Wii Games To Catch Up On Before The Holiday Rush

This masterpiece by genius developer Suda 51 missed last year's holiday rush by a month and a half. You play Travis Touchdown, a low-life who buys a beam katana (read: Lightsaber) through an Internet auction, and stumbles upon a contest to become the world's best assassin. Each mission sees you decapitating and dismembering countless demented attackers, culminating in a duel with characters such as Helter Skelter, Dr. Peace and Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii. Violent? Yes, but in that over-the-top Tarantino kind of way, and flicking your Wii Remote to execute fatal slashes never gets old.

To enter these bloodbaths, Touchdown has to raise money by performing odd jobs around the city of Santa Destroy. You'll mow lawns, clean graffiti and pick up litter. If you can stand it, the meditation on work and play is sublime.

Who knew that when Steven Spielberg decided to get in on game design, the result would be a puzzler? Though we might have been expecting more drama from the movie master, Boom Blox instead turned out to be Jenga-Tetris-Breakout hybrid. With thoughtful uses of the Wii remote, players use a variety of tools to fell towers of blocks. The standard adventure mode has 300 levels, and there's also multiplayer and the ability to create your own levels -- just what you need when the holiday game rush is coming.

This title hit stores two years ago for the Playstation 2 and made its way to the Wii in 2008. You play a reincarnated sun goddess in white wolf form, trying to remove the curse of an ancient demon. Combat features the Celestial Brush, a drawing tool that provides different special abilities based on the shapes you render. If you like the Legend of Zelda series, but feel that it's not quite artsy enough for your tastes, check this game out.

Let's face it, you bought Wii Fit, made a solid effort at a workout regimen and lasted for about a month before you relegated the Balance Board to a dark corner. You'll get a chance to use it again soon by way of Shaun White Snowboarding, but in the meantime, perhaps you can warm up with We Ski. Players can slap their Mii head an a skier and take him or her down one of 14 different courses. The game received somewhat lukewarm reviews, but perhaps it's worth a rental if you're really yearning for the slopes before winter.

This was one of the most highly-anticipated Wii games of the year, but it's never too late to add it to your library if you missed out. A slew of classic Nintendo characters, such as Mario, Link, Donkey Kong and Pikachu, duke it cartoon-style on two-dimensional stages. The combat is mostly the same in the series' third generation, but with more characters, stages and challenges. Of all the new fighters, the most unlikely contender, Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series, is also one of the most fun to use.