didn't work out sales wise. Despite its cute and colorful visuals, the title has a brutal difficulty level that can keep you scratching your head for hours. And unlike most point and click titles where the character just goes “nuh-uh” every time you do something wrong, Zack instead gets brutally murdered every time he fails a puzzle, getting crushed by boulders and attacked by island natives.

Battallion Wars 2

Despite the Wii's lack of shooters, most of the ones that hit the platforms are generally panned for being poor compared to Xbox 360 and PS3 shooters. In Battalion War's case, that's not true. Instead of a focus on pure gunplay, Battalion Wars 2 adds the rock paper scissor style strategy elements from the Fire Emblem and Advanced Wars series into a real-time battlefield where the player takes part by controlling individual units. Sure, it won't replace titles like Call of Duty, but it does offer something unique, rather than just trying to emulate the 360/PS3 experience on a less powerful console with an insufficient online-service.

Okami

Okami has been successful in terms of critics' reception on the Wii, as well as the PS2 before it. But in the sales department, the title never performed as well as Capcom, and many fans, would hope it would have. The title is essentially a Zelda clone, but a really good one. Not only that, but it throws in some of its own flavor with a unique art style and a witty sense of humor. Throw in a quest that rivaled the length of Twilight Princess', and you have yourself a fantastic game. And thanks to its lackluster commercial performance, the title for years has remained one of the greatest titles you can get on a budget.

Sonic Colors

There are a lot of 3D Sonic games out there, but rarely do they turn out to be anything beyond decent. And if they are decent, they have Werehog sections in them. But late last year, we finally got a 3D Sonic title that was actually good. Not perfect, but good. Sonic Colors is a step in the right direction on Wii, focusing on speed and power ups that compliment Sonic's speed. The title sold fairly well, but, at least from my personal experiences, it seems like most gamers skipped over it entirely anyways. But who can really blame them consider the series' past.

Monster Hunter Tri

Apparently Capcom has made a lot of good Wii games. If you're looking for one title that can last you until the end of this year, Monster Hunter Tri is it. The title has a fairly decent length single player mode that could probably, in terms of hours, put many other titles out on the market to shame. But the main course is the online multiplayer mode where players can drops hundreds upon hundreds of hours into forging new armor, weapons, and other gear. Not to mention that the online mode is absolutely free here in North America and for our friends over in Europe. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you're on your feet, you'll be hard pressed to find any other Wii title with so much value.

Nintendo has been almost completely quiet on the Wii's 2011 line-up up until this point. With mini-game collections filling the second half of this year, fans are are a bit disappointed. Kirby Wii and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword not set to hit until late this year, the Wii's line-up looks rough as we sit here at the end of June. While there isn't anything new coming out in terms of core experiences (unless you're in Europe), the Wii's has a back catalog of fantastic titles. Here's a look at a handful of titles you might not have picked up the first time around that could help you and your Wii survive until the end of this year.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Battalion Wars 2

Despite the Wii's lack of shooters, most of the ones that hit the platforms are generally panned for being poor compared to Xbox 360 and PS3 shooters. In Battalion War's case, that's not true. Instead of a focus on pure gunplay, Battalion Wars 2 adds the rock paper scissor style strategy elements from the Fire Emblem and Advanced Wars series into a real-time battlefield where the player takes part by controlling individual units. Sure, it won't replace titles like Call of Duty, but it does offer something unique, rather than just trying to emulate the 360/PS3 experience on a less powerful console with an insufficient online-service.

Okami

Okami has been successful in terms of critics' reception on the Wii, as well as the PS2 before it. But in the sales department, the title never performed as well as Capcom, and many fans, would hope it would have. The title is essentially a Zelda clone, but a really good one. Not only that, but it throws in some of its own flavor with a unique art style and a witty sense of humor. Throw in a quest that rivaled the length of Twilight Princess', and you have yourself a fantastic game. And thanks to its lackluster commercial performance, the title for years has remained one of the greatest titles you can get on a budget.

Sonic Colors

There are a lot of 3D Sonic games out there, but rarely do they turn out to be anything beyond decent. And if they are decent, they have Werehog sections in them. But late last year, we finally got a 3D Sonic title that was actually good. Not perfect, but good. Sonic Colors is a step in the right direction on Wii, focusing on speed and power ups that compliment Sonic's speed. The title sold fairly well, but, at least from my personal experiences, it seems like most gamers skipped over it entirely anyways. But who can really blame them consider the series' past.

