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So hey, how are you liking that Wii? Assuming you were one of the lucky ones who didn't get skunked with a raincheck DVD case full of empty promises for Christmas, you've probably been liking it just fine. Hopefully, you've gotten the thing online by now and have taken a glance at the Shop Channel's library of downloadable Virtual Console games. Some are fantastic and should not be missed. Others are stinky garbage. The cheerfully vague Shop Channel descriptions do little to tell you whether the title you're eyeing is stinky garbage or not, though, and if you're searching for a game to send to a friend using the new Gifting feature, you risk losing more than a handful of Wii Points by accidentally downloading Urban Champion.

So just for laughs, Lynxara and I thought we'd pick out the 16 best Virtual Console games released during the Wii's lifespan thus far, and present them to you in compact and convenient list format. Unfortunately, our bias toward games that are actually good resulted in many picks that you won't see on other lists, while certain popular choices remain conspicuously absent. We regret the error, and will take immediate corrective action.

Super Mario Bros. 3

Lynxara: It would be easy to create a list of top VC games that just recommended every Nintendo first-party offering that included "Mario" somewhere in the title, but what fun is that? Instead, we're going to represent the vast Mario platforming empire with the best game in the series and, not incidentally, one of the most popular games ever made. Super Mario Bros. 3 features everything remotely fun about the first two outings with better graphics and an amazing array of short, bouncy levels. All the Mario series has managed to do since Super Mario Bros. 3 is try to make sure the games were turning out sort-of kind-of as fun as Super Mario Bros. 3, perhaps with better graphics or in 3D or in space or some damn thing.

There was a certain feeling of freedom that you got from a Mario platformer that you didn't find in other games back in the 2D day. Part of it came from the tight controls and surreal atmosphere, and part of it from the tremendously empowering feeling of becoming a fireball-hurling giant who crushed his enemies beneath his feet. Super Mario Bros. 3 took that to a whole new level by offering huger worlds than ever, filled with more types of stages and a wider variety of power-ups. Now you could fly, become a fast-swimming frog, or screw around with items between levels to see if it'd get you anywhere new or different. You even got to pick which levels you wanted to play and save your progress as you went, saving you from the tedium the original Super Mario Bros. could inspire. Basically, this is one of the best games ever made, and really the only Mario game you ever need to get from the VC.

Kirby's Adventure

Lynxara: You knew a Game Boy title had hit it big when it inspired a sequel on the mighty NES. As good as Kirby's Dream Land was, Kirby's Adventure might as well be the first game in the series. Everything that gamers would go on to love and expect from a Kirby game shows up here, particularly the ability to eat and swallow enemies in order to gain their powers. The range of powers Kirby gains is tremendous and wacky, and since the game's not especially hard, it's fun to challenge yourself to make it through using only particular powers, or to just use all of the wackiest things you can find. I'm fond of the option to turn Kirby into a UFO, myself.

Above, I mentioned that Super Mario Bros. 3 was great because it gave you a real sense of freedom, but Kirby's Adventure trumps it in most ways. I mean, Mario needs to find a power-up to fly, while Kirby can fly limitlessly while also attacking with projectiles and storing other power-ups. Kirby had a ton of life relative to most platforming heroes, and could refill it pretty easily (and win 1ups in mini-games). There was a certain feeling that Kirby was indestructible, and you shouldn't feel bad about whatever you end up doing to him. Couple that with beautiful graphics and a memorable score, and you have a game that you play less to challenge yourself and more to just wander around and see what's possible. Since Kirby's Adventure is so excellent, you'll find that damn near anything you can think of ends up being possible.

Balloon Fight

Sardius: Do you like Joust but wish it didn't suck so bad? Yeah, you heard me. Balloon Fight may be a total ripoff of Joust -- in short, it's a single-screen, arcade-style action game where you fly around and land on top of enemies to pop their balloons before they do the same to you -- but Nintendo managed to take the formula and improve it to such a great extent that it actually became fun. A lot of fun, in fact.

The gameplay could scarcely be simpler, but the package has plenty of little oddities that make it worth a purchase. Try Balloon Trip mode if you're in the mood for a strangely relaxing trip through a lightning storm, or form a tenuous bond as you fight enemies with a second player, who you will inevitably turn upon during the bloodthirsty grudge match bonus rounds. Whatever you do, just watch out for that fish. Bastard's scary.

