PSP World

The Must-Have Wii Games of 2009

Alright, so the Wii had a bit of a tough time in 2008. Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario Kart were big highlights, but beyond those two titles, the first-party offerings from Nintendo – long the bread and butter of the company’s success – were thin. Despite some grumblings from hardcore fans, the company does look set to remedy this game shortage in 2009 with some stellar releases. In addition, third party developers are joining the fun in a serious way, with mature games like The Conduit and House of the Dead set to steal some of the thunder from Nintendo.

Below we have listed eight of the upcoming games for 2009 that have us twitching with excitement:

Red Steel 2

Ubisoft confirmed this summer that they are working on a follow up to the mediocre launch title Red Steel. The sequel, which due late in 2009 will feature online multiplayer, enhanced AI and more intuitive controls. Red Steel 2 will also make use of the upcoming Wii Motion Plus attachment for enhanced slicing and dicing. Sounds like a recipe for success.

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Madworld

A dream team of Japanese developers have been assembled for this new intellectual property from Sega. With games like Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry under the collective belt of the devs at Platinum Games, we expect great things from their first title, Madworld. This game has been widely described as “gruesome, gory, gratuitous, and heavily tilted toward the red side of the color spectrum.” In fact, red is the only color you will see as you hack and slash your way through his black-and-white comic book slasher.

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The House of the Dead: Overkill

This zombie light-gun shooter is a breath of fresh air on the Wii. Gone are the light hearted bouncy music and smiling faces, replaced with brain-hungry mutants intent on overrunning a creepy amusement park. At night. The tagline for this game is “THey've come for brains... you'll give them bullets”. Check out the awesome B-movie style trailer below. Who said the Wii didn’t cater to adults or hardcore gamers?

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Tenchu: Shadow Assassins

The Tenchu series is a stealth/action franchise set in medieval Japan. You play as a ninja tasked with offing various enemies in gruesome, yet satisfying ways. The combination of Hitman-like gameplay mechanics and motion controls seems like a winner. If we get to use the Wiimote and Nunchuck like a garotte wire, that will just be the icing on the cake. And if it's katanas, throwing stars, daggers and smoke bombs you're looking for, then, yeah, it’s got all those too.

Wii Sports Resort

Many critics have pointed to the popularity of casual games on the Nintendo Wii as evidence for why the gaming industry should not take the console seriously. We think the opposite is true. Wii Sports has kept people glued to their Wiis since its release for the very simple reason that it is lots of fun. The upcoming sequel promises to extend the good times well into 2009 and beyond. Even more interesting is the planned Wii Motion Plus attachment, which will increase the sensitivity and detectable range of motion of the Wiimote.

The Conduit

This game took home tons of “best of show” awards from E3, thanks to its status as the ONLY major upcoming FPS on the system. Oh and the alien conspiracy themed game looks pretty cool, too. Graphically the conduit holds its own on the Wii hardware, maintaining a consistent framerate and even throwing in some current-gen effects. Lets hope the gameplay delivers the same level of excellence as the eye-candy.

Dead Rising Wii

When Capcom announced a Wii port of their popular Xbox 360 zombie fest, most people were caught by surprise. But the gleeful feeling of mowing down hordes of zombies is sure to be enhanced with motion controls, making this a potential sleeper hit in 2009.

Punch Out!! Wii

The game that happily consumed most of our childhoods on the NES is back to do it all over again. The only game that has two exclamation points in its title, Puch Out!! is absolutely one of the most anticipated games on the Wii, and if Nintendo handles the development correctly it will be a major success in 2009. We have watched the trailer more than a dozen times, and it still sends an electric charge down our nostalgic spines.

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