Monster Hunter Tri

Apparently Capcom has made a lot of good Wii games. If you're looking for one title that can last you until the end of this year, Monster Hunter Tri is it. The title has a fairly decent length single player mode that could probably, in terms of hours, put many other titles out on the market to shame. But the main course is the online multiplayer mode where players can drops hundreds upon hundreds of hours into forging new armor, weapons, and other gear. Not to mention that the online mode is absolutely free here in North America and for our friends over in Europe. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you're on your feet, you'll be hard pressed to find any other Wii title with so much value.

69 Comments

hagelt18 (on 30 June 2011)

Sin and Punishment Star Successor. It had great reviews but I don't think the sales were as high as they deserved to be.

Heat (on 30 June 2011)

I thought this article had Little King's Story written all over it. Turns out I was wrong.

forest-spirit (on 30 June 2011)

That's some odd choices. There are lots of great Wii games that sold way less than Colours or Tri such as Sky Crawlers, Sin & Punishment 2, No More Heroes 2 and Little King's Story.

gumby_trucker (on 30 June 2011)

seriously, why is Sonic Colors on this list?? Game is on the way to selling a million copies - and I mean the Wii version alone!
Replace it with Little King's Story immediately! Even Monster Hunter Tri is selling ok if you only include numbers from the west. How about Tatsunoko vs. Capcom? or Red Steel 2? Or any of the TRAUMA series games?
Or Fire Emblem? Or Muramasa?
Whoever wrote this article didn't bother actually looking at the numbers on VGChartz, did they?

NightDragon83 (on 30 June 2011)

Metroid Prime 3 should be on this list... it's the best Metroid game since Super Metroid, probably the best "core" game in the Wii's entire library, and its been out for almost 4 years and STILL hasn't broken a million units sold domestically, with total WW sales barely topping 1.5 million!

BTW, I own Zack and Wiki, bought it because of IGN way overhyping the game at a time when there were very few notable Wii titles available, and it was OK for the first hour or so but got old, boring AND frustrating really fast.

z101 (on 30 June 2011)

Wow! What a useless list, half of these games are million seller anyway. Other great games, other commentators mention already, would fit better.

Fededx (on 30 June 2011)

Sonic Colors? It's almost a million seller in less than a year... MH3? Bad list...

I thought I'd see games that didn't sell well and were awesome (Sonic Color's just ok), like A boy and his blob, Klonoa, Little King Story, Sin and Punishment Star Successor or Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Damn, even Prince of Persia: Forotten Sands would have fit better in that list than those two...

swii26 (on 30 June 2011)

What about No More Heroes? Didnt sell that well but it had good reviews... Monster Hunter Tri sold over 1million and nobody played it?

ZechsMerquise (on 30 June 2011)

Some great games on here, but a bit of an odd list! At least two of these titles sold really well. MH3 has sold nearly 2 million copies and I believe that Sonic Colours was SEGA's best selling game last year!

kingofbubba (on 30 June 2011)

Ok, so I still don't get what it is about Z&W that is liked so much. My bro saw that members of this site liked it so he got it for me new for $10 I think...nice price. First, Zack isn't "brutally murdered" (I see what you're doing, trying to trick the PS360 crowd into this one! haha) but he does die. Sometimes a lot. I wouldn't mind it except you get into these huge puzzles where sometimes each decision, when done for the first time in the level, is a completely different set-up from previous levels. Not knowing what to expect--but logically reasoning a good response--you die and have to repeat everything over again in that level. All at a painfully slow pace...just to die at the next step. It's really only bad on levels like that where you can't know what will kill you and the level is long. I played through probably at least half of the game before swearing to never play this game again just because of how frustratingly slow and repetitive some levels can become. End of story is that I sold it for 15 or 20 dollars because forums had hyped it's popularity. :-D

What about Atlus' Trauma Center (& Team) games? Maybe you don't want to pick up all three, but at least one could have been included. I know, I know, this was just a "top 5". I like the article and would still like to see more of these listings of good [past] games that were overlooked for systems. And of course I'm partial to Wii lists because I'm too poor and cheap to have gotten the other systems.

dark_gh0st_b0y (on 30 June 2011)

don't worry, Wii played MH3!

you should definitely add Little King's Story (TOP GAME NOT PLAYED) and maybe Rune Factory

Jumpin (on 01 July 2011)

Sonic Colors and Monster Hunter Tri shouldn't be on this list. Sure they are both awesome games, but their sales were also fairly good one selling nearly a million, the other nearly 2 million. I would rather place Rune Factory Frontier and Little King's Story; both of which sold very poorly, but were overall excellent titles.

Oculin (on 01 July 2011)

My apologies to everyone. The title was changed at some point without my knowledge and the list was not intended to be "Wii games you never played." I could come up with much more obscure games than this :P

Although I do firmly believe Sonic Colors, despite high sales, was largely ignored by many hardcore gamers, so in a sort of weird way, it does fit on the list. And the first three titles, are pretty close to fitting the bill, although still fairly mainstream. So, four out of five, somewhat make sense!

