IGN Wii’s editorial team has provided readers with its Top 10 picks for the 2006 year.

One of the games that made it into the Top 10 is Elebits. Konami’s off-the-wall Wii action game may not have the most gorgeous graphics I’ve ever seen, but the game compensates for any visual drawbacks with innovative controls and design that really capitalizes on the strengths of Nintendo’s console. Exploring the title’s city neighborhood-style environments and manipulating objects, which have a realistic sense of weight and physics, with a gravity gun, is really a lot of fun. Elebits happens to be one of the few first wave Wii games that really shows off how Nintendo’s controller can make new gameplay scenarios possible. The offering is also the first to utilize WiiConnect24 so that you can trade created world maps with friends.

One of the best iterations of the early series, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System’s Super Castlevania IV, is now available on the Wii’s Virtual Console service. For your 800 Wii points, you get a sequence of visually interesting levels in which to battle a whole bunch of monsters in your quest to vanquish evil. It’s a tough but satisfying action game that will probably make you remember how tough games used to be, which made up for their relatively short durations.

There isn’t really a story behind Wario’s Woods. While Wario is in the game, the diminutive Toad is actually the star of the show. The game begins with Toad at the bottom of the screen while different-colored bombs and creatures falling from the sky. You control Toad, picking up and moving objects in an effort to line up at least two creatures and one bomb of the same color either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to get them to disappear (some creatures can only be erased in one particular orientation).

Games for the Nintendo Wii have to pass a higher standard than most: They have to be fun to look at and play, and they also have to make good use of the Wii’s unique remote control-style controller.

Konami’s “Elebits” makes a solid showing in all categories. The basic game is simple: You’re on the hunt for tiny creatures with antennae called Elebits that, when captured, can restore power to devices that have been turned off by a power outage. You use the controller to point and shoot at the Elebits to capture them, and you also use it to open doors, turn on electrical devices, fling objects around, rummage through drawers and even turn things upside down.

Need for Speed: Carbon can be best described as a street racing simulation. Players trick out their cars and race through the city to gain street cred and expand their crew’s territory. By participating in races, players rise through the ranks until they face rival crew bosses and put territory on the line. The game takes place in a fictional city the player has the freedom to drive around at will.