*Unless Nintendo decides to sell them again when the Switch U 4DS VR comes out in 2025.

As you might have heard, starting next Monday Nintendo is taking away the ability to add funds to the Wii Shop, which will close down for good in early 2019. That means a whole bunch of great games won’t be able to be purchased anymore. In order to raise awareness of this, the most important issue of our times (after all the other issues), we spent the winter playing as many WiiWare games as we could over on our YouTube channel. Here’s a summary of the gems we encountered:

A pretty challenging motion control racing game with Minecraft-esque graphics. Pro tip: use a regular old Wiimote, not a Wiimote Plus. Trust us, the Plus is too sensitive for this game and you’ll end up falling off the track every two seconds. Despite the difficulty, this one gets a recommendation because of the cool look and for giving us an excuse to use the Mario Kart Wii wheel again.



Using the Wiimote’s gyroscope, this game has you move the world around you (rather than vice versa) to navigate the levels. One of those “easy to learn, difficult to master” type of games that defined many of the best on the platform.



Originally a WiiWare exclusive, although you can now play it on 3DS, PC, Mac, Linux, and probably some Japanese toilets. You run from left to right and jump, slide, kick and… jump again to the music. A tribute to the platforming classics that deservedly became a classic itself (and the sequel, available on Wii U, is even better).



You know, BurgerTime! If you don’t know, this is a good excuse to get acquainted with this ‘80s arcade title. Like in the original, you attempt to assemble giant hamburgers on a series of platforms whilst dodging humanoid food monsters, only this time the graphics are in 3D and it’s all happening in space, for some reason. NOTE: Ironically, this fast-food themed game can’t be bought in North America right now, only Europe.



Originally designed for the DS, the gimmick is that the main character is fighting enemies in two different time periods at once. For the DS this used each screen for the different time zones, but with WiiWare you get a simple split-screen. It’s quite unique and challenging as you’re basically playing two sidescrollers at once.

Remember when dudes with rippling muscles and mullets got to be badass gunfighters and nobody complained they were toxic? Contra sure does. Konami gave “Rebirth” to three of their classic franchises on WiiWare (CastleVania and Gradius were the other two) but this was probably the best of the bunch.

If you never get tired of mowing down undead enemies then this will scratch that itch. Basically you get a bunch of different cool weapons and use them against a bunch of different cool monsters for as long as you wish, or at least as long as you survive. The challenge is so high that even lasting ten minutes on your first playthrough has the game calling you “noob.”



A simple run n’ gun game (think Metal Slug) starring a sentient toaster facing off against flying onions, spear-toting carrots, and what appears to be an army of angry playing cards. It’s not clear what the plot of the game is, and there’s not a whole lot of depth to the gameplay, but it’s still a fun way to waste an hour (or more, depending on the difficulty). It’s supposed to be even more fun with 4 players, if you can find three other Wii-loving weirdos.



Motorcycle races. Simplicity works sometimes, and just like the original Excitebike this one proves it once more. Just like the original you get a cool level creator, only this time you can share it with anyone and not just whoever you give your cartridge to.

Lots of different modes that still capture the appeal of the original arcade classic. The overall look is kinda coked-up, which captures the ‘80s arcade scene reasonably well.



Only the one mode this time, but it serves as a reminder of the timeless quality and endearing appeal of the core gameplay.



A chaotic 4-player party game starring sock-obsessed gnomes. You go around a single screen collecting socks and stomping other players to kill them; it’s like life itself. (Or, as many have pointed out, like the Super Mario War fan game, but less illegal.) There are three modes and a variety of scenarios. Like with Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, the more players the better, but the single player mode ain’t bad (and that way, you don’t ruin any friendships).



A pseudo-3D shoot ‘em up where the main difficulty is that you can actually shoot the power ups away, and you kinda need those to finish the stages – if you don’t collect enough energy, the portal at the end of the level closes on your face. The difficulty ramps up slowly but surely across 50 levels. Another difficulty is not getting an LSD flashback on those trippy bonus stages.



A basketball/fighting game that makes surprisingly good use of the Wii’s motion controls. This definitely falls in the “easy to pick up, difficult to master” category, since there’s a pretty wide range of ball throws and kung-fu moves you can perform by shaking your Wiimote and nunchuck in different ways. Or you can just wave your arms randomly and hope you win. The game is currently unlisted in North America, which we’re hoping is a sign that they’re planning to re-release it in modern platforms (with online multiplayer, hopefully).



A futuristic on-rails shooting game that you play with the Wii balance board. If you have the Wii Zapper accessory, even better (and you’ll look even sillier), but it’s not necessary to play. You aim and shoot with your Wiimote while leaning on your balance board to move from side to side. Definitely a good reason to dig that thing out of your closet. Be warned, though, that the game crashed on us in the middle of a stage, as seen at the end of our gameplay video.



Roller derby has never been as popular to watch as it is for people to randomly talk about every few years for the novelty, usually accompanied by a movie that flops at the box office. The last time the mainstream tried to make this sport happen it resulted in this game, though, so there’s at least that. You play as characters with hilarious names roller blading through others with random power-ups and combat moves.



