Wii the people — Fresh Wii games keeps Nintendo's momentum moving forward

The most delightful video-game story of 2006 was the re-emergence of Nintendo, thanks to the popularity of the Wii and the DS portable. The big question for this year is: Can Nintendo maintain the momentum? Sure, the Wii had one of the best launch lineups ever, with the instant classic "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" and gems like "Wii Sports" and "Rayman Raving Rabbids." But will the hits keep on coming?

The signs are promising, with software publishers looking for innovative ways to take advantage of the Wii's unique motion-sensing controller. Some of the experiments we've seen over the last month have worked really well; the failures seem like the results of developers not really thinking through the new tools Nintendo has offered them. Once designers get a grip on the Wii, watch out.

— "Elebits" (Konami, for the Wii, $49.99): Elebits may be the cutest darn things to come out of Japan since Hello Kitty. They're little bundles of energy — quite literally — and your job is to catch enough of them to power up all the electric appliances in your house. As each level begins, the boys are hiding behind various objects. You can only move around smaller items at first, but as you collect more energy you can open doors, lift furniture and even heave cars and entire houses.

Essentially, it's a game of hide-and-seek that gives you a good excuse to make an unholy mess out of the pristine rooms where the Elebits are hiding. It's a simple concept that will appeal to fans of quirky games like "Katamari Damacy," and it's easy enough for just about anyone to play. The multiplayer game doesn't quite work — one player controls where you can move, giving that person an unfair advantage — but the single-player action is surprisingly addictive. Three stars out of four.

— "Super Swing Golf" (Tecmo, for the Wii, $49.99): The golf game included in "Wii Sports" is fun, but probably left a lot of duffers wanting more. Fortunately, there's "Super Swing Golf," a determinedly wacky production that offers a ton of fresh challenges. The courses range from your standard tropical paradise to a wind-blasted ice field, and the more demanding levels require you to pull off some fairly tricky shots to make par. The controls are intuitive: You move the remote back over your head to determine the strength of your shot, then hold down the "A" button and swing forward to determine accuracy.