Looking for a good game for yourself or someone else this holiday season? We’ve got you covered. The Wii may have had a rough year, but there are some titles you definitely shouldn’t miss.
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land: We could go on all day about how good Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is. Tons of content, accessibility to casual and hardcore players, a great soundtrack, tons of fanservice, charming graphics… the game has it all. Return is clearly the culmination of 11 years of effort. We just hope it doesn’t take the same amount of time for the next main Kirby game to release. (Full review)
Rayman Origins: It’s hard to talk about Rayman Origins without mentioning its gorgeous art design. Everything from the design of the enemies, the environments, the animations, and even Rayman and his friends themselves all look incredible. This is one of the most visually striking 2D games you will ever see, and simply watching videos of it does not do it justice, you need to see it in HD to believe it. Combine that with the soundtrack, which features some songs that will be stuck in your head for days. It’s just a charming package all around. (Full review)
de Blob 2: After saving the Raydians from the INKT Corporation, Blob takes a vacation to Prisma City with his new friend Pinky. In what we’re sure is a coincidence, Comrade Black and his company made it there first, and has started to take over the populace. So… we get a sequel to de Blob. In all seriousness, the story has never mattered in this series. It’s about getting paint and slamming things and restoring color to buildings, all to an upbeat, fun soundtrack. And de Blob 2 has those things. (Full review)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The Zelda franchise is 25 years old. That’s a lot of Master Swords, bows and arrows, puzzle-solving and fire dungeons to work through, but Skyward Sword manages to feel fresh. Sure, you’re still going to collect a slingshot in the Forest Temple and bombs in the Fire Temple, but your route there is different than it has ever been before. If Skyward Sword is most similar to any other Zelda game, it has to be Oracle of Ages. The primary emphasis this time around is definitely on puzzle-solving. I seldom entered a room and immediately though “Oh, I need the <thing> to do this – I’ll come back later,” but I thought “Huh, how am I going to solve this one” quite a bit. (Full review)
Liight: Studio WallJump’s elegant WiiWare offering Liight is an abstract puzzle game that tasks you with illuminating various colored posts with a selection of colored light cones. Since you only have the three primary colors of light (red, green, and blue) at your disposal, you will have to overlap the areas of illumination in order to satisfy the yellow (red + green), cyan (green + blue), magenta (blue + red), and white (all three) posts. Posts that are lit up by the wrong color(s) will let you know by giving off a halo of the offending color(s), while satisfied posts light up with a healthy glow. (Full review)
You Don’t Know Jack: It’s been eight years since gamers last saw You Don’t Know Jack, Jellyvision’s “Irreverent Trivia Party Game” series. What began on PCs in the early ’90s has now arrived on home consoles, with some slight gameplay tweaks to make the experience more competitive. Most of the series’s classic features remain intact, and there are some new additions to keep things interesting. (Full review)
