Wii Collecting Thread--Discussion, Information, Tips, and The Future

[GREEN00]

The book is all but formally closed for new Wii releases, I felt it was an appropriate time to start this thread. This thread exists for the purpose of,

-Encouraging discussion about collecting for the Wii

and

-For people to exchange tips and advice about collecting for the Wii.
ie:
How rare is "game A"?
Where can I find cheap/good/rare Wii games?
Informing people about unusual/interesting games
What are the merits of/issues with collecting for the Wii?

This thread is NOT for,

-Trolling the Wii. Make your own thread if you insist on doing this. The Wii is a part of history now, it's time has come and gone and we can only analyze it, not change it.

----------------------------

To start the discussion, here are some questions/talking points,

1.How do you believe collecting for the Wii will be viewed once the dust has settled? The Wii sold 100 million units, I believe there's a whole generation, new and old, that were influenced by the Wii and a percentage of them who are not currently collectors or hardcore gamers will become interested in Wii collecting in the future.

2.There are for instance millions of adults that wouldn't buy any other console, but they bought a Wii. Might a small percentage of them start collecting for Wii eventually?

3.The Wii is a unique console, a unique experiment, and the appreciation for it could very well grow if its features aren't repeated. If motion control largely dries up, the Wii will have a distinct lasting appeal.

4.The Wii has some cool exclusive games, and some games demand have already surpassed their supply (ie: Xenoblade). What are some games that could increase in demand in the future?

5.What is appealing to you about Wii collecting?

6.What is a rare game that people underestimate its rarity?

7.What is it like to collect for Wii outside the US?
ie:
Japan?
Canada?
UK?
Australia?
etc.

--------------------------------------

WII GAMES

This list is far from exhaustive, it's just meant as a baseline for the Wii's games and hopefully as a basic informative tool.

Some games can easily fit within different categories, but nonetheless I've listed each game only once.

Every game listed is an exclusive unless otherwise marked.

This list excludes overt shovelware.

(Currently) Expensive: (prices are for complete copies)
$110- Zelda: Skyward Sword Gold Wiimote bundle
$100- Metroid Prime Trilogy
$95- Xenoblade Chronicles
$70- One Piece Unlimited Adventure
$65- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Uncommon:
Shiren the Wanderer
Pandora's Tower
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of The Moon
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces

Cheap but good: (around $5)
Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros Treasure
Excite Truck
Excitebots: Trick Racing
Metroid Prime 3
Metroid: Other M (cheap, but "good" is debatable)
Battalion Wars 2
Red Steel 2
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Dragon Quest Swords (very, very underrated)
Elebits

Mid-Value First Party (so $15-$50):
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2
New Super Mario Bros Wii
Mario Kart Wii
Super Paper Mario
Super Mario All Stars (compilation, not exclusive)
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Super Smash Bros Brawl
The Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda:Skyward Sword
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Kirby's Dream Collection
Animal Crossing: City Folk

Imports:
Another Code R (PAL release. Sequel to the DS game Trace Memory)
Captain Rainbow
Earthseeker
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (has differences from US version, ie: characters and music)
Monster Hunter G (was on PS2 in Japan, not exclusive)
Dragon Quest X
Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary (compilation, not exclusive)
Zangeki no Reginleiv
Fatal Frame IV
Tales of Graces (released in US on PS3)
Kiki Trick
Takt of Magic
Ikenie no Yoru
Imabikisou: Kaimei Hen

Uniques (weird new IP):
Little King's Story
Madworld
Opoona
Mushroom Men:The Spore Wars
Deadly Creatures
No More Heroes (ported to PS3 afterwards)
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Endless Ocean
Endless Ocean:Blue World
Spyborgs

Notable Miscellaneous Games:
Sin & Punishment:Star Successor
Punch-Out!!
Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
Mario Sports Mix
Arc Rise Fantasia
Tatsunoko vs Capcom
Monster Hunter Tri
The Last Story
Wario Ware Smooth Moves
Wario Land: Shake It!
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Sonic Colors
Rhythm Heaven Fever
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (ported to PS3 but no retail release there)
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (ported to PS3 but no retail release there)
Rune Factory Frontier
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Mario Party 8
Mario Party 9
Disney Epic Mickey
A Boy and His Blob
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Trauma Center: New Blood
Trauma Team
Castlevania Judgment
Klonoa