It’s a lofty ambition to offer gamers something that will remind them of Super Mario Galaxy, and it might seem foolish to do so on an indie dev’s budget. But Shin’en managed to deliver with an uncommon 3D platformer collectathon with good amounts of action sprinkled in.

When a developer approached a title with motion controls in mind, it always stood out more than other games that tried to crowbar motion controls into the scenery in the hopes of a shortcut to Wii success. LostWinds is in the former camp, making you use the pointer to create gusts of wind to elevate the main character onto platforms and knock around enemies. In fact it’d be more accurate to say you’re playing as the wind spirit rather than the story’s protagonist. Fun game with a beautiful art style.

Nintendo knows how to make simple games that present difficulty when you don’t expect it. In the three modes of this puzzler you play as generic shapes but the controls are difficult to master. It kind of has to be seen to be believed.

A connect-three type of game where you fire marbles and stuff. What ends up twisted the most are your wrists whilst trying to aim your shots with any sort of precision.

There are plenty of side-scrolling platformers that use childhood visuals and hobbies to appeal to the player, and yet they never really get old do they? In this one you use a marker via motion controls to create platforms and defeat enemies. You also can go in and out of Max’s childhood drawings.



This is a weird one. A bunch of monsters vaguely shaped like Doshin the Giant are gathered together by an unseen god-ish alien to fight robots that said alien had created earlier, but they turned against him. That’s the plot as we can best make out, anyways. There’s also dinosaurs. Recommended for those who like their fun to be completely unlike the other fun they’ve had with games.



Old-school dogfighting in a new-school 3D game. Well, it was new when it released. Anyways you shoot down enemy planes, defend your base, attack naval fleets and get commendations you don’t deserve. Sometimes you see the action from the POV of the bombs you drop, and it works much better here than in Michael Bay’s version of Pearl Harbor.



Chindōchū!! Pole no Daibōken is bizarre Japan-only SEGA title made to parody the crappy platform games that came out during the 8-bit era. Despite being full of intentional design flaws, like power ups that kill you or background objects that suddenly cut your head off, the game is pretty easy – until you unlock hard mode, where the boss fights are actually challenging. Still, you’ll be playing this one mostly to laugh at the dozens of Easter eggs.



Not many board games made it to WiiWare, but this was easily the best. It’s largely straightforward “run to the end of the board” contests, with plenty of opportunities to ruin friendships. The art style is the main hook, looking like a pop-up book, like the title indicates.



You fight for your life against larger-than-life mythological creatures, like ogres and minotaurs and senseis. The game got compared frequently to Punch-Out!! and with good reason, but the combat is actually a more creative and the dialogue is more humorous. A blast to play through the first time, and a blast to replay.



Unlike most of the games on this list, there’s no combat in this one and your blood pressure won’t ever raise. There’s plenty to do but it’s fun stuff, mostly involving playing with penguins. It works great as a sort of palette cleanser to the violent action-packed games primarily showcased in this list.



The 16-bit Sonic games still hold up today as all-time greats. Sonic 4 didn’t live up to those expectations but it did get SEGA to think about their past a little more seriously, and helped lead to Sonic Mania. Episode I is on WiiWare, but you’ll have to find Episode II elsewhere.



Another sequel to another arcade classic, but with the novel twist of playing the game from the enemies’ point of view. Word of warning: this is possibly the only WIiWare game that has DLC. The initial purchase of 500 points will escalate up to 2′000 points if you’re enjoying yourself.



Top-down arcade-style shooter, and if you know the type you know the drill. The amount of content is pretty bare-bones, as it’s basically just time attacks. But the replayability is rewarding if you’re a fan of the genre.



We hope you know Tetris. This is a Tetris that has good multiplayer, interesting variants where you do things like create platforms for some guy to climb to the top of the screen or use the tetrinos to make exact shapes like that of an apple. There’s also a balance board mode, and as stated earlier it’s good to have an excuse to pull out the balance board.

Vampires used to live peacefully with zombies but now they don’t, and it becomes your problem. Thankfully you get plenty of guns, some so powerful that you end up creating a bullet hell where you’re the one firing them rather than dodging them. It looks simple but the game actually is quite tough. It’s not Cuphead-level but you will fail many times over. With plenty of content and being one of the last WiiWare releases, this title approached the platform’s fullest potential.



What sets this apart from the 87 other WarioWare games? The fact that players could make their own minigames, leading to an avalanche of creative, insane, and even NSFW games. Unfortunately the servers are no longer online, but you can still find thousands of fan games online if you look hard enough. The included games are pretty fun too, and if you have the DS version, you can make your own and send them over to your Wii.



Shooting galleries are perfect for motion controls, but gamers don’t get as many as we deserve. Thankfully this one helps rectify that, with an interesting story and cool comic-book art sequences that keep things moving between all the gunning down of zombies and various giant monsters.

