Thanks to Wii Sports being a pack-in game with every initial Wii, sports games became very popular on the console and showed us new ways to play our favorite athletic events with motion controls. There were many Wii Sports imitators: some good, some bad. A couple of years later, Nintendo repeated the same success with Wii Fit, so fitness games became all the rage, too. Again, some were good, some not as much. So in this part of my blog series, we’re going to take a look at the best sports and fitness games on the Wii!

We Ski and We Ski & Snowboard

These are two games and they are my favorite non-Nintendo Wii sports games. They were made by Namco, and the titles have plenty of classic Namco goodness. The skiing and snowboarding motion controls work surprisingly well, and there are all sorts of secrets to unlock. Plus the games do a great job of making you feel like you’re actually at a real ski resort. Since I will probably never go skiing in real life, it’s great to see what it would be like through these games.

Go Vacation

This is actually a sequel to the We Ski and Snowboard games, even though you couldn’t tell by the title. In this one, you’re at an island resort and can try sports from four different areas: beach, city, snow, and wilderness. There are so many games that brother Jeff calls it “Namco’s Every Game Ever!” And of course, lots of classic Namco goodness and references, too.

Mario Kart Wii

Yeah we’ll consider racing a sport, too. Mario Kart Wii is actually one of my favorites in the Mario Kart series. I think the only ones I like better are SNES Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart: Super Circuit on GBA, and Mario Kart 64. I really enjoyed the addition of bikes, tricks, and the new tracks were fun to race on. Sure the online modes sucked, and I hated the Wii Wheel, but other than that it’s a fun racer.

Mario Sports Mix

A lot of reviewers bashed this game for being too simple, but that’s what I liked about it. Mario sports games are great because they are easy to figure out how to play and are very arcade-y. In Mario Sports Mix you got four different sports games: Volleyball, Basketball, Dodgeball, and Ice Hockey, and all are fun. The neat thing about this game is that since it was made by Square Enix, some Final Fantasy characters and stages show up, too! And at the end of story mode, you battle a giant purple Behemoth! Of course, that’s not the first time that Mario and Final Fantasy have crossed over, but it still cracked me up!

Mario Strikers Charged

Even though it felt like an extension of the GameCube Strikers game, this was still a fun game of soccer. And the more ‘angry and extreme’ Mario characters cracked me up, too!

Mario Super Sluggers

Baseball is one of those games that is more fun to play than to watch. The neat thing about the Mario baseball games is that they were made by Namco, and for good reason. In Japan, Namco’s Family Stadium baseball games are very popular (the first one was brought over to the US NES under the name R.B.I. Baseball). While the Mario baseball games aren’t as good as ‘Famista,” they are still pretty fun.

Wii Sports & Wii Sports Resort

And of course, the games that started it all. Resort came later, with one to one motion controls. People still play these even today. I know people who only just play Wii bowling! Wii Sports is significant to me because at first I didn’t think I would like it, but it ended up being my favorite sports game, beating out Super Dodge Ball on the NES. That’s a pretty big deal!

Wii Fit & EA Active

Later on, Nintendo made another big splash with Wii Fit and the balance board, and everyone had to have their own fitness game. I didn’t get Wii Fit right away; I waited until I found a really good deal on it at a Black Friday sale. And then I really only got it so I could review games with the balance board. While I think that a gym membership is a better use of money if you want to be in shape, I guess that Wii Fit would make a good supplement to a fitness regime, or if you just want to have fun and keep moving. Most of the other fitness game imitators were not that good, but I’ll give special mention to EA’s Active series because they did the best job of having real life exercises in these games, thanks to all the accessories and updates. There was even an Active game that used the NFL license!

Zumba Fitness 1 & 2

For the most part, the Zumba Fitness games on Wii were not that great, but I appreciated them because they didn’t penalize you for not doing the dances right. As long as you were moving around, it was OK. And I think that’s the big ‘secret’ to Zumba is that you are always moving. There is actually a new Zumba Wii game coming out this October, too. Maybe I’ll review it. The Zumba games are also special to me because at E3 last year, I got to meet and hang out with some Zumba celebrity trainers. They were very cool.

And that’s all my favorite Wii sports and fitness games! What are your favorites? Next time on Part 5, we’ll look at my favorite ‘weird and wacky’ Wii games!

Tags: Misc