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Games Geek / Technical

Game Suggestions for the New Wii Owner, Part 3

If you’re like me, you recently obtained a Wii and have almost no idea what games released over the past three years are worth playing. I asked for advice from friends, family, coworkers, and Twitter followers, and I received quite a few suggestions. Part 1 and Part 2 revealed 10 games I was told I needed to play, and today I present the next five games, in no particular order.

Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii (rated E) is the latest game in the Mario Kart series. It features various racing modes for one or multiple players as well as Battle Mode, which is my personal favorite from any of the games. It even lets you play online with the Nintendo WiFi connection. There is a Mario Kart Channel you can get for the main Wii Menu which allows you to play against friends online and send them your best time trial sessions as well.

I played Mario Kart Wii this past summer at a party, and we all had a blast. You can drive regular karts or the new motorbikes, race on plenty of new tracks as well as some classic ones from previous games, and choose between Nintendo characters or any Miis you created.

Yoga Wii

Yoga for the Wii (rated E) isn’t so much a game as lifestyle software, similar to titles for the Nintendo DS. It keeps track of your balance and movement using the Wii Balance Board and Wii remote. Yoga features three modes. One is Story Mode, which sounds the most game-like. Training Mode teaches you new poses. Routine Mode allows you to go through a series of poses which are either provided by you or the in-game guru.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve participated in yoga twice in my life, and both times were in the last year. Yoga forced me to bend, twist, and stand in ways my body couldn’t remember doing before. When you’re breathing hard, shaking, and sweating from trying to hold your body in a position that doesn’t seem like it would require much effort, you realize that yoga is pretty hardcore. Also, have you seen the people that do yoga regularly? They’re hawt.

Having the ability to do it in the privacy of your own home, at your own pace, with practically one-on-one instruction from a game that keeps track of your progress sounds fantastic.

Boom Blox

Boom Blox (rated E) was designed by the famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Yeah, I didn’t understand that either, but this game is a lot of fun. There are various play modes, including multiplayer party modes, and a built-in editor so you can create your own levels. The game features blocks, some with special properties, that are stacked up, and you generally try to knock them over, although some of the levels require building instead of destroying.

My favorite game was a Party Mode called Warlords. Each player takes turns throwing cannon balls in an attempt to get rid of all of the shiny blocks in their opponents’ castles. Using the Wii remote, you can try light tosses or heavily whip the ball across the level, taking out as much of the walls and towers as you can. A number of times a rivalry between two players will come to an end only for the winner to realize that a third player remained untouched throughout the battles. You have to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. B-)

Wii Play

Wii Play (rated E), even with mixed reviews from the critics, is the best selling non-bundled game of all time. It features 9 games, all of which are playable by two players, and it comes with a Wii remote to let you take advantage of it. Among the games to play are “Shooting Range”, “Table Tennis”, “Laser Hockey”, and “Billiards”. There’s a fishing game, a cow racing game, and a couple of games involving finding or posing Miis.

My favorite is “Tanks!”, which requires you to move, aim, and shoot all of the enemies on a level to progress to the next. Your shells can bounce off of walls, which allows for trick shots, but be careful because your shells can hurt your ally, too. If you’ve ever played the classic game Combat for the Atari 2600, you can think of this game as a heavy upgrade.

Wii Sports Resort

Another game in this series? Wii Sports Resort (rated E) makes use of the Wii MotionPlus, which makes the Wii remote much more accurate. There is a Table Tennis game in this one, but due to the better control accuracy, you can add spin to a ball, making the game much more strategic and true-to-life. There are sports games such as basketball, golf, bowling, and frisbee, as well as field games such as archery, swordplay, and canoeing.

I haven’t had a chance to play it or make use of the MotionPlus technology, but the improved accuracy sounds like a great thing to have. It’s too bad more games don’t make use of it, but the game does come with the controller supplement, and you can see the list of supported games to find other games you might be interested in.

And that’s 15 so far…

We’re only halfway through the week, and there’s still more to come. Make sure to come back tomorrow to see the next 5 and the rest of this series. Feel free to use one of the icons below to suggest this series to others, and make sure to leave a comment below to let me know what you think about these choices.

See the rest of the series:

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