Monster Hunter Tri, on the other hand, definitely a title with a huge user base, so I wouldn't call it that. But if you haven't picked it up yet, I'd highly recommend it. Fantastic title with tons of value as I described in the article.

Sorry again. Hopefully next time, before hand, I'll get some heads up so I can tweak the article as need be.

devilmaydance (on 30 June 2011)

A lot of these games have been really successful on the Wii. Muramasa, man!

PBBN43 (on 30 June 2011)

I played Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure and Okami.

Silver-Tiger (on 30 June 2011)

I've played 4 of 5 games you listed, the heading is obviously fail.

Hephaestos (on 30 June 2011)

MH3 is the only one I don't own... only briefly played the others though... they are good, I just don't have the time :x
To note also, that the first 3 are early gen games, so probably pretty cheap to get now.

cromeros (on 02 July 2011)

MH 3 Tri is one the best games not only for Wii, but also the current generation of consoles... hundreds of hours of entertaiment, online mode FREE, one of the best graphics made in Wii, excellent soundtrack... 1.8 million units sold is not a failure ... It is the most successful edition for home consoles ... BUT there are many who have not tried it ... I recommend it absolutely ... It is a game that shows that there are great games Wii... :)

MrT-Tar (on 02 July 2011)

Disaster: DoC should be on there

MrT-Tar (on 01 July 2011)

Replace Sonic Colours and MH3 with Little King's Story and Tatsunoko vs Capcom and I agree.

theRepublic (on 01 July 2011)

Every time I see someone talking about how great Zack and Wiki is I have to wonder if they finished the game. The first 80% of the game is a great point and click puzzle game. However, the last four levels morph into a bad action game with terrible controls.

The game really leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

kutabacchimae (on 01 July 2011)

I own 3 off this list (zack & wiki, okami, monster hunter) and i've played a 4th (battalion wars). Sonic looks out of place on the list. Other games i would consider would be little king's story, madworld, red steel 2, sakura wars, and others. And yes, i own all of those.

menx64 (on 01 July 2011)

I bought all those games day 1... little king story should be there, one of the best games of the whole gen...

kfd056 (on 01 July 2011)

this article deserves triple facepalm

SosusOCR (on 01 July 2011)

What a crap list...

Monster Hunter and Sonic Colors sold well... I mean why isnt Epic Yarn on the list if million sellers count as games never played?

OmegaRugalv3 (on 30 June 2011)

Your article is well written outside of the badly misleading title. Sonic Colours is or will be a million seller, Monster Hunter Tri might hit 2 million. You can't call those games "games you NEVER played".

I would have added Sin N Punishment Star Successor and No More Heroes 2. And after that there are still more great Wii games no one played like Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Red Steel 2, No More Heroes 1, MadWorld, etc etc ... TONS of very good to great Wii games that unfortunately no one bought.

shakarak OmegaRugalv3 (on 01 July 2011)

The game was really fun. That last sword fight on the bridge was very frustrating though.

IamAwsome (on 30 June 2011)

Excitebots?

Soulblazer (on 30 June 2011)

I respectfully disagree with some of your choices, I mean Sonic colours is on its way to 1m units sold, same as monster hunter. Instead some better choices would be No more heroes 2,Little kings story, tatsunoko vs capcom, sky crawlers,muramasa, silent hill, fragile dreams, Rune Factory, sin and punishment, Trauma Team, there are many to easily make a 10 wii games never played list as most of the above barely and with luck made it to 300k sales.

TWRoO (on 30 June 2011)

Battalion Wars II does need more love.
Okami and Zack & Wiki I can understand being on the list, though they still did quite well.
Sonic and Monster Hunter Tri though don't really have much of a place here, weirdly in my case they happen to be the two on the list I haven't played, but the sales show they shouldn't be on here.
From my own collection I would say No More Heroes 2 and The Godfather: Blackhand Edition are more deserving.... I was going to say Endless Ocean 2 as well but turns out it has been selling steadily and done much better than I thought.

Podings (on 30 June 2011)

Come on, Monster Hunter Tri has sold two million, surely there are other good games that sold less you could feature.

xcot (on 30 June 2011)

This is an awful list, 2 of those are around a million in sales, okami is well known just not many people want to play it. I've got 3 of the 5 and they're all great games, but a better list would be:
Little Kings Story
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
Battalion wars 2
Silent Hill Shattered Memories
Muramasa the Demon Blade (exchangeable in this list)

mightyERone (on 30 June 2011)

interesting, cept this list has to be catagorized under top 5 Adventure, Sports, Puzzle, fighter, Stragedy, FPS, RPG's you haven't played. You can't mention "insufficient online service" and Monster Hunter Tri (Capcomps BIGGEST) selling game that year, [sorry Super Street Fighter 4 and Lost Planet2] in the same story. Plenty of sales, plenty played, plenty to STILL play and yes, plenty missed out.

