Skip to main content

Guy completes entire Wii library, and it’s massive

Your stack of old Wii games pales in comparison to this guy’s collection. Nintendo Age forum user Aaron Norton, who goes by Nintendo Twizer, has posted pictures of his entire Wii library collection, and it’s ridiculous.

According to Norton, the Wii had 1,262 game releases in North America. His collection doesn’t include variants, like different cover arts, collector’s editions, or Nintendo Selects, which were discounted re-releases of popular games. It also doesn’t include demo discs or games that were released in two-packs later on, like the Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy bundle.

Recommended Videos

For Norton, this was by far his most expansive collecting quest to date. With over 1,000 titles available for the Wii, it was four times the size of a Nintendo 64 set. As with any console, many of the games released on the Wii were not very good. Fans refer to these games as “shovel ware,” or games that were hastily made and shoveled out the door to make a quick dollar. Considering the Wii has sold over 100 million units to date, it’s no surprise that so many companies were creating content to take a slice of the Wii pie.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

“My Wii shelves are 8 feet wide by 9 feet tall. I’m able to fit the whole Wii library in that space with three rows dedicated to highlighting some favorite titles,” Norton told Digital Trends. Even after this massive collect-a-thon, Norton is unsure of how much he actually spent altogether. “Unlike original Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, Wii games are cheap right now. Most game stores want to clear shelf space for either retro games or newer stuff. Wii falls somewhere in between those two categories so prices are low and its a great time to pick up titles,” said Norton.

Because nostalgia is a bug that hits just about everyone, Norton is pretty certain there will come a time where kids who grew up on the Wii will be after many of his rare games. But as of now, Norton has not received any offers, nor is he looking to sell at the moment.

Norton also made a list of what he considers to be the most rare Wii games. Unlike what most fans would expect, his top-10 rarest Wii games didn’t include highly sought after titles like Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Dokapon Kingdom, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawns, or Godzilla Unleashed. In fact, none of these games even broke into Norton’s top-40 rarest Wii games.

Top 40 RAREST Wii Games!

The top-10 rarest Wii games from least to greatest are:

  • 101 in 1 Sports Party Mega Mix
  • 2 for 1 Power Pack: Kawasaki Jet Ski/Summer Sports
  • Lucha Libre Heroes Del Ring
  • Cyberbike Cycling Sports
  • American Mensa Academy
  • Atreveta A Sonar
  • Maximum Racing: Super Truck Racing
  • 2 for 1 Power Pack: Indianapolis 500/WWII Aces
  • Maximum Racing: Super Karts
  • 2 for 1 Power Pack: Winter Blast/Summer Sports

While the Wii definitely had some fan favorite games, there are a few that Norton feels went unappreciated. “In my opinion some under appreciated games for the Wii are Muramasa, it’s a really fantastic 2D side-scrolling game with a beautiful art style. Castle of Shikigami III, it’s a fast past vertical shoot ’em up. Also Geon Cube has a unique arcade action game feel,” said Norton.

For those thinking of becoming a Wii collector, now would be the time to start shopping as interest in the system is currently low, meaning games should be cheap. As for Norton, he’s always on the hunt for new games to collect, but for now, he’s going to work on a new entertainment center that can display his massive collection of gaming consoles.

Imad Khan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…
Let’s admit that Wii Sports is the best game ever made
A Mii swings a baseball bat in Wii Sports.

What is the greatest video game of all time? In the early 2000s, it was a heated debate between The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy VII fans. The conversation has widened since, with no real critical consensus to speak of in 2022. Maybe it’s Breath of the Wild. Heck, maybe it’s Elden Ring. Perhaps there’s no answer at all, because trying to pick the “best” game, as if there’s an objective metric for what makes art good, is a flawed exercise.

But in my opinion, all of those answers are wrong and no one can convince me otherwise. The older I’ve gotten and the more video games I’ve played, the more ready I am to die on a very specific hill: Wii Sports is the greatest video game of all time.
The GOAT
Wii Sports was an unlikely success story for Nintendo. Included as a free pack-in game with the Wii in 2006, the sports anthology was less of a game and more of a tech demo. It was a simple way to get new Wii owners comfortable with the idea of motion controls by having them mimic familiar actions. The result was an incredibly fun and intuitive game that everyone and their grandmother could play, quite literally.

