Highlights
- The Nintendo Wii, known for family-friendly games, also had a collection of survival horror games that used motion controls for immersive experiences.
- Escape From Bug Island, Ju-On: The Grudge, and Obscure: The Aftermath are some of the terrifying horror games available on the Wii.
- The Wii version of Manhunt 2 is considered one of the best ways to play the game, with motion controls adding to the horror and spine-tingling experience.
The Nintendo Wii is mainly known for its giant library of family-friendly games that use motion controls to deliver innovative and unique experiences. It became one of the most successful consoles of all time by having a plethora of titles like Wii Sports and Super Smash Bros. that appealed to both casual and longtime gamers.
Despite the Wii’s wholesome reputation, it also had a handful of grim survival horror games for more mature audiences. Each one effectively used the console’s motion controls to create immersive and haunting adventures unlike anything else at the time. If you’re feeling brave, these Wii games will give you goosebumps before you have time to fasten the wrist strap on your Wiimote.
Updated on September 26, 2023, by Kyle Chamaillard: The Nintendo Wii was one of the most popular consoles ever created, and it received a wide variety of games to appease its massive audience. The Wii might have a reputation for being family-friendly, but there were a surprising amount of terrifying horror games for anyone who wanted to jump from fear instead of on Bowser’s head. We’ve decided to update this list to include even more of the best horror games on the Nintendo Wii.
11 Escape From Bug Island
If you enjoy campy, B-tier movies like Sharknado or Lavalantula, there is a good chance you’ll also like Escape From Bug Island. Developed exclusively for the Wii, this game requires you to use motion controls to attack giant monsters while searching for fellow survivors. The creepy atmosphere is effective, but you’ll need to survive the gameplay to see it all the way through.
There are interesting ideas hiding within Escape From Bug Island, as well as some unique locations for those who enjoy a challenge that is not the smoothest but is one of the campest.
10 Ju-On: The Grudge
Ju-On – commonly known as The Grudge in the West – is an immensely popular horror saga that peaked during the early 2000s. To celebrate the series’ 10th anniversary, development began on a Wii-exclusive video game with the original creator of the series on board to direct.
Ju-On: The Grudge is less of a survival-horror game and more of a walking simulator. You won’t have to worry about fighting any monsters, but the true fear comes from navigating a series of haunted locations with jump scares waiting for you behind every corner. The game even uses the Wiimote’s motion controls to detect whether you flinch or not, which affects your success rate of making it through an area alive.
9 Obscure: The Aftermath
Obscure: The Aftermath is a sequel to a 2004 game and takes place two years after the events of its predecessor. It’s unfortunate that the original Obscure isn’t available on the Wii, but it shouldn’t take you too long to put the pieces together to understand what’s happening. A group of students must survive a night against a pack of mutants and face a secret organization disguised as a fraternity.
The plot is fairly predictable, and the gameplay doesn’t do anything too special, but there is one reason to look at Obscure: The Aftermath instead of other survival horror games on the Wii – you can play it cooperatively with a friend. There are six playable characters and each of them has a unique ability, so you can have some fun experimenting with different combinations and play through the game as a pair.
8 Manhunt 2
While the Wii had plenty of original games, it also received many ports from unexpected developers such as Rockstar. After essentially ignoring the GameCube during its lifecycle, Rockstar noticed the popularity of the Wii and made sure most of their games were available on the platform, including the controversial Manhunt 2.
Manhunt 2 feels like the antithesis of the Wii’s legacy, but many consider the version on Nintendo’s console to be one of the best ways to play the game. It may be one of the more toned-down and censored ways to experience this title, but the inclusion of motion controls in the Wii version somehow makes it even more horrific and spine-tingling to play.
7 Calling
An underrated feature of the Wiimote was the built-in speaker that would subtly play different noises or sounds to enhance your immersion in a game. One of the best uses of the speaker is in the Wii-exclusive Calling, which requires you to hold it up to your ear like a phone to hear creepy calls from ghosts.
Few modern horror games can emulate the awful feeling of having a ghost whisper in your ear as something terrifying is simultaneously happening on the screen. Calling will keep you on the edge of your seat as you navigate abandoned hospitals and doll-filled houses, though some of its quick-time events feel a bit gimmicky.
6 The House Of The Dead: Overkill
The House of the Dead is one of the most popular rail shooter franchises ever, but it wouldn’t appear on a home console until this prequel launched on the Wii in 2009. Either alone or with a friend, you will follow Special Agent G and Detective Isaac Washington as they venture into Louisiana to defeat zombies and save the world from a chemical known as Formula X.
If you’re a fan of exploitation films like Planet Terror or Machete, The House of the Dead: Overkill is the perfect choice for a hilariously spooky adventure. It’s an extremely short game – it takes roughly four hours to finish the campaign – but each chapter is full of shocking moments, cheesy dialogue, and over-the-top action to help make it as memorable and fun as possible.
5 Cursed Mountain
Many horror games are set in similar locations like run-down hospitals or abandoned towns, but Cursed Mountain elevates the tension by placing you on the Himalayas for a harrowing journey. After his brother goes missing during an expedition, it’s up to Eric Simmons to scale a treacherous mountain and find a way to break the curse tormenting the area.
The developers of Cursed Mountain spent a lot of time during pre-production researching Tibetan mythology and stories from the Himalayas to help them create a new breed of survival horror, and it mostly worked out spectacularly. The location and story still feel fresh to this day, though the inclusion of motion controls to defeat enemies often removes the tension from most situations.
4 Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
The Silent Hill series is often associated with Sony, but when the developers at Climax Studios first saw the Nintendo Wii, they knew it had the potential to make a new game in the series that would subvert all prior expectations of the series. While Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was eventually ported to the PSP and PS2, the original Wii version is still viewed as the quintessential way to experience it.
Lead designer and writer Sam Barlow – who would eventually create the phenomenal Her Story and Immortality – uses the Wii’s motion controls in one of the most fascinating and effective ways. Everything you do, from looking at certain objects to answering questions, is recorded in a Psych Profile that affects the story and even the appearance of enemies. Each playthrough should be slightly different from the last, making Shattered Memories one of the most replayable games in the series.
3 Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil
The excellent remake of the original Resident Evil was eventually ported to the Wii alongside Resident Evil 0 under the Resident Evil Archives label. It’s a fairly straightforward port of the GameCube version with minor changes, but the Resident Evil remake is one of the best games in the series, and having another way to play it makes it easier to revisit whenever you want to return to the Spencer Mansion.
Despite being ported to the Wii, there are absolutely no motion control options for this version of Resident Evil. It’s probably for the best because it’s hard to imagine how they would work, and including them would definitely take away some of the charm and horror of Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield’s first adventure.
Like Silent Hill, you might not connect the tense and gore-filled world of Dead Space with a Nintendo console. The Wii ultimately became one of the best consoles for rail shooters though, and Dead Space: Extraction is a fun spin-off of the main series that still embodies the horror and stressful gameplay of its predecessors.
Dead Space: Extraction takes place before the events of the original game and follows a group of survivors as they attempt to escape a ship infested with Necromorphs. You’ll play as multiple characters across ten chapters and will need to point and shoot at anything that approaches you. If you’re a fan of Dead Space’s lore and world-building, Extraction is definitely worth checking out.
1 Resident Evil 4
It’s often hard to remember that Resident Evil 4 began as a GameCube exclusive before it became one of the most popular games of all time. Now, it’s been ported to nearly every other console imaginable and has even been remade as a VR title. While you can play Resident Evil 4 on nearly any platform, the Nintendo Wii version remains one of the best ways to play it.
Resident Evil 4 takes full advantage of the Wii’s motion controls and allows you to point your controller at the screen directly to take down Ganados and other threats. This point-and-shoot feature helps make the game feel fresh for anyone who has played it before, and if you happen to have a Wii Zapper lying around, you can genuinely feel like Leon Kennedy on his way to save the President’s daughter.