Madden titles on the wii have had an interesting ride. 08 was a solid game with more of the simulation feel. Sales were a solid .96 mil. 09 all-play was by many accounts a better game. Some gameplay elements were added and online was improved a bit. Some may have been scared away by 'all-play'. Sales were decent with .87 mil. Madden 10 & 11 decided to change the style to a more cartoonish/arcadish feel while keeping the gameplay the same, or worse. Sales then fell to .69mil and .46 mil respectively. Granted some of that could be due to more people buying HD consoles. Still, I don't think anything EA did with franchise on the wii helped. To make matters worse earlier this year EA took down the online servers for 08 & 09. I'd say Madden is currently dead on the wii right now. In terms of wii sports titles(sports on wii) a common trend seems to be happening. Wii owners aren't going to buy close to the same game year after year. The madden followers are on the HD consoles. That's all well and good. When a sports title does do well on the wii most of the time it is because of some vast improvement or new way to play. Obviously Wii sports had motion and sports resort had motion plus. Madden 08 included online while 09 added some intriguing gameplay mechanics. Besides being a niche sport, Tiger Woods 2011 failed because it was almost the same game as 2010. What could potentially breathe new life into Madden on the wii? I thought of the idea of Madden 2012 utilizing THQ's udraw tablet. How could it work? You could draw your own plays! Madden 09 had the 'hotshot route' option in which you could create your own routes before the snap. This was limited to straight lines between points though. With udraw you could create your own playbook with complex plays. You could even maneuver multiple defensive and offensive lineman schemes. No preset amount of moves, just you drawing up the play for each player to preform. For added kicks you could also draw tattoos on your players. Heck, maybe Atlus could lend a knife in simulating surgeries on Brett Favre. Henry Winkler might disapprove, but that is ok... <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zg5ej7Eui30" frameborder="0"></iframe> Would this ever happen? Not a chance. EA hates nintendo, and I'm not quite sure EA and THQ would collaborate on the project. The udraw tablet is fairly niche so far aswell. Still, I think it would be cool and potentially could garner some sales. Bundle them for $60(although THQ is charging a whole $60 right now) and promise to keep online for at least 4 years and I'm sold.
Pixel Art can be fun.