Read more
I paid $2 a day to play an abandoned Wii Sports sequel
wii sports club retrospective boxing

It’s hard to find someone who was alive during the Wii’s heyday that hasn’t at least tried Wii Sports. It’s one of the bestselling games of all time, and its simple but accurate motion controls made everyone from young kids to seniors feel like they were an athlete for a few minutes. Those are big shoes to fill for any game trying to follow it up, and Nintendo Switch Sports is poised to reinvigorate the formula on April 29 with its reworked visuals and new sports offering.
But did you know that another Wii Sports game came out between those two titles? In the early days of the Wii U, Nintendo released Wii Sports Club, a remake of the classic casual sports title for the failed Wii U console. It enhanced the controls and visuals and tried to give the Wii Sports series a lively community.
Nintendo Switch Sports rekindled my memory of Wii Sports Club's existence, and following the announcement of the Wii U eShop's impending closure, I knew I wanted to check it out and see why this follow-up fell into obscurity. This meant paying $2 a day to access a remake of Wii Sports with broken features that almost no one was playing. Was it worth it? No, but it's a very fitting Wii U game as it's also a product completely overshadowed and made redundant by its predecessor. 
Wii U - Wii Sports Club All Sports Trailer
Pay to play
I was able to find Wii Sports Club on the Wii U eShop and download it for free. While free-to-play Wii Sports seems like a fantastic idea, it doesn’t last long. The first time I booted up the game, I had a 24-hour free trial to try any of the five sports -- tennis, bowling, golf, baseball, and boxing -- that I wanted. I got a bit of tennis and bowling in on my first day with the game, but didn't see everything it had to offer.
After that first day, it was time to pay up. I was given two payment options in-game that would then bring me the Nintendo eShop. I could purchase the individual sports for $10 each, which would give me access to them and their associated minigames forever. My other option was to pay $2 a day to access everything.
Although having to buy a $2 day pass several days in a row for an abandoned Wii U game wasn't really a wise financial investment, I was curious enough to succumb to this microtransaction and keep playing. Doing that and only spending around $14 makes a lot more sense than paying $50 for remakes of games I got for free with my Wii over 15 years ago. This monetization scheme doesn't seem like it was that good of a deal in 2014, and it definitely isn't one now when there are tons of cheaper or free fitness apps that people can get much more out of. But what exactly did I get for that money?
Reinventing sports
Since June 2014, Wii Sports Club has featured the same five sports as the original Wii pack-in: Tennis, bowling, golf, baseball, and boxing. The individual sports play as you remember them in the original Wii Sports for the most part. Swinging the Wii Remote causes your character to make the same motion with a tennis racket, golf club, bat, ball, or fist. Some training mode minigames do shake the formula for each sport up a bit, but none kept my attention for long.
The most significant gameplay differences between the original Wii Sports and Wii Sports Club are Wii MotionPlus support and the Wii U GamePad. Wii MotionPlus is obviously more responsive than the basic Wii Remotes, so the movement of whatever you’re holding in-game does feel more accurate in Wii Sports Club. That said, the game is still easy and accessible enough that I’d call it a must-try for players who love Wii Sports.
Then there’s the Wii U GamePad, which comes up in golf and baseball. In golf, you place the Wii U GamePad on the ground, and it displays the ball you have to hit. It’s a fun visual touch but very gimmicky. Meanwhile, the GamePad’s gyroscope is used to aim pitches and catch balls in baseball. Although baseball makes much better use of the GamePad, constantly switching between it and the Wii remote can get tiring. Outside of those features, the Wii U GamePad is fairly useless in Wii Sports Club, so it isn’t nearly as good of a tech demo for its system as the original Wii Sports was.

Overall, these five sports are only slightly enhanced versions of what you remember from the original Wii Sports. It’s a remake that’s not wholly necessary, considering one can play the original game on Wii U via backward compatibility. That’s not a good thing when there are over six times more copies of Wii Sports out there than there are Wii U systems. It's a bite-sized version of the conundrum that the Wii U also found itself in. 
Gone clubbing
Wii Sports Club is so named because Nintendo focuses on in-game clubs. Each day, players can choose to join a club -- many of which are based on states, regions, or countries. These clubs are then ranked individually for each sport, depending on their players’ performance.
I joined the Illinois club, but this didn't have a noticeable impact on my experience because Wii Sports Club's social functionality doesn't really work anymore. While it still tracks clubs' performances online, there's no good way to communicate.
Playing Wii Sports Club is a lonely experience in 2022.

Read more
Nintendo is ending Wii U and 3DS eShop service
Photos of the 3DS eShops

Nintendo has announced the end of its eShop service for the Wii U console and 3DS handheld. The eShop will stay live on those devices until late March 2023, after which players will no longer be able to purchase games or download eShop apps and services for those devices.

After the closure, players will still be able to redownload games and DLC that they already own, use online play, and download software updates.

Read more