Wrecking Crew

Sardius: I've talked about it before at greater length, but I totally love Wrecking Crew. While it's a destruction-based puzzler at heart, it has the controls and gameplay progression of an action game. You play as Mario (or Luigi, who is for some reason dressed entirely in hot pink here), and you're out to bust up some buildings brick-by-brick with a hammer. You can't just go around smashing stuff like an idiot, though -- you'll need a carefully plan a destructive path, and formulate escape routes on the fly as monsters pursue you.

Really, there's nothing else quite like Wrecking Crew on the Virtual Console -- or elsewhere, for that matter. Puzzlers usually require a greater capacity of either brainpower or reflexes, but Wrecking Crew is one of the few that demands an equal amount of both. Go download it already, if just to see what Luigi looked like in his more flamboyant years.

Super Castlevania IV

Lynxara: Every new hardware generation, there's inevitably a title that absolutely blows your mind by showing off what the "next gen" system can do. For the 16-bit era, that was Super Castlevania IV, and in some ways the game is still mindblowing. There are features in it that haven't been duplicated by any other Castlevania title, like the whip-swinging, the Mode 7 rotating background levels, and the eight-directional whipping. The level designs were uniformly brilliant, and the sprites and parallax scrolling backgrounds are still amazing in their sheer detail. Bear in mind, this wasn't a late-gen title like Kirby's Adventure that pulled every bit of possible performance, either. This was one of the earliest SNES games.

But perhaps what's best about Super Castlevania IV is that the gameplay is entirely in line with the NES classic Castlevania, with one crucial difference: difficulty. The NES Castlevania is an unforgiving meatgrinder, and most people only knew one or two kids who could make it to Dracula, let alone beat him. Super Castlevania IV is at once more fun and less frustrating. You take less cheap damage and have more tricks in your arsenal to retaliate with. Even a crappy gamer is going to get a lot farther in Super Castlevania IV than they will in NES Castlevania, with a lot more reward for their effort.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Lynxara: I've had a hard time playing other Zelda games since A Link to the Past, a.k.a. Zelda III, came out. There's something kind of... perfect about it. It lets you do pretty much everything you'd possibly want to do in a top-down old-school Zelda title, with perfect controls and graphics that have aged with surprising grace. You've got two worlds to explore, awesome puzzles to solve, fantastic dungeon bosses, and more tools and power-ups to collect than you really need. Of course, they're still fun to use and give you a million little things to do while exploring the world, so you get them all anyway.

All told, it's not too surprising that the follow-up to Zelda III on consoles was the jump to the 3D, third-person titles that feel utterly different. Zelda III is a game so overwhelmingly great at its basic approach that it leaves you scratching your head and wondering what Nintendo could've possibly done next. Maybe have Link turn into a wolf or something, I don't know.

Kirby's Dream Course

Sardius: Kirby's Adventure is one of the best traditional side-scrolling Kirby games out there, but the little guy's been in plenty of interesting spinoffs over the years as well. Kirby's Dream Course is perhaps the best of them. It's miniature golf, basically. You don't have direct control over Kirby here; instead, you line up a shot, then charge up a power meter to shoot Kirby toward enemy characters. Make Kirby roll through all the enemies in a stage, and a hole appears. Get Kirby in the hole. Hooray, you win!

It's much more complex than it sounds, though. Kirby retains his ability to absorb enemy powers here, so expect to use jumps, fireballs, and umbrellas to finish each hole. Regardless of its action elements, the game is still scored like minigolf, and experimenting with shots and powers in pursuit of lower scores makes the game addictive and endlessly replayable. There's a fun and really well thought-out two-player mode, too. Give it a try!

Pokemon Snap

Lynxara: If there is any N64 game that badly needs a modern update, it's Pokemon Snap. The original had its flaws (short and easy when it comes to the in-game goals), but still emerges as the only Pokemon spinoff that was really worth a damn. The concept is simple and pretty clever: you're on rails, taking pictures of Pokemon. You get more points for action shots, so you're encouraged to screw around with the monsters in frequently sadistic ways.

