A guide to maximizing your Nintendo Wii experience

The Nintendo Wii revolutionizes console gaming (hence the original name “Nintendo Revolution”) by opening up value added options. Here is a short guide to maximizing the Wii gaming experience. The stuff that follows is really public knowledge but with the stigma that Nintendo was not the popular console of choice in the Philippines for the past 10 years, I felt that it may be necessary to talk more about it. There is no official office for Nintendo in the Philippines so the stuff we have here is sourced by a whole plethora of distributors.

The Wii provides value to any household by introducing gaming to a wider demographic. Which is why the Wii is a good choice for house parties. There are two types of games to enjoy on this console and I shall divide them into two such categories:

Solo play games
Solo play games are the more hard-core as they are traditionally the games you would want to play alone in your room. This is a must have list of games that will keep you occupied for nights:

Super Paper Mario
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii Edition)
Resident Evil IV (Wii Edition)
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Almost all solo play games require the Wiimote and Nunchuck attachment. You’ll do fine with the ones that come with your Wii. Your Wii experience gets more and more expensive though once you start taking it to parties as you WILL have to invest at least an additional P5,400.00 on three more Wiimotes. If you play often, you might do well with buying a 1800 li-ion + USB charger for your Wiimote. This will set you back by about P450.00 for one. Or you could settle for rechargeable batteries. Here is a listing of good party games:

Mario Party 8
Wii Sports
Wii Play
Cooking Mama Cook Off
Wario Smooth Moves (best played after a generous dose of alcohol)
Boogie (needs a USB microphone if you’re going for the “cheaper P200 version”)

Apparently, games like Boogie and Odama need a USB microphone. The game has selective compatibility with other mics. I tried using my Samson condenser mic because it also has a USB port but to no avail.

The Virtual Console
Now we come to the more interesting part of this guide. The Nintendo Wii, apart from being a next generation gaming console is also a Nintendo GameCube on steroids. And not only that – it also supports playing games for the Virtual Console (Wii Online Store). These are titles from the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Turbografx 16, Sega Genesis, and the Nintendo 64.

Each game costs 500 to 1200 points depending on the console it runs on. Points are acquired by the purchase of prepaid cards or by online credit card transaction. For Philippine residents, the easy workaround for using your credit card with the Wii Shop Channel is to set your country of origin to Brazil as it won’t ask for a billing address. You can also buy credits from members of the Pinoy-N community. Credits online are sold by $10 increments where 1000 points = $10.00. For instance, buying Balloon Fight for the NES sets you back by 500 points which is roughly PHP 460.00.

Here is a list of the games I recommend for download:

Balloon Fight (NES)
Street Fighter II Hyper Edition (SNES)
All Metroid titles
Streets of Rage II (SEGA Genesis)
Sin & Punishment (N64 – a true winner, as this never came out in the USA being a Japan-only title. Nintendo added English voice overs in this version)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64 – note that this title has been voted to be one of the best games of all time)
Mario Kart 64
Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels (NES)

The Nintendo Wii as a GameCube
The GameCube was Nintendo’s fourth generation device that offered gamers a rich experience with titles such as Super Smash Brothers Melee, the next iteration of the Metroid series, Twilight Princess, and Mario Party. The good news is that the Wii allows for backward compatibility with the GameCube. The top cover of the Wii opens to reveal slots for four GC controllers and two slots for memory cards. A controller nowadays will set you back by around P450.00 in Greenhills. A 64MB memory card will set you back by around the same price.

These are fantastic 4 player GameCube titles I recommend you play with the Wii:

Super Smash Brothers Melee
Mario Kart Double Dash
Mario Party 6
Mario Party 7

Opera Browser Wii Games
Perhaps one of the mos underestimated feature of the Wii is the fact that the Opera Browser (500 points to download) supports flash games. There are several sites that support online flash play.

Honestly, the hands-down BEST browser-based game for the Wii: WARBOOK.

Conclusion
So there you have it. The Nintendo Wii provides so much value for your money because it allows for a number of legacy gaming options and not to mention the actual Wii experience. Come December, Nintendo is set to release several games that will take advantage of the upcoming Wii Zapper and WiiFit yoga mat.

The Wiimote can also serve the function of a Bluetooth remote control for your computer. Game on!

This post was inspired by last night’s Wii party with The Man Blog.

Here is a parting shot of Peter serious with Wii Boxing: