Video Games Happy Birthday WiiWare: 5 Games Worth Downloading

A year ago today, Nintendo launched its WiiWare channel, a marketplace for downloadable games that was Ninty’s answer to the Xbox Live Arcade and Sony’s Playstation Network. Of course, with Nintendo’s lower-res graphics and internal memory limitations, comparing WiiWare to XBLA and PSN is an apples-oranges kind of thing. So no, you can’t expect graphics as with XBLA classics like Geometry Wars 2 or Bionic Commando Re-Armed–but yes, you can still find beautiful art direction, retro gaming nostalgia, and a captivating gaming experience for far less than the cost of a single console game (with decent multiplayer to boot).

Sure, there’s a ton of shovelware in Wii’s usual selection, but WiiWare’s best brings out the wide-eyed stoner kid in all of us. We picked our five favorite WiiWare Games to get you started…