Twelve reasons for the core to be excited about Wii in 2008

By Stephen Munn | August 12, 2008

Nintendo took a lot of flak about their casual-centric E3 presentation this year, and it’s pretty understandable. Those of us who focus on the software and hardware surrounding Nintendo’s platforms tend to be core gamers ourselves, and the lack of the three things that were most important to me, Retro Studios, a storage solution, and something truly new and surprising, hit me as hard as anyone.

Anyway, since Nintendo’s obviously not going to do this for us, we need to find our own excitement on Wii this year, and here’s how we’re going to do it: with a list of twelve games core gamers who own Wiis can be excited about this year. That’s right, everything on this list is expected between now and the end of the year, and it’s all for the core. Let’s roll.

Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Fatal Frame for Wii is a cooperative effort by Nintendo, Tecmo, and Grasshopper, and by most accounts, the game is very beautiful to look at and pretty darn scary. Criticism it has sustained includes both a surprisingly slow pace and bizarre control choices in pre-release builds. However you look at it though, Fatal Frame is one of the most important core games coming for Wii gamers this year.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels

It’s the concept that set the message boards alight when Nintendo first showed their revolutionary new controller years ago, finally come to fruition… maybe. The game’s slated to arrive too soon to make proper use of Wii MotionPlus, that motion-sensing dongle that attaches to the Wii Remote to give you precision spatial controls. Could this mean we’ll need to wait for Wii Sports Resort for our direct swordfighting fix? Perish the thought.

Mega Man 9

Expected first on WiiWare, Mega Man 9 will be a leap backward from Mega Man 8, which arrived on Playstation a decade ago. A return to 8-bit NES style graphics, complete with slowdown and flickering, makes us gape in wonder when it really shouldn’t. All the same, it’s almost guaranteed an awesome game, simply because of what it is, and every bit of info that comes out about it makes it sound even better.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop

The 360’s launch window classic makes its way to Wii, naturally with some revisions for both the better and worse. Better will be a myriad of small issues people complained about with the original will be resolved. Worse will be lost game features like photography and, well, reduced visual fidelity of course. All the same, it’s Dead Rising, one of the best 360 exclusives out there, and now it won’t be exclusive anymore. Huzzah!

de Blob

This art project turned platformer from a small team of European developers has been on the burner for a long time. Rising anticipation online and in the press prompted THQ to delay the game significantly… it seems they sensed they had a potential hit on their hands and wanted to make sure that ball wasn’t dropped. I’m all for delays when they make things better. The game has you playing as a colorful blob who makes his way around a city painting the surfaces and completing tasks, all set to one of the coolest things in gaming: a dynamic soundtrack.

Wario Land: Shake It

At first glance, this game looked really stupid to me, but hearing more about it made me reconsider. This is supposed to be a fun old-school 2D platformer with meticulously detailed animation starring Mario’s evil yellow-clad counterpart, Wario. I’ve heard that the game has no widescreen support for some reason, which means it will look pretty dumb on those nice wide HDTVs so many people have, but as we all know, when Nintendo makes a 2D platformer, you have to at least try it, because the potential for greatness cannot be denied.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

If consumer response to Guitar Hero III for Wii is any indication, Activision’s next edition of Guitar Hero will sell through the roof, and with good reason. The winning Guitar Hero formula that some say has been bested by Rock Band will get an opportunity to reclaim the title of “best guitar rhythm game.” Wii owners will be front and center on this one, as Rock Band on Wii was a shell of its proper outing on the Xbox 360 and PS3. World Tour not only adds drums and vocals to the mix, bringing it to parity with Rock Band, but adds in a music editor feature that Rock Band, thus far, lacks. Isn’t it fun seeing them try to outdo each other? Let’s watch.

Sam & Max: Season One

The adventure game isn’t dead, it’s just Sam & Max. Telltale Games has cornered the market on modern adventure games, and this retail compilation of the first season of Sam & Max games is just what the doctor ordered on the only console with a built-in pointer. If our own reviews of the episodes in Season 1 is a solid indication of what we’ll see from the Wii version, we’re all in for a treat.

LEGO Batman: the Videogame

Hi, I’m a Marvel. I’m Batman.

Batman’s been a LEGO theme for a long time, and now there will finally be a video game based on him. If LEGO Star Wars has taught us anything, it’s that finding exactly the right combination of licenses can make a developer and publisher very successful with not a whole lot of effort required in the graphical department. I’m still waiting for LEGO Transformers at this point, that would make a mint.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars

Mushroom Men has surprised most of us with its level of polish and charm. It’s really coming together as a uniquely interesting platformer/adventure game and I can’t wait to give it a try. Developer Red Fly is also working on the upcoming Ghostbusters game for Wii, so we might see this game’s quality as an indicator of what we can expect from that anticipated game. Speaking of which…

Ghostbusters

The Ghostbusters game on Wii is different from the 360 and PS3 versions, and it’s being developed in a somewhat more stylized visual way that will, quite simply, look better on Wii. Who wants to operating a proton accelerator with an analog stick? Who wants to throw a trap using a button? Not me, I’ll tell you who. Well, that’s telling you who not, I suppose, but you get the idea.

Castlevania: Judgment

Whine about it all you like, but Castlevania has not let me down in many generations. I trust Koji Igarashi to not let this came come out until it’s good. Whether that means delays or cancellation, I trust his… well, judgment. I wanted Soul Calibur 4 on Wii, though that meant more to me before I owned a PS3. I don’t have a serious 3D fighter to play natively on Wii right now, and this is going to be my best shot at that for now. All I ask is we give it the benefit of the doubt that Castlevania as a franchise has earned.