There are some games where their fun factor transcends what you're supposed to be doing in-game, though, and Snap is one like that. Despite being an on-rails, uh, picture shooter, you're free to replay levels endlessly and get a variety of things to hurl at the monsters in your vicious quest to make them fight or just look like they're suffering. It's an older title, so it only includes a small percentage of the original 150 Pokemon, but even with those limitations, it creates some fascinating environments and neat interactions. It's hard not to imagine an updated version with better textures and the current range of nearly 500 monsters... but for now, the old N64 Pokemon Snap will do.

Mario Kart 64

Sardius: I'm going to be extremely controversial here and call Mario Kart 64 the best Mario Kart game on consoles. Yes, I know that it doesn't have the feather power-up. Yes, I know that Double Dash!! is really, really fun. Mario Kart 64's exceptional level design gives it an edge over its predecessor and its sequels, however. The courses are just plain fun, no matter the speed class or how many players you're playing with, and their designs are interesting and encourage exploration. You'll want to see where the train tracks lead in Kalimari Desert, and who hasn't driven around Princess Peach's castle in Royal Raceway at least once?

Otherwise, Mario Kart 64 plays mostly the same as any other Mario Kart game -- complete with controller-wiggling speed boosts and that terrible, terrible blue shell -- and four-player races and battles are as addictive as they've always been. The upcoming Wii version of Mario Kart could prove to be the new console Kart champion if the recent (and awesome) Mario Kart DS is of any indication, but in the meantime, Mario Kart 64 will serve your Mario-themed racing needs just fine.

Plus, it's got Toad. He's the best!

Star Fox 64

Sardius: Remember playing the first level of Star Fox Assault? "Oh man," you said. "I knew Star Fox Adventures was just a fluke! I love you, Star Fox!" Then remember how it turned to complete crap immediately afterward? Don't worry -- Star Fox 64 never turns to complete crap. Or any other kind of crap, really. It's a forward-scrolling blaster in the spirit of the original Star Fox, but -- get this -- it adds stuff that actually makes the game better. Amazing!

Star Fox 64 is just so likable, too. There's the satisfying, explosion-filled combat, the goofy character chatter...hell, even those land-based tank levels are kind of fun. The multiple branching paths and endings will keep you replaying the game for a long time, too, and die-hard players will dig the extremely difficult (and extremely optional) medal requirements. Get all of the medals, and you earn...a new title screen! Yeah, woo!

ToeJam and Earl

Lynxara: Many Genesis games were marred by terrible music. Even a lot of otherwise fantastic games have noodly, meedly scores that lack the panache of an NES but also the sophistication of an SNES. There are exceptions to this, and the biggest one is ToeJam and Earl. After over fifteen years of buying second-hand Genesis consoles and fixing them up for the sole purpose of playing ToeJam and Earl, I'm still not tired of the funky, infectious soundtrack. There's nothing else on early consoles (or the VC) quite like it, and the same goes for the gameplay, too.

See, ToeJam and Earl is a roguelike, but not one where you should concern yourself with fighting enemies (although you do want to level up, which reflects ascending amounts of coolness). You also don't have to play it alone, and won't play it until you beat some final boss. Instead, you can get together with a buddy to play as the titular ToeJam and Earl, searching relentlessly for the lost parts of your spaceship. Levels are floating islands, and you can fall down from one above to ones below... and unless you go weaksauce and play the pre-gen levels, everything's randomly generated.

The result is an addictive, fun game that's still one of the best co-op titles ever. It can infinitely generate new levels to play, and all you have to do to gain experience is explore your world, avoid danger, and try to get to spaceship parts quickly. Sometimes you can get stuck, especially in 1P mode, but if so, you won't be too annoyed. After all, you have an awesome soundtrack to listen to, and even after you beat it, you can keep going back to see if you can duplicate your feat with a different set of levels. I still play ToeJam and Earl at least once a week... but thankfully, this doesn't involve janky half-dead old Genesis hardware anymore.

Streets of Rage 2

Lynxara: If you had a SNES, you got to play a neutered port of Final Fight but felt very superior about it. On the Genesis, you "made do" with Streets of Rage 2... which, generally speaking, means that you won. The Streets of Rage series gave you crazy beat 'em up action that was at least as good as anything Final Fight could deliver, coupled with music that was absolutely amazing. And not amazing by "Genesis standards", either. Streets of Rage 2 is in the handful of Genesis games that featured tunes that were excellent by any reasonable standard of video game music.

