12 Best Wii Ports

Rock Band reached the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 20, 2007, and the Wii waited until June 22, 2008. Harmonix, who had made the first two Guitar Hero games, built it so up to four players could each take an instrument and play along with popular rock songs. Pi Studios built the Wii version on the PlayStation 2 one, so bands could only play locally, though it did come with 5 additional songs.

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions went on to get more than 2,000 downloadable songs, but the Wii had none, and Harmonix filled the gap with Track Packs, standalone discs sold in shops. Rock Band 2 made the same trip, and it shares this entry. Players who want a music game on the Wii still point to the Rock Band series, the later games included.

Phantom Brave started on the PlayStation 2 in 2004, and the North American original was the first game NIS America ever published. The Wii got an expanded version in 2009 called Phantom Brave: We Meet Again, with a new side story, Another Marona. Marona is a 13 year old orphan who can talk to phantoms, and people who hire her for work take back her reward once they find out she is a phantom-possessed Chroma. In battle she confines phantoms to objects on the map, and the object shapes the phantom: one bound to a rock gets stronger but moves slower.

NIS America's release came with a DVD of official artwork and sprites. One site scored the original 7.8 and the Wii version 7.9, so the extras barely moved the needle. Players still put it on their lists of Wii games to play.

Target: Terror is a 2004 Raw Thrills light-gun cabinet designed by Eugene Jarvis, and Leviathan Games brought it to the Wii for Konami in 2008, with support for the Wii Zapper. The characters are played by real live action people, and you earn combat medals after each completed mission. Critics hated it. It averaged 33 out of 100, and in 2009 one site gave it a Worst Visuals award, calling it "so bad it made Aerosmith's Revolution X look good".

The ending changed on the way home. In the arcade, terrorists interrupt the president's speech and shoot you, while on the Wii the speech just cuts to static. Either way the ending is followed by a To Be Continued screen, and no sequel was ever made. Light-gun fans have warmed to it since, and plenty of them still call it fun.

Cave Story was a free PC game in 2004, and Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya made it in his free time over five years. It slowly gained popularity on the Internet after he released it himself, and it went on to influence indie games. Nicalis worked with him to bring it to WiiWare and DSiWare in 2010. The WiiWare version, released on March 22, 2010, redrew the characters and remixed the music.

The main complaint was the price, 1200 Wii Points for a game that had been free for years. It was still nominated for WiiWare Game of the Year at the 2010 Nintendo Power Awards, and players keep pointing Wii owners to it as a download worth having.

Camelot's Mario Power Tennis is the third Mario Tennis game, and its gimmick courts have components that directly affect gameplay. It came out on the GameCube in 2004 and returned in 2009 as part of New Play Control!, Nintendo's line of GameCube games ported to the Wii. You swing the remote like a racket, borrowing the motions of Wii Sports.

The GameCube version averaged 80 out of 100 on Metacritic. Critics liked the Wii version less, mostly because the swings didn't always register. One review went further: Wii Sports does the job better, which is a cold thing to say about a game with Bowser in it. Players who recommend it still ask for the New Play Control version by name.

Bully came out on the PlayStation 2 in 2006 and sold over 1.5 million copies. Rockstar announced the Scholarship Edition remaster on 19 July 2007, and it reached the Wii on 4 March 2008, ported by Rockstar Toronto while Mad Doc Software led the Xbox 360 version. It added new missions and classes, plus a two-player mode built from the class mini-games.

Reviewers couldn't agree on which new version won. One scored the Xbox 360 game higher, and another gave the Wii version an A− against a B− for the Xbox 360. Players often list it next to MadWorld.

Scarface: The World Is Yours is based on the 1983 film written by Oliver Stone, and it came out in 2006. The Wii version followed in 2007 with enhanced graphics and remote controls. It starts in the film's final scene, but this time Tony Montana senses the Skull and shoots him first, then escapes his mansion and swears revenge on Sosa.

Pacino's likeness is in the game, but Pacino doesn't voice Tony. Vivendi promised the Wii version would be entirely uncut, which made it the most violent game on the console at the time. Players tend to name it alongside The Godfather, the Wii's other mob game.

The Godfather came out in March 2006, and the Wii's Blackhand Edition followed on March 20, 2007, nearly a year later. Francis Ford Coppola condemned the game, but it does feature voice acting from several stars of the film, including James Caan as Sonny Corleone. The Wii version brought over the Xbox 360 version's extras, including ten new hit missions and a rival family seen only in them.

The fighting is the reason to pick this one. On other machines the Blackhand system played like a boxing game, but on the Wii the team "decided to make it like REAL brawling", so you throw jabs and hooks by moving your hands and grab enemies with both. Players still praise the motion controls.

Ghost Squad was a Sega light-gun cabinet from 2004, and Polygon Magic's Wii port came out in 2007, in Japan on October 25 and in the U.S. on November 20. Each of its three missions branches into different routes, and you get 25 different weapons. The arcade's IC Card, which saved your rank and unlocks, became a profile saved on the console, without the card's 100-game limit.

The Wii version also added four-player support and an online leaderboard. Players put it with the console's light-gun games and remember it as a fun port of the arcade game.

Shigeru Miyamoto created and produced Pikmin, which came out on the GameCube in 2001. Olimar can stay on the planet for only thirty days, and every day lasts about thirteen minutes, so you are always racing the clock. It was one of the first New Play Control! games when it reached the Wii in Japan on December 25, 2008. Instead of steering a cursor with a stick, you point the remote at the screen to whistle and throw your Pikmin.

Critics liked the new version a little less than the old one, and it averaged 77 out of 100 against 89 for the GameCube. Players don't seem to mind. They tend to recommend it together with Pikmin 2, which got the same treatment in 2009.

Ōkami came out on the PlayStation 2 in 2006 with a cel-shaded, ink-painting look, and it received universal acclaim. Clover Studio closed a few months later. Capcom said at first there were "no plans for Ōkami on Wii", then changed its mind after fans kept asking, and Ready at Dawn's port arrived in April 2008.

It was harder than it sounds. Ready at Dawn's creative director later said they "started with no assets and literally reverse-engineered the whole thing back onto the Wii". The payoff is painting with the Celestial Brush by pointing the remote, though the Wii motion controls got mixed reviews. Players keep comparing it to Zelda, and they mean it as a compliment.

Resident Evil 4 came out on the GameCube in January 2005, and the Wii Edition followed on June 19, 2007 in the United States, with the bonus content from the PlayStation 2 version on the disc. It won multiple Game of the Year awards. You aim by pointing the remote anywhere on the screen, with a reticle in place of the laser sight, and motion gestures handle dodges and knife slashes.

Critics liked the change. One called it the superior edition, and years later another said the true "Ultimate Edition" of Resident Evil 4 is the Wii version. Players put it in their own words: the aiming is the reason to play it here. Who knew Leon just needed something to point with?