There is a lot to be said about the original Nintendo Wii. Being one of the most unexpected and unconventional success stories in gaming history, there is naturally quite a bit of controversy surrounding it. Countless articles could be written about its market performance and the implications it has for Nintendo’s future and the direction of the industry. In the end, all that will really matter about its legacy is the games.
This is a category that has often been neglected, simply because people tend to associate the Wii with the various Wii (insert activity) games and possibly a few of Nintendo’s highest-rated games. Despite this, there are a plethora of quality games available on the system in several different genres. In this series, I will be going over the highlights of the Wii one genre at a time. It is my hope that this will give readers more respect for the Wii as a gaming console and introduce them to games they may have overlooked.
First up is the platformer genre. In my opinion, this is easily the Wii’s strongest category. After two generations that saw platformers struggling to accommodate to the third dimension and declining in popularity and presence as a result, things finally got back on track in the seventh generation. The leader of this revival and the system to reap the most games from it was definitely the Wii and the system is essential to any fan of platformers.
Mario:
Yes, Mario gets his own category, and he has definitely earned it. The first year of Wii’s life was not great for platformers. Super Paper Mario attempted to combine Mario’s platformer and RPG line, but did not do either one justice. Sonic and the Secret Rings wasn’t the worst Sonic game — it being released just a few months after the infamous Sonic 2006 certainly demonstrated that — but it had some odd design choices that often minimized the platforming. Wii spent its first year among the bleakest platformers since Super Mario Bros. popularized them. But then, a miracle happened.
Super Mario Galaxy defined 3D platformers for its generation.
Super Mario Galaxy was released in November 2007 and it was as if the struggles that platformers had been facing since gaming’s transition to 3D had never happened. Super Mario Galaxy returned Mario platformers to their roots in, well, platforming. With worlds that had a linear structure, allowing the game to be creative and complex with its gravity-based platforming, SMG was everything Mario fans could ask for. The most critically acclaimed Wii game, Super Mario Galaxy not only restored everyone’s faith in Mario, but it planted the seeds that would blossom into a full-scale platformer revival a few years after its release.
While Super Mario Galaxy alone assured that Mario’s performance on the Wii would be remembered fondly, the series was far from finished. No Nintendo system had gotten more than one original Mario platformer since the Super NES days, so many did not expect the Wii to get another. Nintendo shattered this pattern at E3 2009, announcing not one but two new Mario platformers for the Wii.
Don’t let the four player fool you, this is a top tier Mario.
The 2D New Super Mario Bros. Wii needs the most attention, since it is severely underrated. Do not let the four-player feature or superficial similarities to the DS New Super Mario Bros. fool you. NSMBW is a top-tier 2D Mario. The level design has been greatly improved over the original NSMB and the game is actually quite challenging in single-player mode. In fact, the Super Guide feature it introduced set a precedent for Nintendo as a whole. This option’s introduction and presence for lesser-skilled gamers has allowed Nintendo to avoid making their games overly easy. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is just as essential to Wii owners as the Super Mario Galaxy games.
Captions can not express how much I love this game.
Speaking of those, the other game announced was Super Mario Galaxy 2. There isn’t much more that needs to be said about that game; it’s a masterpiece and my personal favorite game of all time. It’s like Super Mario Galaxy 1, only harder and even more focused on platforming. At three exceptional platformers, Mario definitely has earned his place as Nintendo’s representative on the Wii.
Other Nintendo Series:
Nintendo gave its all for platformers on Wii and there were plenty of efforts from them besides Mario. One that never got the attention it deserved was Wario Land Shake-It. Released in Fall 2008, the 2D sprite-based platformer received barely any attention. That is really a shame, because it is both one of the most beautiful games on Wii and could have been a perfect antidote to the “Nintendo abandoned gamers” hysteria that was spreading in the second half of 2008.
The game looks nearly as good as the promo art.
Developed by Good Feel, Wario Land Shake-It has the same distinctive gameplay style as their other Wii game, Kirby’s Epic Yarn. While it’s easy to just finish levels, all of the game is filled with secrets and creative uses of level obstacles and Wario’s signature injury-based abilities. With one of the best soundtracks on Wii, WLS is a true hidden gem that all platformer fans owe it to themselves to try.
Things were looking brighter for platformers when Nintendo brought some other long-running series back on the Wii. The longest absent was Donkey Kong Country, which got a better return than anyone could have hoped for when Retro took over the series. Some players were initially disappointed that the game was in 2D, but once they played it, no one could stay mad.
Another incredible revival by Retro.