XanderZane (on 30 June 2011)

Never played? I own Battalion Wars 2 and Monster Hunter Tri. Both are great games. I don't want to own Sonic Colors. I agree that Sin & Punishment and A Boy & His Blob should be on this list.

melbye (on 30 June 2011)

Played four of those

Wii_R2_Hardcore (on 30 June 2011)

4/5 Never heard of Sonic Colors before

Muchs (on 30 June 2011)

I own 3 of the games. I think I am the "nobody".

sly777 (on 03 July 2011)

great article. Here's a list of good games we should play right now... and don't forget sin and punishement !

fdgerger (on 03 July 2011)

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BoneArk (on 01 July 2011)

I played 2 out of the 5. I also have No More Heroes 1/2, NMH 1/2 should have been on the as well.

Conegamer (on 01 July 2011)

I played all of those games. And they're all amazing. Especially Okami, Sonic Colours and (mainly) Tri!

gvangoeverden (on 01 July 2011)

I have all those games and they are all excellent

Arfen (on 01 July 2011)

disappointing list!!! a game thas has sold almost 2 millions or almost a million can not be includes on a list like this...

Muramasa, Little King's Story, No more heres1&2, Red Steel 2, Fire Emblem Radiant down, Madworld, Sin & Punishment, Anno, House of the dead Overkill, Disaster day of crisis.... Unfortunatly Wii has a long list ot tittles that did not sell all they diserve..

lequinow (on 01 July 2011)

Many people played Okami ^o) By the way, where is Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn?

SxyxS (on 01 July 2011)

Okami:PS2
Monster Hunter:PSP
sonic colors???
a bad top 5

Nebnosneh (on 01 July 2011)

Scarface should also be on this list.
I found it in a bargain bin recently and it's all kinds of awesome.

mysticwolf (on 30 June 2011)

I've played 80% of those... and I thought Little King's Story would be on it, I've heard lots of good things about that game, but I've never actually played it.

viewtiful_jon (on 30 June 2011)

Little Kings Story. Excite bots, S+P even Castle of Shikigami 3. Why so many games that sold decent and lots of people ended up playing?

cyberninja45 (on 30 June 2011)

Where is muramasa?

miz1q2w3e (on 30 June 2011)

Also 4/5 played - Never played Battalion Wars but I knew about it

OmegaRugalv3 (on 30 June 2011)

d21lewis (on 30 June 2011)

I own three of those five games.

Linkasf (on 30 June 2011)

To the people saying why is MH3 there... GO OUTSIDE AND ASK SOMEONE IF THEY KNOW WHAT MH IS, and see your answer... trust me, not many people know about this game, and the sales show.

WiseOwl (on 30 June 2011)

If you have not played these games you sould. You just might like them. I have played all of them but Battalion Wars and Sonic Colors. But these games are worth a try.

WiseOwl (on 30 June 2011)

If you are a Wii owner and missed these games there is something wrong. You sould try them cause you hust might like them.

fmc83 (on 30 June 2011)

Little King's Story all the way. You just can't skip this gem in a "wii-games you never played" list. I might have added Godfather: Black Hand Edition or just Cursed Mountain for the atmosphere, too.

Soanevalcke (on 30 June 2011)

Monster Hunter Tri a "never played" game? :/... geez.
I own 3/5 and rented Sonic Colors. However, as many guys already said, S&P: SS should be a must on the list.

Cobra_ (on 30 June 2011)

Played them all... well, not Sonic Colors but I have very good reasons for that. I will never again buy a Sonic game for more than 10 pounds. Maybe it is already cheap enough, I should check.

GhaudePhaede010 (on 30 June 2011)

I own all five games. This means I should update my games thingy so badly. I have not even added my 3DS games collection yet.

XiaoMay (on 30 June 2011)

I LOVED Zack & Wiki and Okami (on PS2) and bought BWii.

I would have added lot of games to make top 10 : No more heroes, Little king story, Dead Space Exct., Madworld And S&P 2

KingEidilleg (on 30 June 2011)

Although all 5 games are great, I agree that Monster Hunter Tri and Sonic Colors shouldn't be in this list.
I'd rather have seen Sin And Punishment:SotS, Sakura Wars:SLML, Rune Factory: Frontier, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom:UAS, Ivy The Kiwi (or one of the others mentioned below) in this list.
I also think a top 5 is a bit too small considering the large number of under-appreciated Wii games...