The Nintendo Wii first launched in North America on November 19, 2006. It was subsequently released in Japan, Australia, and the European Union a few weeks later in early December of the same year. The Wii was commercially successful and marked a turn in fortunes for Nintendo after the somewhat disappointing performance of the Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo 64 in the previous two console generations. The Wii remained relatively successful into the early 2010s, and in light of the commercial failure of its immediate successor, the Wii U, it probably remained Nintendo’s most-used home console until the launch of the Switch in 2017. My Wii remains in service (sometimes to run GameCube games), but It has been a long time since I thought about new Nintendo Wii games. But I came across an interesting comment on Hacker News which piqued my interest. This comment comes courtesy of commenter gjsman-1000:
Also, the last original Wii game was Just Dance 2020. Not joking, a Wii game was released 3 years ago.
Is this true? Given the high level of many Hacker News discussions, I doubted that commenter gjsman-1000 was making this up. I decided to dig into the issue. I previously wrote articles praising Nintendo for committing to supporting the Switch long-term and how it extends the lives of its consoles generally. After I wrote those articles, the Switch made headlines for continuing to post strong numbers against the competition six years after its launch. I decided to follow up on the Just Dance 2020 lead to learn more about the (possibly) last Wii game.
Was Just Dance 2020 the last Nintendo Wii game? As I detail below, it depends on the region.
Just Dance 2020 appears to be considered the last Wii game…
According to a November 2021 article by Mr. Erroll Maas at The Gamer, Just Dance 2020 was the last Wii game, albeit there is a small difference from the Hacker News comment:
Just Dance first got its start on the Nintendo Wii back in 2009 as an exclusive title. After going multiplatform and being the only game and series to release on the Wii for several years, Just Dance 2020 made headlines in 2019, as it was reported it would be the final entry on Nintendo’s most popular home console (until the Nintendo Switch dethrones it).
This article notes that Just Dance 2020 was released in 2019, not 2020. To be fair to the Hacker News commenter, that is an easy mistake to make when the game’s title includes 2020. This article includes the last game for every defunct Nintendo console – including the Virtual Boy – but not including Wii U. If we measure solely by how long a console’s final game was released after its launch, Wii had the longest lifespan.
Examining the last Wii releases by region
I could have stopped my inquiry here, but I had a feeling that there may be more to the Just Dance 2020 story. I figured that Wikipedia would have a list of every single Nintendo Wii game released. I found the Wikipedia list of Wii games and discovered that it could be sorted by a when a game was “first released.” Sure enough, my hunch that there may be more to the story was correct. The list revealed that two Wii games were first released after Just Dance 2020. However, this is where my initial it depends note comes in. Not every game was released in every region. Wikipedia lists games that were released in Nintendo’s four major regions: Japan, North America, Australia and Asia, and Europe. (Note: When we refer to Asia in Australia/Asia, we are excluding Japan since that is a different region for Nintendo purposes.) Below, I present the last Wii game(s) released in each region – but I will note ground rule. In order for the game to count, it must be a stand-alone game – not an expansion pack which requires a base game. This rule will be relevant in the case of Japan and the Australia/Asia and Europe regions.
| Region | Wii Game(s) | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | Rodea the Sky Soldier | April 2, 2015 |
| North America | Just Dance 2020 | November 5, 2019 |
| Australia/Asia | Shakedown: Hawaii | July 9, 2020 |
| Europe | Shakedown: Hawaii | July 9, 2020 |
Just Dance 2020 was the last Wii game in North America. Thus, it makes sense that American sites would give it the honor. However, the situation in Japan and Europe was a bit different.
The last Wii game in Japan
There is no question that the last Wii game in Japan was released in April 2015. However, there is a question as to which game released in April 2015 was the last Wii game in Japan. Wikipedia lists an expansion for Dragon Quest X: Inishie no Ryuu no Denshou Online, which was released in Japan on April 30, 2015, as the last Wii game. However, this was an expansion pack to a base game, meaning that it could not be played without the base game. The second latest Japanese Wii game on Wikipedia’s list is Rodea the Sky Soldier, which was released on April 2, 2015. Unlike the Dragon Quest X expansion, this was a normal Wii game with no prerequisite. (Rodea the Sky Soldier was only released for Wii in Japan. However, it was released for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS worldwide.)
I think that the honorary title of last Japanese Wii game should go to Rodea the Sky Soldier, not the Dragon Quest X expansion. An expansion pack is not a stand-alone game, it is additional content for an existing game. For example, when I listed the generations of Pokémon games in an earlier article, I did not treat the two expansions for Pokémon Sword and Shield as new games. They are merely additional content for pre-existing games. I similarly do not treat the Fire Emblem Engage DLC, which I covered in an article, as a distinct game from Fire Emblem Engage. The April 30, 2015 Dragon Quest X expansion could not be played without the base Dragon Quest X, which was released on August 2, 2012. Conversely, Rodea the Sky Soldier was a stand-alone game which could be played immediately upon purchase with no prerequisite. This, in my view, makes it the clear choice for the last Nintendo Wii game in Japan.