Totally Miscellaneous Games:
NiGHTS:Journey of Dreams
Lost in Shadow
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo
The Conduit
The Conduit 2
Link's Crossbow Training
Sonic and the Black Knight
Boom Blox
Boom Blox Bash Party
Kororinpa: Marble Mania
Marble Saga: Kororinpa
Dewy's Adventure
Ivy the Kiwi? (also on DS)
de Blob
Castle of Shikigami III
Ultimate Shooting Collection (compilation, not exclusive)
Blast Works
Flingsmash
The Muchables

[Opti]

Dang I had planned on getting Xenoblade when I got a Wii U. Like a month or two ago there was a bunch on amazon for 40-50 bucks, I remember thinking that i would buy them up on amazon and resell them on ebay for the 70-80 they were going for but didnt care enough to do it. I read this thread were it says 100 dollars, and I think to myself, what does no one check amazon for games, so I go to check and sure as hell, 100 dollars for a used on.

Next time I see Xenoblade for 50 I wont be passing it up.

[xelement5x]

Cool thread, you've got a nice start of solid titles there. A couple I noticed that were missing that I enjoyed were Calling and Cursed Mountain.

[Polygon]

Yes, very cool!

I need to nail down my wishlist for the Wii and I've honestly had a hard time wading through all the shovel ware.

[Gamevet]

Dang I had planned on getting Xenoblade when I got a Wii U. Like a month or two ago there was a bunch on amazon for 40-50 bucks, I remember thinking that i would buy them up on amazon and resell them on ebay for the 70-80 they were going for but didnt care enough to do it. I read this thread were it says 100 dollars, and I think to myself, what does no one check amazon for games, so I go to check and sure as hell, 100 dollars for a used on.

Next time I see Xenoblade for 50 I wont be passing it up.

I believe you're a little too late on getting Xenoblade for $50. I picked up a very hard to find (used) copy from Gamestop about 3 months ago, by using their search engine to discover a copy in Rockwall Texas. A couple of weeks before I had found that copy, I thought I had found a copy in Magnolia Arkasas ( I was returning from Little Rock), only to discover that it was shipped from that store, to Texarcana. I ended up paying $55 for that prestine used game. Now, I just need to pick up a Wii to give it a run.

[The Adventurer]

I found Xenoblade at a Flea Market stall for $5 last fall. It was a hell of a score that day. I turned around and sold it for $66 around Christmas time.

[PapaStu]

No Fritz Chess? No Dragonball Z Boudkai Teneshi 3 (w/ DVD or W/O)?


There are a bunch of very HTF Wii games that demand money and are somewhat under the radar.

[Rev. Link]

I would add Ju-On: The Grudge. Very cool little game, and creepy as hell.

[bigbacon]

how many games were actually released for the Wii in the USA?

[xelement5x]

I found Xenoblade at a Flea Market stall for $5 last fall. It was a hell of a score that day. I turned around and sold it for $66 around Christmas time.

That is quite a score, I would have kept it though because it's a good game, and it only seems to be going up in price. I bought a US copy only to support the US release so it's just sat there unopened with the artbook from day one. The EU LE release is a very cool set instead though. I wonder if it's gone up in price as well.

[The Adventurer]

That is quite a score, I would have kept it though because it's a good game, and it only seems to be going up in price.

Eh. I tried to play it but its gameplay and style didn't really jive with me. Felt like a single player MMO, and its combat felt really stiff. Just not for me.

[Rev. Link]

That is quite a score, I would have kept it though because it's a good game, and it only seems to be going up in price. I bought a US copy only to support the US release so it's just sat there unopened with the artbook from day one. The EU LE release is a very cool set instead though. I wonder if it's gone up in price as well.

Artbook? How did you get an artbook? I got mine direct from Nintendo, but I never read anything about an artbook. Now, my Last Story did come with an artbook.

[GREEN00]

Artbook? How did you get an artbook? I got mine direct from Nintendo, but I never read anything about an artbook. Now, my Last Story did come with an artbook.

Those who placed the first several pre-orders at a given Gamestop location for Xenoblade received an artbook. It's only around 10 pages long and it's held together with staples.

I received one of the artbooks, and they're going for around $30 on ebay.

