I played 22 Wii games for fun in 2008 and finished five of them.
As I did last year, I've compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.
(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year's.)
Today's entry is all about the Wii, a system on which I played more disc-based games than I did on the PS3, but fewer than on the Xbox 360.
What did I play? And which five games did I finish?
Take a look below:
My 2008 Wii Playlist
(Games I completed are italicized)
1) Animal Crossing: City Folk
2) BlastWorks: Build Trade Destroy
3) Boom Blox
4) De Blob - Unlike the first two entries on this list, I played this game for several hours. But then the rush of autumn games took over and I temporarily shelved this combination of "Grand Theft Auto" and coloring books.
5) Endless Ocean - When people ask me to name sleeper games of 2008, this Scuba-diving simulator is the first game that comes to mind. It's more of an adventure, with more carefully crafted drama than you might expect -- that is, as long as you allow yourself to consider the discovery of a whale in the darkness of an undersea chasm to be "drama."
6) Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Possibly the longest game I played this year and ever as good at character, story-telling and strategy as the previous games in this strategy-role-playing game series. Also, note that this was a 2007 game as are most of the Wii games I finished in 2008.
7) Ghost Squad
8 ) Hasbro Family Game Night - The surprise hit of my Thanksgiving with my family.
9) Mario Kart Wii
10) Ninja Reflex
11) No More Heroes - My nominee for best fighting-based motion control in any Wii action game. There was no more satisfying way to take out enemies in any game this year than with a slash of the Wii remote in this game.
12) Order Up! - This is my other sleeper of the year, a highly polished cooking and restaurant management game that no one talked about in the same breath as "Cooking Mama."
13) Super Mario Galaxy - Started it in 2007. Finished it in 2008.
14) Super Smash Bros. Brawl - I played through the story mode, but I don't think that counts as finishing the game.
15) Target Terror
16) Trauma Center: New Blood - This is yet another 2007 game I finished in 2008 and also one of the best implementations of Wii and nunchuk motion controls.
17) Wario Land: Shake It - I wanted to like this game, but I lost interest when other autumn games came out. Why I do I like most Wario handheld games and dislike most Wario console games?
18) We Ski
19) Wii Fit - This game produced one of my favorite in-game moments of the year.
20) Wii Music
21) Wii Play - Actually worth playing. Who knew?
22) Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure - I just realized why I mostly finished 2007 Wii games and not 2008 Wii games: most 2008 Wii games don't have endings!
(Game I missed - Super Mario Sluggers)
Wii Games of 2008: Played 22 / Finished 5
What did you play? And what did I miss?