Nintendo Wii Launch Games

The Nintendo Wii will come out in the United States on November 19th, 2006, in Japan on December 2nd, 2006 and in Europe on December 8th, 2006. The Nintendo Wii features a unique method of controlling the action on screen which could revolutionize the way games are played on video game systems. It concentrates on this aspect instead of pure horsepower like the ps3 and Xbox 360 do

Wikipedia lists 26 games that will be available on launch day in Northern America, some are the usual multi-platform titles but many make good use of the new controlling scheme. Still, only a few rely on the scheme exclusively. A big advantage of Nintendo's Wii is the price - the basic system including the Wii Sports game costs only $249.99, this is less than half the price of a premium PlayStation 3 system which does not ship with a game.

Games for the Wii seem to have a lower price as well, most stay close to $50 while PS3 titles are closer to $60. The Wii still features all games that made Nintendo popular in first place, like Mario, Zelda and Metroid. It also offers the unique opportunity for a different kind of games that have not been possible with normal controllers.

Let us start with the games, I included at least one link to reviews or previews to give you the ability to read more about a specific title that could be of interest to you.

• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Barnyard
• Call of Duty 3 (ign review: 7.7)
• Cars
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
• Excite Truck
• GT Pro Series
• Happy Feet
• Madden NFL 07
• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
• Metal Slug Anthology
• Monster 4x4 World Circuit
• Need for Speed: Carbon
• Open Season
• Rapala Tournament Fishing
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• Red Steel
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (ign review: 8.4)
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (lawrence: 9.9)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
• Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
• Trauma Center: Second Opinion (ign review: 8.0)
• Wii Sports (ign review: 7.5, lawrence: 8.9)
• World Series of Poker

Players have different game genres that they like to play. Some prefer sports or racing games, other roleplaying or action games. It all comes down to making games available to all tastes and it appears that the Wii is delivering something for everyone.

Let us take a look at the most interesting games of some of the most popular categories:

Wii Party Games: Wii Sports included, Rayman Raving Rabbids, probably Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Watch out for Wii Play which is a launch title in Europe.
Wii Games you can't do anything wrong with: Zelda
Unique to the Wii and worth a look: Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Red Steel

Everything else is up to you. If you have not played all those typical games that come out for all systems (Splinter Cell, all EA games, Call of Duty 3 aso you might want to check them out as well.)

I will buy a Wii and use it for games that you can play with friends plus games that use the unique controller for the Wii in a great way. I will not buy conversions, I will not buy all those games that you can buy for all systems that comes out. Wii is unique and that is what I want as well, unique games.

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