(The last Wii game in Japan question reminded me of an article I wrote considering who was the last Western Roman Emperor.)
The last Wii game in Australia/Asia and Europe
The North America, Australia/Asia, and Europe regions continued to receive sporadic Wii releases after Japan saw its final Wii games in 2015. To the best of my knowledge, none of these games were exclusive to Wii. Just Dance 2020, which was the last Wii game in North America, was also released in Australia/Asia and Europe. However, the Wikipedia list notes Australia/Asia and Europe regions received a pair of Wii releases on July 9, 2020.
Similarly to Japan, there is some room for interpretation on whether one of these games – Retro City Rampage DX+, should count in this discussion. I will explain below why I think that Shakedown Hawaii deserves the sole honor of being the last official Nintendo Wii game.
I learned that there is an interesting story behind the Wii release of Shakedown Hawaii. This retro-inspired city-destroying game was first released for PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita on May 7, 2019. It was then brought to Nintendo 3DS in September of the same year. Having made a retro-style game, the developer was committed to bringing it to retro consoles. One of these included the Nintendo Wii. I turn to a July 10, 2020 report by Patrick Klepek for Vice titled Why This Developer Is Releasing a New Wii Game in 2020.
The report noted that the developer, Mr. Brian Provinciano, did nearly all of the development work himself and expended great effort in bringing Shakedown Hawaii and his previous game, Retro City Rampage DX+, to as many consoles as possible. Regarding the Wii port, he spent a great amount of time ensuring that the game performed well and complying with Nintendo’s “byzantine requirements” for publishing Wii games. Mr. Provinciano, who is based in the United States, also had difficulty finding Wii development tools, but Nintendo managed to find what he needed. He had wanted to release the Wii version of Shakedown Hawaii in North America, but he ran into a snag:
Shakedown: Hawaii won’t see a release in North America on Wii because the console’s digital storefront, the Wii Shop, closed in early 2019 and Nintendo of America, which was supportive of Porvinciano’s wacky idea, ran into logistical hurdles for a physical release.
These hurdles were too much to overcome for Nintendo of America. Fortunately for Mr. Provinciano, Nintendo of Europe “was able to work out a way to print actual disks.”
Had Nintendo of America been able to put everything together necessary to print disks, Shakedown Hawaii would have been the last Wii game in North America as well as in Australia/Asia and Europe. But it nevertheless earns the honor of being the last official Nintendo-licensed game for Wii. The Vice article stated that Just Dance 2021 was slated for release on Wii that same year, but that release never came. I will venture that the same issue that prevented Mr. Provinciano from releasing Shakedown Hawaii for Wii in North America also scuttled Ubisoft’s plans for Just Dance 2021.
Retro City Rampage DX+, which was also created by Mr. Provinciano, also saw a July 9, 2020 Wii release. However, this was an upgrade for the game which had previously been released on Wii Ware years earlier. While it is certainly notable and commendable that Mr. Provinciano made an update available at such a late date, Shakedown Hawaii stands alone as the last Wii game.
(Note: I did not see any specific reference to Shakedown Hawaii being released for Wii outside of Europe, so I am not sure if the Wikipedia list stating it was released in the Australia/Asia region is correct. But we know for certain that Nintendo of Europe did work with Mr. Provinciano to produce 3,000 physical copies of the game which were made available for sale.)
Conclusion
Just Dance 2020 was the last Wii game released in North America. Lest you count expansion packs, Rodea the Sky Soldier was the last Wii game released in Japan. But the last official Wii game released anywhere was Shakedown Hawaii, which was released in Europe and the Australia/Asia regions nine months after Just Dance 2020. Had Nintendo of America been able to publish a new physical Wii game in 2020, Shakedown Hawaii would have been the last Wii game in North America as well. Regardless of how you count, however, the Wii had an exceptionally long life-span. Even its 2015 curtain call in Japan came more than eight years after the console’s initial release. As impressive as the Switch’s strength in its sixth year, I would not confidently bet (not that we should encourage Nintendo betting) that there will be new Switch releases in 2030 or 2031.
I conclude with a note of praise for Mr. Provinciano. While I have not played his games, his interest in making new games available for old consoles and hardware is praiseworthy – in line with a post I published about a revival of interest in developing games for Game Boy. I am curious to see what he will do with his future projects.