Madden Wii first impressions thread

[CDiablo]

I dont think anyone in the US bought this game so I figured Id give a quick review for the peeps over here. Before I start Ill give a quick overview of my football and football gaming background. I used to be a Huge Giants fan from 90-02 and Id watch every game start to finish no matter how bad they did. I gave up on them and they became champs (again) while I wasnt watching. I knew the sport pretty well but do not know anything about the current rosters/hot players. Last football game I spent time playing was NFL 2K2 for the Dreamcast. Onto the game....

 

The game layout is ok , things that should be clearly out in the open (season, WiFi) are not, but things are pretty simple to navigate. Controls are great in some ways, its a realy departure from sports game from the past which really makes me want to play and get better. Passing is a bit tough as a lob passes are done with a slow motion foward with the wiimote and bullet passes are done with a fast motion. 90% of the time I try to do a lob pass, it still does a bullet. Audibles, making your own pass routes(is awesome), and passing to a certain receiver (use the d pad and a button) for the most part is great. Choosing plays is great as you can choose madden favorites (for newbs), by objective(long pass, short run, ect) or regular paly call(nickle, dime, ect).

Running works fine, nunchunck left or right is side step and works perfectly unlike the dodge in Okammi. Waggle lowers the runners head a does a spin move c dives and b is turbo. One thing I loathe about Madden is it is very "arcadey" which I will get to later. Catching is a bitch as you have to raise the wiimote and nunchuck and it doesnt register all that much.

 

Defense is ok as well, b is turbo, waggle is big hit(coincidencally the only hit you can do), most things are mapped to buttons and work as they should. Only gripe is that you need do waggle up to block a pass and a lot of times it seems not to work for me.

 

Graphics are fine, I guess they look like PS2 though its been a while since Ive seen PS2/XBOX madden. No framerate issues thus far. Commentary is annoying as if they asked John Madden to spout as many common sense phrases as possible. "Running on third and long is risky, but if you get those yards its worth it." Thanks John. AI seems ok, but I really need to grind it to judge. 2 annoying things about the AI is that it always kicks perfect punts to the sidelines(it is fun to try to return) and that the AI on your team refuses to swat passes. The game auto switches you to the man covering the pass and wants you to do the up waggle, usually with a fraction of a second to do so,resulting in complete passes.

 

As I close Ill go back to the "arcadey" nature of the game. I cant stand how rediculous turbo is, I just prefer more of a football sim. I also hate how a full game (15 minute quarters) results in games upwards of 200 points......its like this in every EA sports game. EA hockey on 20 minute periods will regularly treat you to scores in the 20 point range. How can they let this happen year after year is beyond me. I always found the 2k games to be more sim like and Madden to be arcade like, but its a matter of preference I guess.

 

In closing the game is fun, and provides a brand new way to play, theres a few kinks but Im sure all Maddens have that problem. So go buy the game, when I went online at 8 PM saturday there was 1 available game to play, marking the only 2 copies sold in America.