[xelement5x]

Yeah, I believe the artbooks were a GameStop exclusive, hence why you didn't get it if you ordered through Nintendo. Similar to the Fire Emblem 3DS ones that were given out as well. Hard to believe those Xenoblade artbooks are going for like $30 each, you're right that they're made kind of crappy, but the embossed heavy card stock is at least a nice touch.

As for finding Wii games, I highly recommend searching local GameStops at this point, many of them still have their cases and they're not too expensive if they're kind of old. I just picked up the Ultimate Shooting Collection for under $2.

[Cornelius]

Cool thread. Seems like a good companion to a couple other Wii threads ("Rare" Wii games and is there a Wii release thread?)

Question though, I've been thinking of getting Pandora's Tower. It is available from Amazon, new, for regular retail price ($40). Is its listing above as 'uncommon' speculation? Has it been re-released or something? Just curious. Probably I should just go ahead and pick it up. Similar seems to be true with Fragile Dreams.

[Greg2600]

Yes, very cool!

I need to nail down my wishlist for the Wii and I've honestly had a hard time wading through all the shovel ware.

Sometimes I wonder if that's all that got sold in America.

[Spartacus]

I collect for the Wii mainly because it's there and my hobby is collecting video games. Personally, I don't believe the Wii's casual gamers will ever become nostalgic collectors nor do I believe the Wii converted them into born-again gamers. Hence the Wii-U sales figures. But I don't blame the Wii for that. Casual gamers, by definition, just don't care that much for gaming. But while the Wii did cater to casual gamers, it didn't ignore anybody else. The Wii library had something for everybody.

Nintendo's first party titles certainly deserve to be the core of any Wii library. Still, it's the surprisingly deep library of 3rd party games that made collecting for the Wii fun and interesting to me. For example, as a collector I became interested in identifying and acquiring a subset of Wii titles that were originally only released for the PlayStation 2 in Europe. Such as...
Anubis II
Billy the Wizard: Rocket Broomstick Racing
Classic British Motor Racing
Counter Force (Ex Zeus)
Impossible Mission
Jelly Belly: Ballistic Beans
King of Clubs
Myth Makers: Orbs of Doom
Myth Makers: Super Kart
Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland
Ninjabread Man
Ocean Commander
Offroad Extreme!
Rig Racer 2
Rock n' Roll Adventures

I really don't know what to say about those. Thank you Sony of America?

Since I'm interested in retro style games, ports or re-imaginings, I found these worthy of my Wii collection and I haven't seen them mentioned yet...
A Boy and His Blob
Alien Syndrome
Bit.Trip Complete
Blast Works: Build, Fuse & Destroy
Centipede: Infestation
Dragon's Lair Trilogy
Data East Arcade Classics
Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue
Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns: Rage of the Machines Arcade Hits
House of the Dead 2&3
House of the Dead: Overkill
Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack
Namco Museum Remix
Nights: Journey of Dreams
Rygar: The Battle of Argus
Sam & Max: Season One
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
Samba de Amigo
The Monkey King: The Legend Begins

And my import suggestion would be...
Milestone Shooting Collection 2 which adds Radirgy Noa and Illvelo to the three included in the Ultimate Shooting Collection.

I use a Wii Free Loader boot disc for imports.

Did you know the Wii has 35 games who's titles start with the word family? I don't have any of those, but somehow it just felt right to load my Wii library with Harry Potter, LEGO, Rabbids, Skylanders and SpongeBob SquarePants games.
On the hand, the Wii earned my respect with The Godfather: Blackhand Edition being considered the best version of The Godfather game on any console. The Wii version of Manhunt 2 allowing for more violence than the PS2 version did. And having a sequel to the Xbox360 Onechanbara game. Heck, I had enjoyed Onechanbara games when they were only PS2 imports.

I have no idea which Wii games are rare, but these have caught my attention mostly by asking prices.
Walk It Out
Pony Friends 2
The Oregon Trail: 40th Anniversary Edition
Godzilla Unleashed
Free Running
F1 2009
(F1 I understand, was a Gamestop exclusive for both the Wii and PSP.)

