If you're a casual gamer, then you've definitely notice the corner on the market that the Wii seems to have on casual games. It seems like every week, a new batch of games marketed toward those that enjoy the Wii's casual approach to gaming hits the shelves, but does that really make Nintendo's little white box the casual mogul it seems to be? If we're talking quantity, definitely - the Wii has literally hundreds of casual games in its library, but many of them are little better than a flash game that you could play using the onboard web browser. Titles like Jenga: World Tour and King of Clubs Mini-Golf don't exactly inspire confidence in the titles that release week-to-week for the Wii.

However, gamers should know that there is hope for them for both new and different experiences, but not on the Wii. Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are gaining new casual ground every day and are upping the ante for quality, not quantity, of casual titles in their respective libraries. These titles are some of the most creative and imagination-sparking games in any library. So, how do you know which game is worth spending your casual time on?

The answer is pretty simple. Not only can the PS3 and 360 do more than just play games (both consoles can play multiple forms of media, such as DVDs and can link to Netflix accounts for instant watching), Sony and Microsoft have embraced the concept of downloadable games. These games offer something casual for a lot less cash out of pocket than a full console game. While the Wii does have its WiiWare downloadable programs, the PS3 and 360 had a head start on the Wii for a while, making their library much more expansive with a lot more quality games. For example, if you loved the classic arcade game Asteriods, there's no better game for you than Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Sporting a few more features than the Wii's version on a disc, Geometry Wars is just like playing an arcade game of old but with a ton of explosions and a whole lot of color and sound.

Games like Geometry Wars are not alone - there are many other games on the 360 and PS3 that compare, albeit in different ways. The PlayStation Network's Flower has players tilt their controller to move flower petals through a number of gorgeous cinematic environments that depict the dreams of flowers. While conceptually, the game is quite simple, the execution is beyond compare, turning a casual experience into one that is both touching and lasting as well as fun and replayable - something that you will simply not get from a game like My Fitness Coach for Wii.

Perhaps it's because these games are elegant in their simplicity instead of being merely simple. Games like flOw on PlayStation Network, where you play as a polygon paramecium that can consume other creatures as you descend through the levels, or even games like Braid, which tells a heartbreaking philosophical story through a time-manupulating platformer, spark the imagination while drawing upon the casual skills in ways that much of the shovelware coming out onto the Wii simply does not.

However, that's not to say that the 360 and PS3 are completely blameless in the casual shovelware realm. There are a number of deficiencies in the casual realm, but there are more than enough excellent offerings to make up for it. The critically acclaimed Portal, which involves an escape from a scientific facility from a sadistic artificial intelligence using your brain and physics, premiered on the 360. The Maw, an uber-cute game about a crashlanded alien and his incredibly hungry pet who solve puzzles with its amazing appetite, also premiered on the 360. And yet, these games weren't on the Wii, only adding to the stigma that the Wii only puts out casual games that don't make you think or are clones of other more popular games on the Nintendo DS or clones of first-party offerings from Nintendo on the Wii itself.

So, developers for WiiWare and for the Wii in general, consider this a call to arms. It is unacceptable that for every genius game on your console in the casual realm like TellTale's Tales of Monkey Island or the original Rayman Raving Rabbids, there are two World Series of Poker games or three Ninjabread Mans. The games don't have to be complicated. In fact, simple is much better - games like Pokemon Rumble are a step in the right direction: take a whole bunch of cute monsters and make them fight with a push of a button. Unfortunately, those games are also flawed in their execution. Games need to be more like Square-Enix's My Life as a King, where you play as a king who has just inherited a whole kingdom and is responsible for the economic upkeep of said kingdom and well-being of its citizens. It's games like this that give an amazing experience in the casual realm for very little cash and very simplistic concepts.