11 Best Looking Wii Games

The Last Story was directed and co-written by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of Final Fantasy. He had the idea after seeing the mixed responses to Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu was on the team. You play Zael, a mercenary on the island fortress of Lazulis who dreams of becoming a knight. In missions you command the rest of the squad, and fights mix action with tactics and stealth. It came out in Japan in January 2011 and took until August 2012 to reach North America.

Critics were split on its graphics. Players are not. They say it has one of the best looking engines on the Wii. The city of Lazulis is the part to stop and stare at, and you will spend a lot of time there.

Red Steel 2 is a standalone sequel to Red Steel. It has a vastly different art style from the first game. You play in first person and switch between shooting and sword fighting. It was the first game besides Wii Sports Resort to use the Wii MotionPlus accessory, and it will not run without one. The setting is a Wild West where warrior clans use samurai and cowboy weapons side by side. Development began in the summer of 2008, and it came out worldwide in March 2010.

Players love the cel-shaded look and call the graphics amazing. Its style is close to XIII, a Ubisoft Paris shooter from 2003. Thick outlines and flat colours hide the Wii's limits better than any detailed texture could.

Epic Mickey sends Mickey Mouse into Wasteland, a world made up of Disney's forgotten creations. You carry paint and paint thinner, and you use them to change the world as you go. Warren Spector directed it with Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was also the first time Mickey and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit appeared together. Between areas you run through 2D levels based on old cartoon shorts such as Steamboat Willie. Critics praised its visual style and criticized its camera.

Players say the graphics are gorgeous, even for a Wii game. Wasteland is a broken copy of Disney's theme parks. The Haunted Mansion turns up as a place called Lonesome Manor. Disney fans will spot an old friend on almost every screen, usually looking a bit worse for wear.

Sonic Colors was made by Sonic Team and came out worldwide for the Wii in November 2010. The team looked at what went wrong in older games and made Sonic the only playable character. Wisps are new power-ups that change up the gameplay without slowing it down. A different DS version came out at the same time, made by Dimps. Critics praised its graphics, and many called it a return to form for the series.

Players call it a looker, and some are still surprised the Wii runs it so well. It moves fast and never looks cheap doing it. If you want it on something newer, a remaster called Sonic Colors: Ultimate came out in 2021.

Xenoblade Chronicles follows Shulk and his friends as they search for answers about the mysterious Monado sword. The idea started in June 2006, when Tetsuya Takahashi pictured two giant titans frozen in place with people living on their bodies, and built a model of them. That is the world you explore, and the game puts exploring first because the world is so large. It came out in Japan in 2010. North America had to wait until 2012, after a fan campaign called Operation Rainfall drew attention to it.

Players say it pushes the Wii as far as it goes. Stand on a cliff, look out across the land, then remember what it is running on. The faces are another story, but the scenery more than makes up for them.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 started out as an updated version of the first game, called Super Mario Galaxy More. The team kept adding new ideas until it became a full sequel. Development took two and a half years. Yoshi joins in this time, and there are new power-ups like the Cloud Flower. Some levels change to the beat of the background music. It sold over seven million copies.

Players rate its looks right alongside the first game, and most name the two together. If anything, the sequel throws even more kinds of planet at you. Pick either one and you get Nintendo at its most colourful.

Ōkami tells how the sun goddess Amaterasu took the form of a white wolf and saved the land from darkness. It came out on the PlayStation 2 in 2006. The Wii port followed in 2008. The whole game looks like an animated Japanese ink illustration, a painting that moves. You fix the world with the Celestial Brush, a gesture system used to perform miracles. The Wii version earned similar praise to the original, though the motion controls got mixed reviews.

Players call it a beautiful game with an amazing art style. It sold poorly when it came out. Today it is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Very few games before or since have looked anything like it.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is the first Donkey Kong Country game made without Rare. The idea came from Retro Studios after it finished Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. A group of evil Tikis has turned the island's animals against Donkey Kong and raided his banana hoard. It sold over 6.53 million copies. Critics praised its graphics and level design. The motion controls and the high difficulty got more mixed responses.

Players call it gorgeous, and they name it when asked which games push the Wii hardest. It is also very hard, so you will get to know the scenery well.

In Kirby's Epic Yarn, Kirby gets sent to Patch Land, a world made completely of fabric. His body turns into yarn, so he loses his power to inhale. Everything is drawn in a knitted design, a world of cloth and textiles. It started as a game starring Prince Fluff as the main character, before Kirby took over. At E3 2010 it won several awards, including Game of the Show from GameSpot.

Players call it a beautiful game, and some would play it for the adorable look alone. It is a gentle game, so nothing gets in the way of staring at the stitching. Bring a second player and it gets even sweeter.

Super Mario Galaxy sends Mario jumping across planets and galaxies after Bowser hijacks Princess Peach's castle with her inside. It came out on the Wii in Japan on 1 November 2007. The soundtrack used a symphony orchestra for the first time in the series. Critics lauded its graphics along with the gravity and the level design. It was the highest-rated game of all time on GameRankings when that site closed in 2019. It was also the first Nintendo game to win the BAFTA Award for Best Game.

Players call it beautiful, and they hold it up whenever someone says the Wii looked dated. Put it on today and it is hard to argue with them. The planets still pop against the black of space.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a 2D side-scrolling action RPG set in Edo-period Japan. It comes from the creators of Odin Sphere, and all of its art is hand-drawn. Director George Kamitani based the story on kabuki theatre and Japanese folklore. You play as a male ninja or a female kunoichi. The Western release kept the Japanese voice track to preserve the atmosphere. Critics praised the art and music, and called the fighting fun but shallow.

Players put it first by a wide margin. They call it one of the most beautiful games on the Wii, and they keep coming back to the hand-painted art. Every forest and castle looks like it was lifted off a folding screen.