Wii, Nintendo and the third party gems top 10. Part II.
If you haven’t noticed, well, this is the second part of ButtonSmasher’s top third party Wii games feature. So, uhm, in case you’ve missed the first part and think you actually care to have a quick read, then, by all means, do click here.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Ok, it’s not the best rhythm game out there, but it definitely is the best one the Wii has to offer. Yes, despite the atrocious rendition of a certain classic punk song and the slightly unbalanced two-player mode. Just ignore the game’s minor flaws, battle the rather steep learning curve, grab your small toy guitar and click away to some truly classic tunes. On par with Wii Sports when it comes to party games.
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
It’s lovely, humorous, immediately accessible and the first game to (almost properly) let you swing a lightsaber with your very own Wii Remote. What’s more, being a compilation of the previous two LEGO Star Wars games that also features tons of extras, updated graphics and a few reworked levels, The Complete Saga offers amazing value for a very modest price. The kids will love it too you know.
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Not unlike Under the Knife for the DS, Second Opinion is a unique and innovative offering casting you as a doctor in an oddly stylish soap-opera like environment. The game looks great, the Wii controls are spot on, the difficulty is almost cruel and the operations feel realistic enough to create the necessary tension. Brilliant and gory!
Scarface: The World is Yours
Scarface definitely isn’t much more than another brutal GTA clone, but being one of the rare examples of said sub-genre on the Wii and also being a game about one of Al Pacino’s best movies, it just had to make this very list. Thankfully, it’s a very solid game too, what with its excellent controls, fun gameplay, smart physics, gratuitous violence and passable graphics. Typical video game entertainment.
Dewy’s Adventure
As far as under-appreciated games out there go, Dewy’s Adventure must be the champion of the last two or so years. How very unfair, I say. Besides its fantastic graphics and lovely retro tunes, you see, this is an excellent, tough and quite innovative platform game with a few smart puzzle elements and some very interesting game mechanics. Oh, and don’t be fooled from its cute exterior, for this is a bastard to beat.
Honorable mentions
- Eledees (a.k.a. Elebits)
- Sonic and the Secret Rings
- Rayman Raving Rabbits
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympics
- Metal Slug Anthology
Posted on February 24th, 2008 by konstantinos
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Good list.
It’s worth noting, too, that 5 of the top 10 Wii games on metacritic are third party games, and 13 of the top 20.
When Wii owners complain about the bad third party games, I have to ask what they’re doing buying games like Carnival Games, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Mario Party 8 instead of the games you’ve listed.
One more thing . . . the current list of known Wiiware games is dominated by third parties. And Nintendo said at GDC 08 that they will have 100 Wiiware titles when the channel launches in May.
February 24th, 2008 at 8:17 amA fantastic link the WiiWare one dear Guttertalk. And Eternity’s Child seems so utterly beautiful… Anyway. Third parties will definitely get stronger on the Wii. It’s inevitable methinks and closely tied to the things success.
Now, to try and answer your “why do they” question (partly), I could argue that a)many Wii gamers are quite a bit into party games b) Sonic & Mario is indeed fun. No, really.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:03 am