It seems slightly odd to be doing a Golden Era of Gaming entry for a console that’s still on the market, but the Wii justifies it. While the Xbox 360 offers a limited degree of backwards compatibility and the PS3 has a generous stab at letting you raid the back catalogue, it’s Nintendo’s motion-control ground breaker that brings you Gamecube and Gameboy Advance compatibility along with the huge number of defunct gaming systems represented on the Virtual Console. In many ways, the Wii is several ‘golden eras of gaming’ rolled into one. But for all the old school love of the 16-bit titles available for download and the Gamecube discs that can be played once you pick up a legacy controller, it’s very easy to forget that there are some great games available in those white branded, current-gen boxes.
Lots of them are ports from the past gen, mind you. Nintendo is often criticised for rehashing past glories, but these days it’s actually just as likely that they’ll simply repackage them instead. In compiling our list of the best games for the console we were surprised to see how many of them were available on older consoles. Still, with the limited time, money and house space available, we’re choosing to be grateful that we don’t have to keep too many old consoles stacked up behind the TV just to play our old favourites.
It was an extremely tough list to compile. Among the honourable mentions are Little King’s Story, which is certainly among the most enjoyable and absorbing games the console has seen, but we felt that its mix of RTS and RPG elements didn’t have as broad an appeal as some other titles. Also missing the cut is Sega’s Madworld, a game that starts of as a glorious riot of lively action and impeccable visual style, but soon becomes juvenile and repetitive. Finally, there’s no Super Smash Bros Brawl. I know a lot of you out there adore it, but beneath all the particle effects and camera zooms, I’ve never found anything to hold my attention. (See internet: a polite and respectful difference of opinion, that’s how grown ups do it. Agree to disagree, marvel at the myriad diverse opinions that help make the world interesting, and move on. Without making death threats, you nasty little freaks.)

So here's the first part of our top ten picks of Wii goodness:
10. Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil
What am I going to do when I have to write one of these lists for a console on which there are no Resident Evil games to choose? Well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the meantime, this port or the Gamecube’s Resident Evil remake represents one of the high points of the survival horror genre. The puzzles genuinely engage your brain and give you a great sense of progress and satisfaction as they unlock ever more interesting and varied locations. There’s also real tension, as the zombies and monsters represent a serious threat to your perpetually outgunned character. There’s even that real rarity of videogames: a genuinely moving, tragic villainess. Frankly, if it weren’t such a direct, bare bones port, Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil would be much higher on the list.

9. Mario Kart Wii
While there isn’t anything hugely innovative in this sixth instalment of the Mario Kart series, it succeeds by combining a huge amount of content with a gameplay model that’s a proven winner. Bikes, 36 karts of different power classes, 24 characters, 32 tracks, racing, time trial and battle modes-this version of Mario Kart offers everything. Well, almost everything. Frankly, we’d have liked to have had a free-for-all battle mode included. Still, that minor complaint aside, Mario Kart Wii offers plenty of ways to try out its accessible mix of skilled racing and lucky weapon use, and is one of the Wii’s stand out multiplayer titles.
8. Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre
Using nearly a whole article’s worth of hyphens in one go, this is the third-person, sci-fi tactical-cover-shooter that was doing what third-person, sci-fi tactical-cover-shooters do before all the other third-person sci-fi tactical-cover-shooters started doing it too. Playing as everyone’s favourite vat-grown, genetically modified future soldier from the pages of 2000AD, you shoot your way across the war ravaged Nu-Earth, ducking behind handy waist high barricades whenever the gunfire gets a bit too heated, and slowly try to track down the traitor who sold out your unit and got your buddies killed. That all-action premise on its own is well executed enough to earn Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre a high score, but the added twist is that the ‘ghosts’ of your dead buddies are preserved on microchips inserted into your equipment and offer all sorts of additional skills-you can hack computers, transmit decoy holograms, set up sentry turrets, throw your voice and more besides, meaning that there’s any number of ways to tackle each tricky situation the game throws at you.
7. Super Mario Galaxy 2
What can you say about the Super Mario Galaxy series? Well, if you’re me you could probably say “I don’t like platform games.” But despite my curmudgeonly distaste for carefully timed running and leaping, it has to be said the Super Mario Galaxy 2 has an abundance of that rarest and most wonderful of gameplay intangibles: the one-more-go factor. From its brightly coloured hub world to the seemingly bottomless invention of its many galaxies, SMG2 took the addictive platforming of its predecessor and adds some truly innovative level concepts that could have supported a game in their own right. The combination of familiarity and fascination means that you’ll always want see a little more, to try out the next challenge, to have another go, and another, and another, until it’s time to phone in sick for work.
6. Okami
This cel-shaded, stylised work of beauty was originally a PS2 game from 2006, but we can all count ourselves lucky that it got a Wii port, as it is one of those challenging yet mellow and contemplative games that come along so rarely, and are talked about for years after. This is one of those few games that can be spoken of in the same breath as Ico or Shadow of the Colossus. Playing as the Goddess Amaterasu in the form of a wolf, you move through a woodcut version of pre-feudal Japan, adventuring, puzzling and platforming your way towards the lifting of a curse on the land. The Zelda-esque feel of the game combined with its particular setting would be enough to earn it high praise, but he ‘celestial brush’ mechanic that allows you to draw useful new items and elements such as wind or fire into the woodcut adds an extra dimension to this beautiful game.

Part two to follow...