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Madden NFL 07 Preview

Written by DM on Thursday, October 19 2006

This year’s edition of Madden on the Xbox360 was met with mixed reviews, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, it was the only next-gen version of Madden that was available at the time. Well, we got the chance to preview another next-gen Madden game, the one that is making an appearance on the Nintendo Wii.

The first thing you will notice is the graphics. Yes, they are not as pretty as the Xbox360 version, but as we have said before, that matters little when it comes to the Wii. The game looks about the same as it would on the Gamecube, but the control scheme is where it’s at.

The control system used in Madden on the Wii is actually fairly straightforward. You would think that something as complicated as football would be hard to port to a motion-derived control schema, but Nintendo and EA have come through. To snap the ball all you need to do is simply flick your wrist up and the center will do his thing. You control the position of the quarterback with the nunchuck half of the Wii control as you drop back to pass, and with a motion like the casting of a fishing rod, you can pass the ball. The speed of the pass is actually determined by how fast you perform the casting motion. You can use left right up or down to pick your receiver if you like, but it is not necessary. You can always check the routes by holding the Z button on the Wiimote.

If you decide that you want to run the ball instead, you can control the motion of the player using the nunchuck half of the controller. You will use the buttons for the standard jukes and dekes, but you can also just shake the nunchuck in the direction you want to move. You can even make your player run a bit faster if you shake both of the controllers forward.

On defense, the controls are just as easy to learn. During kickoff, all you need to do is chose the angle with the Wiimote and use the nunchuck to place the kick left or right. To kick you simply hold A to start the process and then flick the Wiimote upward to kick the old pigskin. The harder you flick the Wiimote the harder you kick the ball, it is as simple as that. Yes, you can even kick the ball too hard and have it go out of bounds. There is one thing to mention here though that makes things a bit difficult. You will need to keep the controller totally level during the entire kicking process because a tilt in any direction can send the ball off course. This is probably the thing that will take the most getting used to in Madden for the Wii. The most interesting part of defense though is the hits. You can really hit your opponent with a bone crushing slam if you simply move both parts of the Wii pad forward, the same as the burst of speed when running. This part is so much fun, in fact, I think they should make a mini game where the player with the best hit wins.

There are even more subtleties to the Wii Madden control system that gamers will have to learn. With all these moves and motions I know you are thinking that it must all be a bit overwhelming. Well I am here to tell you that after a few minutes it becomes almost intuitive. It really speaks to the power of Nintendo when even a company like EA can produce a game for use with the Wiimote that works well enough to be called “intuitive.” The game is totally worth buying again on the Wii, if for no other reason than pure, unadulterated, fun.

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