The Top 10 Wii Platformers

Like jumping and climbing in your games? Here are your best bets

No one has stronger legs than platforming heroes, who can leap from rooftop to rooftop or even from cloud to cloud, and can often vanquish enemies by jumping on their heads. There are a tremendous number of platform games for the Wii, many of which offer a unique take on the genre. Here are the top ten.

01
of 10

De Blob

De Blob game screenshot
The revolution will be colorized. THQ

★★★★½

Forgoing the traditional creature-with-legs platformer protagonist, 'De Blob' makes do with a rubbery round creature that cheerfully bounces along cityscapes, using its body as a paintbrush to color a monochromatic city. In spite of its unconventional hero, the game follows the platforming tradition of asking players to make impossible leaps to unreachable places. It turns out legs are not necessary after all.

02
of 10

Disney Epic Mickey

Disney Epic Mickey game screenshot
Junction Point Studios

★★★★½

This colorful and imaginative action-adventure game has a hero who could use paint and thinner to add or subtract from the landscape. You might paint in a previously missing box, or remove chunks of a wall with thinner to create footholds. While the game’s camera angles sometimes make it difficult to see where you are jumping to, this is in large part because the game refuses to limit where you might jump to. Flaws that come from too much ambition are always the most forgivable.

03
of 10

Sonic Colors

Sonic Colors game screenshot
Sonic Colors perfectly captures the feel of the original Sonic games. SEGA

★★★★½

The Sonic games have never been much like other platformers. Sonic does not simply wander to a platform and jump up, but instead runs at insane speeds through long, rollercoaster-like trails, reaching platforms by shooting off of ramps or running into spring-powered buttons. Sonic’s heyday was as a 2D hero, but developer Team Sonic finally created a 3D Sonic game that matches the old side scrollers for fun with this one. For me this is not just the best 3D Sonic game, but the best of the entire series.

04
of 10

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Country Returns game screenshot
DKCR is no walk in the park. It's more like a mining cart ride over broken tracks. Nintendo

★★★★½

'DKCR' is probably the most conventional platformer on this list. It is an old-school 2D side scroller that doesn’t redefine the genre in the slightest. It is also one of the most perfectly designed 2D side-scrollers ever produced, although you have to be willing to tolerate a high degree of difficulty. For those looking for a lot of straight-ahead 2D platforming where every jump must be quick and accurate, this is your game.

05
of 10

Kororinpa: Marble Saga

Marble Saga: Kororinpa game screenshot
Hudson Entertainment

★★★★

While most platformers involve moving an avatar, in this puzzle-platformer you have no control at all over the avatar, which is simply a marble. Instead, the marble moves when you rotate the maze-like structure that contains it. Tilt the maze to start the marble rolling, turn it to get the marble to the next platform. Perhaps the most Wii-centric platformer ever made.

06
of 10

And Yet It Moves

And Yet It Moves game screenshot
A pencil-sketch man runs through a paper-collage world. Broken Rules

★★★★

'AYIM' combines traditional platforming elements with a 'Kororinpa'-style twist — you are continually rotating the protagonist’s world in order to create new platforms out of floors and ceilings. With its unique look and gameplay, this WiiWare title truly stands out.

07
of 10

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands game screenshot
Typical scenario: The prince runs across a wall, past a whirring saw blade, right towards a monstrous knight. Ubisoft

★★★★

Ubisoft took platformers to new heights with 2003’s 'Prince of Persia: Sands of Time,' a muscular platformer in which the eponymous protagonist made huge jumps, ran across walls, and could, when necessary, rewind time. While the Wii version of 'Forgotten Sands' (which is a different game entirely from the PS3/Xbox 360 version) lacks 'Sands of Times'’ magical storytelling, it matches it for the excitement of its acrobatics.

08
of 10

New Play Control: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

New Play Control: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat game screenshot

Nintendo 

★★★★

The original 'Donkey Kong Jungle Beat' used a bongo peripheral to control Kong as he ran and jumped. Adapted for the Wii, which replaced the drum with a mix of motion controls and traditional button/stick action, the result is not quite as unique but is still tremendously fun.

09
of 10

Fluidity

Fluidity game screenshot
Rotating the remote makes this little pool of water wander up and down ramps, among other things. Nintendo

★★★½

Yet another very clever take on the platformer, in 'Fluidity,' your avatar is a pool of water that you must move by tilting and bouncing the world it exists in. While the controls are physically exhausting and parts of the game are needlessly frustrating, the game is unique and often tremendously fun. 

10
of 10

Lost in Shadow

Lost in Shadow
Hudson Soft

★★★½

'Lost in Shadow' has a very clever gimmick: your avatar is a disembodied shadow that can only travel along the shadows of other objects. This allows for puzzles in which you must manipulate real-world objects to change their shadows. Underneath its clever idea and pleasing graphics, 'Lost in Shadow' is still a pretty conventional 2D platformer, but it’s also a lot of fun.

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