16 Best Wii Sports Games

Skate It is the Wii entry in the Skate series, and it has an odd spot in that series' story. It is the only game in the series without the main protagonist, because he is in prison at the time, which Skate 2 later explains.

The Wii version makes up for it with a deep career mode. You earn sponsors and unlock gear on the way, and the career takes you to cities outside San Vanelona, a first for the series. Skateboarding with a remote sounds like a bad idea, and plenty of people bounced off it. It still made the list because enough players kept recommending it to Wii owners who wanted something other than bowling. Last place on a list like this is still a place.

Sega Bass Fishing was an early title on the Dreamcast, and it worked with the Sega Fishing Controller. An enhanced port reached the Wii on February 26, 2008. The Wii Remote, with the Nunchuk if you want it, takes the place of that fishing controller.

The last stage lets you catch only one fish, but it is among the largest in the game and the hardest to land. There is also a Nature Trip mode for fishing without the background music. The game sold well enough to become one of the Sega All Stars titles. Fishing suits the remote better than most sports do, and this is a calm game for the end of a long day.

Grand Slam Tennis has 23 players, a mix of the stars of its day and retired legends like Pete Sampras and Björn Borg. You can also build your own player in Create-A-Player mode. The game has 12 stadiums from all four Grand Slam venues, and it was the first game since Top Spin 2 with a licensed Wimbledon. Paul van Dyk wrote and produced every track in the game.

In Europe it was the first game to come bundled with the Wii MotionPlus, and that extra precision is the point of it. There is a King of the Court mode where only the king earns points, and ranked wins earn points for your country as well as for you. For a tennis game with real names on the Wii, this is the one to get.

The second Mario & Sonic game took the crossover to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It has 27 events, all played as motion minigames, from skiing and bobsleigh to ice hockey and figure skating. On top of the real events there are Dream Events with extra features, and some events can be played on the Balance Board. Festival mode spreads the whole thing over 17 days, like a real Games.

It added four new characters to the cast of the first game and sold 6.53 million copies in Europe and the United States. Reviews were positive too. If you only know the summer games, the snow events feel fresher than you would expect, and the Balance Board finally has something to do besides sit under the couch.

This is where Mario and Sonic first met. It is the first game in the Mario & Sonic series and the first licensed crossover with characters from both companies. It was also the first official video game of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, licensed by the International Olympic Committee. Sega asked Nintendo for permission to put Mario in the game. There are 24 events, and the Wii Remote and Nunchuk copy the motions of each sport.

One reviewer at the time wrote "We've waited over 15 years for Sonic and Mario to team up", and he could not believe it ended up as an Olympics game. Critics liked playing it with friends but found the Wii controls too complicated. It won Best Wii Game of 2007 at the Games Convention in Leipzig and sold over 10 million units, which started a whole series of Olympic games.

NBA Jam came back in 2010, and the Wii was meant to be its main home. The plan was a full retail release on the Wii, with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions given away through a coupon with NBA Elite 11. Elite was delayed and then cancelled, so those versions came out on their own. The look is its own thing, with 3D models wearing high-resolution photos of the real players' heads.

The Wii version has two modes. Classic plays like the NBA Jam you remember, and Remix Tour adds power-ups and boss battles. If you hate waggling, a Classic Controller works too. Two-on-two arcade basketball has not aged a day, and it is still the best way to make a friend yell at a television.

Mario Power Tennis started on the GameCube as the sequel to Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64. The Wii got it in 2009 in the New Play Control! line, with the swing moved onto the Wii Remote. Besides normal matches there are Gimmick courts that change how the game plays, and an Item Battle mode where Mario items mess up the other side. Power Shots can save a point or win it. It was also Wiggler's first time as a playable character.

The Wii version got a more mixed reaction than the original. Critics liked the graphics and the multiplayer but found the motion controls inaccurate. The game is in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. The swing takes a few matches to learn, and after that, four players and a Power Shot make for a very loud evening.

Mario Sports Mix puts four sports on one disc: volleyball, hockey, dodgeball and basketball. It was the first Mario sports game with dodgeball. Every sport also has a party game built from its rules, like Bob-omb Dodge and Feed Petey, and up to four people can play in Exhibition mode. The unlockable characters all come from Square Enix games, which is a strange thing to find in a Mario game.

It sold 1.98 million copies, which makes it one of the best-selling Wii games. Critics found it shallow. Players disagree loudly, and some call it the best Mario sports game of them all. Basketball is the star, and a dunk with a power-up still feels like cheating in the best way.

Fishing Resort comes from Prope, the studio headed by former Sega designer Yuji Naka. Namco Bandai asked him for a fishing game after We Ski came out on the Wii. In Japan it is called Family Fishing. The island has 8 areas to fish in, with shops for your gear, and you can also take a cruiser out onto the ocean around it.