When I think of the Wii - I think of the Wii-Mote. I prefer a traditional controller, but the Wii-Mote is a perfect fit for the point and click genre, which frankly I never expected to see on a console again. But I think perhaps the greatest unexpected impact the Wii-mote had on the Wii library was in the incredible number of cheaply made peripherals that used it like a shell. And I knew that I wanted some sort of representation of them in my Wii library because they just screamed Wii!
I briefly considered collecting the Wii games that came bundled with a steering wheel, but I'm not much of a car guy. Since I do like to hunt and fish, I settled on games that came bundled with fishing controllers and blasters.

http://imageshack.us/a/img607/5633/mywii.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/mywii.jpg/)

Those two Hooked! Real Motion Fishing bundles in the upper right are tough to find now.

[M.Buster2184]

http://imageshack.us/a/img607/5633/mywii.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/mywii.jpg/)

Those two Hooked! Real Motion Fishing bundles in the upper right are tough to find now.[/QUOTE]

That is an impressive Wii collection sir.

[Mayhem]

Sheesh... I knew there were a lot of the big box peripheral games released in the US, but that's more than I thought...!

[joshnickerson]

http://imageshack.us/a/img607/5633/mywii.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/mywii.jpg/)


Nice! I never understood the complaint that there were "no good games" on the Wii... granted, there was lots of shovelware, but any popular console will have a lot of crappy quick-buck games (NES, Playstation, Atari, etc). I believe there are at least 100 games worth owning for the Wii and the fact many of them are dirt cheap now means now is the time to buy for anyone even remotely interested in the Wii library.

[dgdgagdae]

Hmm, I might need to finally pick up a Wii. Amazon has the old style ones available, which I'd prefer, as I don't have a GameCube.

[T2KFreeker]

Cool thread, you've got a nice start of solid titles there. A couple I noticed that were missing that I enjoyed were Calling and Cursed Mountain.

You got another vote for Cursed Mountain here. Very, very cool survival horror title. One that DOESN'T involve Zombies, for a change. Unique in that it involves Mountain Climbing as the core basis of the story. Very spooky ghost story going on here. The game was sadly relegated, unjustly, to the shovelware pile. Basically, it got lost amongst a bunch of bad games. It's got a very inherent Silent Hill feel to it and it's also an early Deep Silver game, the studio that went on to do Dead Island. Last I checked, the Collector's Edition, a rarity in itself for Wii games, was less than $10.00 on Amazon. Comes in a really nice steel case with different artwork than the standard editions, a DVD with the making of the game as well as a soundtrack CD. Well worth the price of admission. I really do feel that once word finally starts spreading about this game, it will end up being one that fetches quite the price on the evilbay. Not that many were made and it's not a well known title, at this point. It's also a pretty unique experience for the Wii. I think it might have been available for the PC, but can't remember. Mark my words, it's a really good game.

[GREEN00]

Cool thread. Seems like a good companion to a couple other Wii threads ("Rare" Wii games and is there a Wii release thread?)

Question though, I've been thinking of getting Pandora's Tower. It is available from Amazon, new, for regular retail price ($40). Is its listing above as 'uncommon' speculation? Has it been re-released or something? Just curious. Probably I should just go ahead and pick it up. Similar seems to be true with Fragile Dreams.

Here are some reasons I suggest you buy Pandora's Tower today if you have any interest in it,

1.It's the Wii's last significant game. Games released at the end of console's lifespan are often amongst the rarest/most desirable.

2.XSEED is the publisher. XSEED published games have low printings.

3.Pandora's Tower's MSRP is $40, it's already a bargain.

4.The "Operation Rainfall' trinity games are almost certain to have a special aura surrounding them in the future.

5.Wii will likely gain collector interest in the years to come simply by virtue of being a Nintendo system, and Pandora's Tower will get more attention at such time.

6.From what I've heard, Pandora's Tower is a great, unique game. I bought it for myself for this reason alone

[Rev. Link]

Nice! I never understood the complaint that there were "no good games" on the Wii... granted, there was lots of shovelware, but any popular console will have a lot of crappy quick-buck games (NES, Playstation, Atari, etc). I believe there are at least 100 games worth owning for the Wii and the fact many of them are dirt cheap now means now is the time to buy for anyone even remotely interested in the Wii library.

At the store where I work I'm always trying to tell people how good the Wii was. True, when gen 7 was in full swing I played more 360 than anything else, but once I got over my motion control prejudice and gave the Wii library a fair look I found a lot of gems. You just have to be willing to dig through all the junk.