5 Best Wii Games for Under Twenty Dollars

The explosive popularity of the Nintendo Wii has led to an inevitable deluge of crappy shovelware titles that claim to be fun uses of the Wii’s unique features but ultimately turn out to be nothing but vapid attempts at cashing in on the system’s success. Because of this malignant multitude (not all games can be as great as Wii Fit), it can be difficult for a value-conscious gamer to find budget games that are worth playing.

Fortunately, there are a few quality low-cost Wii gems out there to be found, gamers just need a filter to avoid the large number of crappy games out there.

Allow me to humbly present my personal picks for five great Wii titles that can all be purchased for less than twenty dollars. Prices according to Gamestop.

It’s a sad fact of modern game design, but it seems developers no longer make awesome arcade-style shooters like they used to. Anyone who’s ever spent countless hours playing Asteroids on an old Atari or Gradius on the Super Nintendo knows what I’m talking about. Great games used to be about fast reflexes and upgradeable weapons, no story necessary, just wave after wave of countless enemies waiting to be expertly dispatched.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies could easily be the modern descendant of those great games. This twin-stick controlled shooter has you moving in one direction and shooting in another (Smash TV style) to eliminate multitudes of enemies that swarm toward you from all directions. The Wii version does have a minimal story element to it, but the fact is you spend most of your time in the thick of a swarming horde of enemies, and it’s a truly amazing experience.

I’m going to cheat a bit and shove three games into the space of one here. All of the Lego games for the Nintendo Wii are amazing titles, and all can be purchased for less than twenty bucks.

Players control various characters two at a time (famous pairings like Indy and Short Round or Batman and Robin) and work their way through some basic 3D platforming action, solving puzzles and collecting items that unlock other items. There are some puzzles that can only be solved on a second playthrough, so the replay value on these games is definitely high.

Story usually loosely follows the plot of the film on which the game is based (with hilarious Lego twists) or, in the case of Batman, provides typical fare based on the history of the property. The Lego games are fantastic for the whole family, violence is minimal (enemies simply fall apart when dispatched) and there are no real penalties for dying, as lives are pretty much unlimited.