XSEED Games published it in North America on November 22, 2011, at a budget price. Critics shrugged at it. Players remember it better than the reviews do, because it is a gentle game that never asks much of you. It is the kind of thing you put on after everyone else has gone to bed, and an hour goes by without you noticing.

Mario Super Sluggers is the sequel to Mario Superstar Baseball on the GameCube. It came out in Japan on June 19, 2008 and in North America on August 25. Every team captain has a star swing and a star pitch of their own. The single-player Challenge mode is a small adventure: you start as Mario, recruit teammates by clearing objectives, and then take on Bowser Jr. and Bowser.

Nintendo of America owned most of the Seattle Mariners at the time, so the game got a promotion at Safeco Field. The first 20,000 fans at a Mariners game in September 2008 took home Mario foam mitts. Reviews were mixed, and the lack of online play was a major complaint. For four people on one couch with one bag of chips, online was never the point.

The third game in the series moved to the venues of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. It has 20 characters from both series, split into four types: all-around, speed, power and skill. Nintendo published it in Japan and South Korea, and Sega published it everywhere else. It is also the only Wii game that came in a yellow case.

Reviews were mixed, and many critics found the events underwhelming. One complaint was that it did not support the Wii MotionPlus. It sold well anyway and led to a fourth game, set at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on the Wii U. With friends on the couch the events are a lot more fun than the reviews made them sound, and the trash talk between Mario fans and Sonic fans takes care of the rest.

Mario Strikers Charged is the sequel to Super Mario Strikers on the GameCube, and it is soccer with most of the rules taken out. You can tackle with almost no penalty, and items and stage hazards do the rest. Team captains have a Super Ability, and Mario and Luigi use theirs to grow huge. Captains can also try a Mega Strike, worth three to six goals at once, while sidekicks have Skillshots that can stun the goalkeeper or go right past him.

Critics liked the multiplayer and the online play more than the single-player side. Online had one great rule. Losing a match still gave you a point, but quitting before the end cost you ten. Nintendo knew exactly who it was dealing with.

Go Vacation is set on Kawawii Island, which has four resorts: Marine, City, Mountain and Snow. There are over 50 activities, from bungee jumping and scuba diving to mini golf and building snowmen. Between them you can rollerblade or ride an ATV around the island. It was announced at E3 2011 as part of the We Ski series, and the team ran surveys to decide which sports and activities made it in.

Critics were mixed, though they liked the multiplayer. Players are kinder, and they keep recommending it as a minigame collection worth finding. One player put it best: "It's Wii Sports Resort meets Grand Theft Auto, but without any sex, drugs, alcohol or crime." It came to the Switch in 2018 as well.

Punch-Out!! brings back Little Mac, the underdog from the 1980s, along with the best of the original fighters. Glass Joe and King Hippo are both here. They are drawn in cel-shaded 2-D, with silly fighting animations and backstories that keep the spirit of the old games. You hook and jab, then land a Star Punch when the moment is right, and Doc trains you between fights. Beaten opponents can come back for a rematch, and winning them all gets you the Championship Belt.

It is the highest-ranked game on this list that is not a Wii Sports game. The gap between it and the top two is huge, which says more about how much people love those two than about this one. Each fighter is a puzzle to solve, and finally beating one you lost to ten times feels amazing.

Wii Sports Resort was the first game that needed the Wii MotionPlus, and it came with one in the box. The add-on reads your movements far better than the plain remote, which only picked up straight-arm swings. The game is set on Wuhu Island and has twelve sports. Bowling and golf return from the first game, and table tennis came over from Wii Play. In Air Sports you can fly around the island and see more of it. Fishing and a water slide were planned and then cut.

It sold 33.14 million copies, the third best-seller on the Wii after Wii Sports and Mario Kart Wii. Players love it, and plenty of them call it one of their favourite Wii games. It comes in just behind the original here.

Wii Sports came out in North America with the Wii on November 19, 2006, and it was in the box everywhere except Japan and Korea. That made it the first sports game packed in with a new Nintendo system since Mario's Tennis on the Virtual Boy in 1995. It has five sports: tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. The rules are simplified, and you play by moving the remote like a racket or a bowling ball. Your Miis cheer from the crowd in bowling and play on your baseball team. Reach 1000 skill points in a sport and you go pro.

It won the Game Critics Award for Best Sports Game. The Wii U got an HD remake, Wii Sports Club, in 2014, and Nintendo Switch Sports followed in 2022. Players still single out the golf, in this one and in Resort. Wii Sports is the game players recommend more than any other Wii sports game.