The story is basically an 80's action movie set to music, as you and your well-meaning vigilante pals set out to dispense justice to organized crime in a city that is New York in all but name. It was a decent game in single-player and absolutely excellent in co-op, where thinning out the hordes of enemies who swarmed you became much more... well, possible. Every character had extremely detailed and individual animations, even the enemies, so sometimes you'd just play it to watch bikers swarm by and marvel at how quickly ninjas could kill you. With Streets of Rage 2, it's tough love, so you'll just pick up the controller and try again.

Shining Force

Lynxara: The Genesis isn't remembered as an RPG system, but its stand-out RPGs were amazing-- fast-paced, innovative games that are sophisticated enough to hold up against a lot of modern offerings. Shining Force is one such game, and is notable for being one of the earliest great tactical RPGs. It plays a bit like a simpler Fire Emblem, but its pace is fast and its difficulty is a bit more forgiving. You move from exploration to battle phases in a brisk, intuitive fashion.

While the plot and overall "look" of Shining Force comes mostly from simple 8-bit RPGs like Dragon Quest, there's a certain complexity there that was really ahead of its time. It's no character-driven dramafest like its contemporaries in the Final Fantasy series, but it's also a game that offered you a staggering array of ways to solve the tactical problems it presented you with. Raising units took care and effort, and sometimes ended up with you caring a lot about your little centaur knights and dwarven warriors. Your only real limitation was not losing your main character, and beyond that, Shining Force offers an amazing tactical RPG sandbox for screwing around in.

Bomberman '93

Sardius: Bomberman '93 is fairly barebones, by later Bomberman series standards. It doesn't have the eye-killing ten-player mode of Saturn Bomberman, those weird kangaroo things wouldn't be seen until Bomberman '94, and practically every Bomberman released thereafter had more modes and stages. But...it's Bomberman! Making your friends explode will never not be fun.

Bomberman '93 supports up to five players, which is just enough to ensure hours of extremely vulgar trash-talk and dozens upon dozens of embarrassing deaths and memorable moments. Bomberman '93's simplicity actually works in its favor when you're trying to gather up people for a five-player match, too, since it's an extremely easy concept to grasp, and the chaotic gameplay ensures that everyone will get an accidental win every once in a while. Even grandma!

Ninja Spirit

Sardius: Side-scrolling action games were plentiful in the late '80s and early '90s, and the Virtual Console is just now beginning to feel the effects. You may be tempted to endure endless frustration at the hands of very large birds in Ninja Gaiden, but in comparison, Ninja Spirit for the TurboGrafx-16 offers a great selection of weapons, a reasonable difficulty level, and more satisfying, less frustrating gameplay on the whole.

Whereas Ninja Gaiden's Ryu has a weird weight to him that makes him easy prey for bottomless pits, Ninja Spirit's Ninja McNinjerson (or whatever his name is) is much more agile. You'll leap impossibly high in the air, slicing through hordes of enemies and collecting power-ups that make the screen explode all around you with colorful death. Despite the number of platformers already available on the Virtual Console, Ninja Spirit stands out as one of the best, and Ninja McNinjerson deserves your attention much more than some jackass in a neon purple jumpsuit covered in birdseed.

Galaga '90

Sardius: Despite its popularity, Galaga's gameplay kept it from becoming a many-sequeled franchise. It was just too perfect. Galaga was the best game of its type throughout the '80s despite the many imitators that followed, and it remains as playable today as it was 25 years ago. Galaga '90 is a great sequel in that it doesn't mess with the original formula much. Sure, you'll fly through some new vertically scrolling shooter levels and take on a handful of boss characters this time around, but in between, you'll find the same single-screen shooter gameplay that made the original Galaga so wonderful.

Galaga '90's few new additions work extremely well, too. Enemies can now capture your ship twice in a row, earning you a powerful triple-shot when you rescue your twin ships. The bonus stages have been spruced up to add an element of rhythm, as the alien waves now have unique dances that are timed to appropriate background music. Galaga '90 also adds warps and branching stage progression, which allows you to choose the levels and bosses you face. By making only minor alterations to its core gameplay, Galaga '90 manages to surpass the original Galaga in depth and entertainment value, and it's very much worth your Wii Points.

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