As the leaves begin their inexorable metamorphosis from drab green to a cornucopia of reds, yellows and oranges, so too does the Wii library gain momentum and titles worth playing into the winter months and beyond.
Well, at least that’s what Nintendo and its third party developers want us to believe. Here’s what we at Infendo agree are probably going to be the best of the best for the fall.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
We’re sacrificing a bit of the incredible physics that have been demonstrated on the horsepower systems with this first Wii title, but it’s got moxie*, baby (*see also: waggle). Still, it’s an ambitious cross-platform title from LucasArts, graphics be damned, and the Star Wars brand means it will sell pretty well. Pros? No Clone Wars pseudo-anime graphics, motion controls. Cons? No 1:1 lightsaber battles; those motion controls could be accomplished with a button press.
Deadly Creatures
Deadly insects and arachnids fighting it out beneath our feet, with a final boss that’s all-but-confirmed to be a human being? Just call me a citizen insect soldier and point me towards the fray (or the nearest retail store for my copy). Add in the fact that the buzz is relatively positive (Wired, Infendo, etc), and this creepy crawler adventure fighter makes the list, easy.
De Blob
Worthy of Miyamoto? The first “true” third party effort on the Wii? Lofty rhetoric to be sure, but this game might just pull it all off. And it does it all with the skill of a Pixar film: vibrant colors and characters for the kids, and a “hidden” storyline and game play that the adults can really sink their teeth into.
Skate It
Our own overlord Blake Snow has openly gushed while gleaming the cube in this capable challenger to the Tony Hawk skating empire. It’s with good reason, too. The EA title looks sharp and plays with a combination of waggle, motion and balance. Nice combo. Time to shotgun a Mountain Dew!
Guitar Hero World Tour
Not content to be Rock Band with cymbals, Guitar Hero World Tour is also bringing a slew of new bands to the rhythm game front, not to mention a song creation mode that could further blur the line between legitimate musicians and the frat guys I see banging out pseudo-tunes down at the local watering hole. Just be prepared for microtransatctions.
Call of Duty: World at War
Who said there’s no more life left in the World War II FPS genre? Not the guys behind Call of Duty, that’s for sure! In this, the fifth installment in the Call of Duty franchise, Wii owners get their very own version and a seat a the table previously reserved for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners. If developers can pull of better-than-Metroid Prime 3 FPS controls, the Wii version could very well be a tipping point for the genre on consoles.
Wario Land: Shake It
A personal favorite of mine, and the generous spread in Nintendo Power this month only made the waiting that much harder to handle. Gorgeous 2-D platforming? Check. Slick, insanely detailed characters animations? Check. Unobtrusive motion controls? Check. Flatulence? What do you think–it’s a Wario title.
Mega Man 9
The personal love-in for Wii’s looming 8-bit wunderkind continues in this list with a hat tip to Mega Man 9. Not much more to say on it, other than what’s been said on Infendo already, aside from the fact that this is an inevitable day one download for thousands of people.
MadWorld
From the vibrant 2-D worlds of Wario and Rockman we travel to the black and white ultraviolence fest that is MadWorld. Jarring transition? That’s the point. It’s especially apt (and jarring, again) considering you can dispatch foes with pretty much everything at hand in this game, including road signs. Hands-on impressions have been positive, and we can’t wait for the inevitable backlash. It will only drive sales higher.
Rock Band 2
So what if EA and the Rock Band folks kick Wii owners in the nads with a half-assed port of Rock Band earlier this summer? I still won’t be buying it, but that doesn’t mean it won’t sell well on the Wii. Having multiple rhythm games available will only strengthen competition (Konami included), making the genre better (and cheaper?) for everyone.
FaceBreaker
Since Punch-Out is out to lunch on the Wii for now, we’ll take EA’s Facebreaker. Number one Infendo community requested feature that didn’t make the cut? The ability to put my face on your opponent and unload.
Mushroom Men
More third party Wii love? No kidding. Imagine that. One previewer called the build at PAX a cross between fungus and The Force Unleashed (I paraphrase, naturally). In fact, the motion controls and IR pointing made the game feel like what Unleashed should have been. A character who uses the Force and the fungus? Sounds like a fungi to me.
Dishonorable Mention (as per Blake’s recommendation): Wii Music
The last “best game” in the Wii lineup this fall is Wii Music. Major suckage? Perhaps, but then again it’s not aimed at readers of this blog or even a majority of the Internet’s outspoken denizens. The cheesy, cringe inducing E3 keynote was just beginning–just wait until the Japanese “demo” videos circulating the Net right now get Westernized and applied to television. You can bet Oprah and a bunch of onstage kids are going to be waving their arms frantically in tune with Yankee Doodle in the not so distant future. Thank the maker for the Mute button, but sales will be brisk nevertheless.
