One of my pet peeves with all the other versions is not being able to see your opponent’s time outs left and they did fix this in this game (yay!), albeit only at the pause menu. You can also save the game which is a nice bonus.
Graphically the game isn’t terrible. Again, you can’t compare these graphics to a 360, but you know what – unlike when I put Madden 07 in my original Xbox, I didn’t get that “yuck” feeling with the graphics. The speed of the game seems faster and it truly is hard to notice the graphics when you’re dancing around with the controller and trying to throw the ball. I would go so far as to say the graphics are better than I expected.
Madden and Michaels are back in this game – there’s no “EA Radio Network” but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The audio is decent. You don’t hear as much of the trash talk but the music is good and the play by play follows the action.
As with all Wii launch games, there isn’t any online play to speak of, there’s also a lack of downloadable rosters, which is somewhat of a disappointment. In order to compensate, EA added a few new modes – some multiplayer mini-games exclusive to the Wii. There’s Kicking Combine, 2-on-2 and Yards after Carry Attack. Again, these are multiplayer only, although you can play single player you don’t get the entire game that way (in YAC attack, you’ll only play offense, for example).
The other new item is the “NFL Network” mode. I found this interesting, because the ESPN license is nowhere to be found and instead we get NFL Playbook, which is a show on NFLN. They break down plays on offense and defense specific to each team and you can also take the controls to get a better feel for those plays. It’s a pretty interesting mode (much like the show). There are only a couple of plays on offense and defense but the preview mode is helpful and explains why the plays are called. I wish there were more plays and some discussion of Special Teams.
There’s still a franchise mode and a superstar mode in the game and none of those modes have changed very much from any other version of Madden 07. They are what they are, which means that it could be improved but it also could be much worse than it is.
When I was assigned Madden for the Wii, I had very low expectations; I figured it would just be another port and a major disappointment. I can say I was pleasantly surprised all the way around with this game. Once you learn the controls, I think you’ll really enjoy this game – and with a pal at your house playing this game, it’s even more fun. Just make sure he/she has his space because you don’t want to get hit with a Wii mote!
Even if the controls were old school, this version of the game seems to play faster and is more enjoyable to me. I wish we had online multiplayer already but I’ll give EA some slack here. Just remember that for next year, EA! Anyway, if you’re a football fan I recommend picking this one up – remember football isn’t in Wii Sports so you’ll have to get your fix from Madden!
