Wii Burger

First Day Purchase: Games You HAD to have

Here we are, middle of the week.  And, if you are like most loyal and devoted Nintendo fans, you are gearing up to play some MadWorld today/tonight.  I myself will be attempting to secure my copy all the while counting down the hours on the clock until I can rip that bad boy open and pop it in.  All of this of course got me thinking:  What are some of the most “can’t wait to try out/play” moments you’ve had since owning your Wii?  Once again, in no particular order, here are 5 “can’t wait” moments in Wii history.

Fly away, Mario. Fly away...

1)     Super Mario Galaxy:  November 12, 2007 couldn’t come soon enough.  Before the game even released, screen shots flooded the interwebs and had us thinking that a game on the Will could actually look better than a game on the “true” next generation systems.  The weeks after release, game critics agreed and for the most part universally praised the game as being one of (if not the) best games to ever grace a Nintendo system.  Gamestop gave out a promotional Mario token with the game, but I remember not caring too much about that.  Booting it up on my Wii and getting to jump from planet to planet with the full force of gravity slinging you around…in one word: magical.

You cut me deep, Red. You cut me deep.

2)     Red Steel: About a year earlier, it didn’t matter who you were, you were salivating over this game as the be-all-end-all of first person shooters.  Launching with the Nintendo Wii, Ubisoft had been teasing us with the promise of this game months earlier.  The screens we saw, along with the promises made by Ubisoft of true one to one sword play was enough to get people dizzy with dreams of real time action in their living rooms.  Remember the guy in the promo video getting all into the game? Yeah, that was me weeks before I even had a Wii.  Of course, we all know how this story ends.  When we all picked up our system and booted up Red Steel—well, let’s just say we were just a little underwhelmed. 

What? No Celda II?

3)     Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:  Four years had passed since we set sail in Wind Waker.  If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that I would pick up Twilight Princess.  I understand that this really wasn’t a “proper” “made from the ground up Wii game”, but I don’t think anyone getting a Wii that November really cared.  In fact, watching those videos leading up to its release, I know that I was more than a little excited to get the chance to swing my wiimote as a sword as I ran through Hyrule field.  Nintendo promised an epic title, and it delivered.  Gone were the cartoony and bright colored worlds from Wind Waker. We were finally given the Zelda we had been hoping for since Spaceworld 2000.  And well, for me at least, after I got over the initial disappointment of Red Steel—this game lived up to my hopes and made me thankful for owning a Wii.

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Sweating to the old-wiis?

4)     Wii Fit:  Ok, so maybe some of you never really got that whole, “gotta get this” feeling for this title.  But, you can’t deny the fact that for a lot of people out there, Wii Fit was the reason to own a Wii.  A game with a balance board? Even people who weren’t interested in getting fit were a bit curious how this game (and more particularly the board hardware) would work.  In the end, love it or hate it, the board works great and the game continues to sell like hot cakes.

The first rule of Brawl is, you do not talk about online.

5)     Super Smash Brother Brawl: While Japan may have got the jump on the release of this game (January 2008 v. March 2008), I know I made a special stop on a trip home from Chicago just to get my hands on a copy.  Anyone who has ever played any iteration of this game knows what it means to be a fan of smash brothers.  And boy, was this game played up with the use of the DoJo to release tidbits here and there weeks before the release.  We were kept on our toes on a weekly basis on what to expect from this game and it made the wait that much more anticipated.  However, one of the more exciting implementations to this game, the online component, while HIGHLY sought after, continues to fail in no small part to Nintendo’s reluctance  to  better prepare for its use.  Be that as it may, this game was on everyone’s lips prior to its release and with a great group of friends, still finds itself being played on a frequent occasion.

There are no doubt other games to mention that made you glad you are a Nintendo loyalist—Mario Kart and Metroid come to mind—but I think when it comes “most wanted/anticipated game” it really comes down to the individual gamer.  I mean, who knows, maybe you actually got really excited when you found out they released Grey’s Anatomy for the Wii.

First day purchase, am  I right?