Donkey Kong Country Returns is one of the best games of the last generation — no need to add “platformer” or “Wii” as qualifiers. Longer, more challenging, and even more brilliant in its level design than the SNES classics, DKCR was another triumph for Retro.
Kirby also made his triumphant return after not having a platformer for the GameCube. Kirby’s Epic Yarn was, as mentioned, developed by Good Feel and was a charming and unique platformer. While it played more like Yoshi’s Island — which Nintendo seems to have noticed, since Good Feel is now making a Yoshi platformer for Wii U — it was still a great 2D platformer and complement to the much harder Donkey Kong Country Returns.
If you can find yarn that is more epic, I’d like to see it.
Fans of traditional Kirby games were not left out, however; the long, long, long-awaited — it was first shown as a GameCube game in 2004 — Kirby’s Return to Dreamland was released in Fall 2011. This game was as traditional as Kirby could get, but it finally brought back the combo-loaded powers from Kirby Super Star and had some of the best level design in the series. As the last first-party platformer for the Wii, it ended the genre on a high note.
Third-Party Heavy Hitters:
While third parties had a tendency to pass over Wii for their big budget games, there were some exceptions and many of those were in the platformer genre. The most important of these is Sonic. As mentioned earlier, Sonic and the Secret Rings wasn’t exactly the savior the series needed and the similar Sonic and the Black Knight was received even more harshly. Wii was one of the systems that received Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, but that game also didn’t live up to the hype of reviving the series and it is hard to recommend the Wii version when it didn’t receive Episode 2, anyway.
He’s punching through the Sonic Cycle.
So why was Sonic’s presence on Wii important? One game: Sonic Colors. Sonic Colors did what so many games before it had attempted and failed: it broke the Sonic Cycle. After a decade of doom and gloom for the franchise, Sonic Colors put the focus back on platforming in a well-designed game that didn’t try to take the Sonic universe seriously. Although it was the last Sonic game on the original Wii, Sonic Colors set the series back on track and deserves the gratitude of every Sonic fan.
One of the most hyped third-party games for the Wii was Epic Mickey. A dark take on Mickey Mouse, designed by Deus Ex creator Warren Spector and made exclusively for the Wii, this game was something no one saw coming. While the game couldn’t live up to the hype that the original concept art caused, it was a solid platformer that played more like the non-linear platformers of previous generations. If you can handle the problems you’d associate with Nintendo 64-era platformers (finicky camera, unclear objectives), it’s worth looking into.
Can you blame people for overhyping a game with concept art like this?
Rayman platformers seemed to have been killed by the Wii and the success of the Rabbids games on it, but things would get better. Rabbids Go Home was released in late 2009, putting the titular characters in a collection-based platformer with several elements lifted from Katamari Damacy. Rayman returned to his roots in Rayman Origins, one of the best platformers of the seventh generation. Although not exclusive to Wii, the 2D masterpiece appeared on the system and sacrificed nothing but HD compared to the versions on more powerful systems.
It may have been on everything, but it’s still one of the best platformers of all time.
Obscure Third-Party Platformers:
In addition to the more well-known platformers third parties made for the Wii, there were some that never got much attention. The original de Blob was an innovative paint-based platformer where you had to control a living blob of paint and return color to conquered grey cities. The unnecessary motion controls and often tedious and confusing quest for all the items in a stage were annoying, but de Blob 2 fixed those problems. Although the sequel wasn’t exclusive to Wii, the Wii version had everything the other versions did and is the one to get if the concept interests you.
Remember this? Well, I do.
The Munchables is another Wii platformer with open levels and multiple things to collect, although this time you’re devouring them Pac-Man style. Not a masterpiece, but a solid, if kind of easy, game.
The Kore Gang took longer to reach North America than it should have, but it is a decent story-based platformer with visuals and humor that were reminiscent of Spumco, the animation company best known for Ren and Stimpy.
Deadly Creatures is one of the most unique platformers I’ve played. You are a realistic spider and scorpion in a harsh desert environment, constantly being changed by two humans who don’t know you exist. While pretty rough around the edges, the unique feel and wide array of moves have won the game some fans.
Conclusion:
As I said before, I think platformers were undoubtedly the Wii’s best genre. With third parties making a solid effort and Nintendo giving the genre far more attention than they did in the last few generations, I would say Wii was the best system for platformers since the golden age on the Super NES. Any fan of platformers who thinks the Wii didn’t have anything for traditional gamers owes it to themselves to give the system a second look. While it doesn’t quite match the sheer quantity of the third and fourth generation systems, the Wii is home to many of the greatest platformers of all time — and a good amount of solid, overlooked ones.
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