Editor’s Note: By all means, suggest away! This list is by no means meant to be a comprehensive list of Wii games. Which ones would you add, and why?
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I still don’t get Wii Music. It’s a f***ed up game.
Man, why all the hate for Wii Music? Some games are objectively bad – that’s true – but I don’t think Wii Music falls into that category. Just because it’s not exciting to the specific demographic you fill doesn’t mean it won’t be exciting to plenty of others. Try to look at games like Wii Music with an open mind, please, especially as a reporter. If you absolutely must write a subjective article about a game (before it comes out – reviews don’t count), please mention somewhere in the article that it’s an OPINION piece.
All these games are really coming out by Christmas? Are you serious? I thought a bunch were scheduled for next year. Wow…
Can’t believe you forgot Ghostbusters being released in October.
And Samba De Amgio, Raving Rabbids TV Party, Sonic Unleashed, Tales of Symphonia, and Animal Crossing: City Folk.
Oh, and just to let you know – Mad World isn’t going to be released until Spring 2009. That’s been confirmed, by the way.
I think only Mad World is scheduled for 2009.
But why are Disaster: Day of Crisis and Fatal Frame 4 MIA, NOA???
How could you leave out The Price is Right!?
No Disaster on here because of no confirmation of it coming out in the US this fall.
Why should anyone care about Mega Man 9? Even if you are bit slow, you should have noticed the number “9″ behind “Mega Man.” Do I need to say more? And oh, let me remind you that you can’t trade this game back, not even for a dollar, go play Super Metroid or something if you want to be “old school.”
From the list, I’m most interested in
Force Unleashed – interested in how the controls fare
de Blob – just looks like good fun
Mad World – I’m keen to see what mayhem will ensue
Wario Land – looks like a cartoon… could be a lot of fun
Deadly Creatures – looks very interesting, but probably too different to sell well, unfortunately
Megaman 9 – do I have to explain why?
Asfor the music games, I’m getting them for my new 360… just seems like much less hassle than the “will we or won’t we” discussions about Wii storage I’ve been having on here for months.
Or maybe that should be phrased “will Wii or won’t Wii”.
sorry about the double post
This is a pretty solid list. Can’t wait to get my grubby paws on a few of these babies.:)
Hahaa faecebreaker, is its inclusion a joke?
bet you Wii Music does better, critically and commercially.
Mushroom Men could interestingly enough be the “star wars” game that should have been. It seems that there’s “force-like” powers in the game and it could be an interesting game once it’s finally out.
@RoyalRook:
Are you really trying to get yourself banned from this site?
Back up your comments and reasoning – show us/tell us why we shouldn’t get Mega Man 9, when we’ve all seen the awesome previews.
There were a lot of good games back in the old days as well.
All the interviews they did with Capcom state that Mega Man 9 has more elements of the first two Mega Man games than any of the others – which makes it way better than 6, 7, and 8, and all those others.
If you don’t like Mega Man – just say so. Seriously.
Mega Man! It’s been a long time.
Good list, needs more Lego Batman though.
That’s definitely a day one purchase for me.
No other Wii exclusives for the fall? Looks like I’m just getting Madworld then.
No tales of symphonia2 or Animal crossing?
@neko to kuruma:
Mad World will be released in Spring 2009, not this Fall.
Sega announced this a while back, as well as confirming it at PAX.
Among the games not on that list, I’m looking forward to that Spray game and I’m corssing my fingers for Sonic Unleashed. It’s a foregone conclusion that the PS360 version will be awful, as it’s being made by Sonic Team, but the Wii version is being made by Dimps, and nearly everything Dimps touches is gold, Jerry! GOLD!
ANYWAY,
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
-Too bad the game is apparently awful.
…although in a surprising turn of events, the Wii version is apparently the LEAST awful.
Deadly Creatures
-Could be good, but admittedly the thought of playing as an insect doesn’t appeal to me. BUT if it gets great reviews, I’ll do and Try Before Buy!
De Blob
-Same as above. It isn’t really appealing to me at the moment, but I at least want to try it.
Skate It
-Might be good…at least there’s Balance Board support and I love the explanation as to why the city is now abandoned Freakin’ brilliant.
Guitar Hero World Tour
-Will be great as the others, by all accounts. Shame I don’t like rhythm games.
Call of Duty: World at War
-We already know it’s gimped compared to the HD versions in the form of co-op. One wonders what ELSE this version doesn’t have.
Wario Land: Shake It
-Will be buckets and buckets of awesome.
Mega Man 9
-Same as above.
MadWorld
-Not coming out in the fall.
