In the second of the Getting Ready for Wii series, we take a look at what games are going to be available for Wii at launch.

First Party Titles

First party titles are those made by Nintendo themselves, and usually are the cream of the crop. Nintendo are trying The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as the main launch game this time, with no sign of Mario or Luigi (apart from the Virtual Console’s Mario Bros.).

The Wii console is bundled with Wii Sports, which acts as a demostration of what is possible with the Wiimote. The game includes 5 different sports (Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing), and shows off the Wii’s Mii system.

The full list of first party launch games, excluding Virtual Console titles is:

• The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess
• Wii Sports (bundled with the console)
• Wii Play (including an extra Wiimote)

Third Party Titles

There is a huge amount of support from third parties for the Wii. Ubisoft seem to have become Nintendo’s best friends, releasing 8 games at launch! Other developers such as Activision and Midway Games have games ready for launch, with many more having games nearing completion or in development.

A few titles to look out for are Red Steel and Rayman: Raving Rabbids from UbiSoft. Red Steel turns your Wiimote into a sword or a gun as you hack and blast your way through various settings, where as Rayman: Raving Rabbids is a collection of extremely fun minigames, plagued by rabbids.

The full list of third party launch games, excluding Virtual Console titles is:

• Call of Duty 3 (Activision)
• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision)
• Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam(Activision)
• Madden NFL 07 (EA)
• Need For Speed: Carbon (EA)
• Happy Feet (Midway Games)
• Rampage: Total Destruction (Midway Games)
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega)
• Gottlieb Pinball Classics (System 3)
• Super Fruit Fall (System 3)
• Cars (THQ)
• Barnyard (THQ)
• Spongebob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (THQ)
• Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII (Ubisoft)
• Far Cry Vengeance (Ubisoft)
• GT Pro Series (Ubisoft)
• Monster 4×4 World Circuit (Ubisoft)
• Open Season (Ubisoft)
• Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft)
• Red Steel (Ubisoft)
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft)

Future Releases

There are many games to look out for inside what Nintendo refer to as the “release window”, which is from console launch until March 2007. These games are from various developers, including someone gems from Nintendo such as Warioware: Smooth Moves and Elebits from Konami.

First party games to watch out for are Metriod Prime 3: Corruption and Excite Truck, with many many more planned for after March.

Third party games to keep your eyes peeled for are Trauma Center - Second Opinion by Atlus, Super Swing Golf PANGYA by Tecmo, Metal Slug Anthology by SNK and Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors by Nintendo’s old buddies, Square Enix, to name but a handful.

Check back for tomorrow’s edition of Getting Ready for Wii, with a look at a few of the Wii Channels you can expect to see come December 8th.