However, if this really IS the spiritual successor to God Hand, the GREATEST GAME EVER, it WILL be Earth-crackingly awesome.
Rock Band 2
-Yay! Another gimped, shit version of a PS360 game!
FaceBreaker
-Will suck because for some fucking bone-headed reason, the Wii is NOT the lead platform for this game. Thus, the B-Team is making it and we know how that ALWAYS turns out.
Mushroom Men
-Will hopefully be awesome. One of the few Wii games I’m actually looking forward to this fall!
Wii Music
-I have a feeling that despite all the bitching and moaning, Wii Music will in the end be considered a really fun game to play.
@Joltman: Bring on the winter.
@Joltman
First of all, you can’t really got banned from this particular site you see.
Second of all, I am just being brutally honest about how I felt about Mega Man over the years.
Third of all, if Capcom truly wishes to take mega man seriously, they wouldn’t make need gimmicks like “going-retro,” when they decided to make ANOTHER mega man.
Finally, if you truly like mega man, and wanted to play the old NES style graphic, I got couple GameBoy color mega man cartridge that will rock your socks off.
You want to be a sheep and encourage Capcom to keep on water down Mega Man franchise, then please do download as many time as you wish of this “awesome-new-evolutionary” Mega Man game….#9.
If not, I recommend you play the games that is fit for the current level of game design.
So Joltman: “there are always idiots who likes to bang his head on the walls, why don’t you try to use yours to open the doors?”
@RoyalRook:
Ok, so we don’t know each other.
Let me shed a little light on you:
I own all those classic Mega Man games.
I have lived through the 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32/64-bit wars.
I know which games on Nintendo consoles will succeed, and which will fail.
I know several people at Nintendo.
I live two blocks away from Nintendo as well.
I support creative games – and Capcom’s “going retro” is awfully creative in this era of 480p and 720p graphics.
It is a risk Capcom is willing to take, and I can tell from all the previews I have seen (and I have seen some no one else has), that this game will be amazing.
If you read the interviews with the designers of Mega Man 9, you will find some very interesting facts about their choices on how to design and program Mega Man 9. Its levels and gameplay are completely based off of the design of Mega Man 1 and 2 – with the exception of “item shopping” between levels. There are also features to literally turn it into actual 8-bit processing – glitches will occur when more than 3 enemies happen to be on screen; you can have screen slow-downs as well. It’s completely optional, of course – but it’s definitely a creative take.
I know many people share your same frustration about where the Mega Man franchise went after Mega Man 4 – I share the same feelings; I only play the classic Mega Mans (and Mega Man X for the SNES) – I realized it was going downhill when I saw all the newfangled gimmicks in the later games.
I am a software designer who works at a multimillion dollar company in the hometown of Nintendo of America.
I know how to design computer games.
I know what makes a good game and what doesn’t.
I have more experience in the gaming industry than you do, so I suggest you do some more research before venting that much about a new game that decided to be creative instead of run-of-the-mill.
I’ll be getting de Blob,Wario Land and Guitar Hero.You forgot to add Animal Crossing!I really hope Sonic Unleashed is good.I miss Sonic,I haven’t gotten a single Sonic game since Sonic Heroes.
There are a number of games I want on Wii this fall.
Mega Man 9
Wario Land Shake It! (Why didn’t they just call it Wario Land 4)
MadWorld (looks to be at least worth a rent)
Deadly Creatures
Sonic Unleashed (I’ve always been a fan of Sonic even during the crappy games)
Fatal Frame IV (That game will be awesome, I only ever played Fatal Frame II Director’s Cut and that game scared the hell out of me, never got the chance to finish it.)
Disaster Day of Crisis (Finally got to see gameplay footage of it, Nintendo must release this stateside!)
The Conduit (At first I thought it wasn’t going to be that great but now I know it will kick ass based on the following three things: 16 player online matches, WiiSpeak support, WiiMotion+ support)
Yeah I know there’s Guitar Hero/Rock Band, but those games are kinda boring now in my opinion.
problaby the worst looking game for the wii, but one of the games that takes advantage of the control scheme: Star Wars unleashed… man that game could have been much better, just look at the conduit, why didnt lucasarts do something like that, i mean, its funnier to swing the wiimote than pressing a button…
[...] good man Jack has listed the big ones, so let’s hear it: What Nintendo games are you most excited to play this holiday? Do [...]
Why do you guys always leave out Animal Crossing? It was the only game that I was excited about back at E3.
Tales of Symphonia and Deadly Creatures for me. Some people have mentioned Fatal Frame 4. I haven’t played a Fatal Frame game before, but it looks intriguing and the fact that Suda 51 is involved makes it even more attractive.