The annual release of EA's Madden franchise has quickly become somewhat of a sporting ritual.  Traditionally, football fans look forward to a few key dates in the year: The Super Bowl, the draft and opening day.  But in recent years, a fourth key date has emerged: the day Madden graces stores across the country in mid-August.  Madden officially trumpets the start of the new NFL season, and in its own right has spawned a new breed of "fantasy" football that has taken the world by storm.  Last season, Wii owners had a chance to try out Madden for the first time using the Wii remote and nunchuk to experience the game in a way not seen before.  This season, EA refines the controls and had more development time to churn out what is a vastly improved product (not to mention a better cover athlete in Vince Young).

Madden 08 allows gamers to assume total control of their favorite NFL franchises.  Players can guide their team through the season to a possible Super Bowl championship, play exhibition matches, engage in a variety of mini-games for local multiplayer fun, or hop onto EA Nation to take on players from anywhere around the world.  But can one who really isn't a football fanatic appreciate Madden for what it is?  Quite honestly, many hardcore gamers may shy away from Madden simply because they are not football fans, which is a shame because Madden 08 is a very solid game and an excellent football simulator.

The Wii version of Madden 08 does not feature traditional controls, so many looking for the "pure" experience will look down upon the Wii version as a mere gimmick.  Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that this incarnation includes a watered down version of the controls for beginners.  In this mode, players only need to use the Wii Remote to perform basic actions, but they don't actually control the directional movement of the players.  This enables newcomers to the series to get a grip on the mechanics, and enjoy the game until they feel comfortable enough to upgrade to the more advanced (or rather, standard) control scheme.  The standard control allows for the regular directional control of players as well as all action abilities.

Controlling a player's directional movement on the "advance" mode is done through the analog stick on the nunchuk.  Stiff arms and jukes are performed by shaking the Wii Remote or Nunchuk left or right with good timing.  Passing is done by making a "throwing" motion with the Wii remote, and how hard one makes the motion depends on the velocity of the ball.  This is crucial for making certain types of passes work, such as a short draw pass or a long bomb.  When the ball is in the air, players can toggle to the receiver and use the controls to try to make a catch by throwing up both the Wii remote and nunchuk like two hands. On defense, players can use the same motion to bat down balls, or thrust the Wii remote forward for a crunching attack, or wave the Wii remote to slap down balls as a linebacker rushes to blitz the quarterback.

Most of the basic moves are fairly simple, but getting down everything takes a lot of practice and patience for newcomers.  Passing options will default to a receiver, which the quarterback will automatically target.  But should that receiver be in coverage and can't get open, players will need to toggle to another receiver using the D-pad or A button and then throw the ball.  All of this must be done while focusing on the quarterback's position, to avoid a sack and to possibly scramble.  This is frantic and fast paced, but it is an excellent recreation of how much pressure a real quarterback is under, and just how precious few seconds one has to make a decision with the ball.

The other aspects of the game aren't as intense, though running and receiving require additional attention and skill if one wishes to be a better player.  Of course, you could let go of the buttons altogether and let the AI control the players, but what fun is there in that?  Lastly, the kicking game is reduced to simply holding the A button and then flicking the Wii remote up with varying degrees of velocity.  The analog stick controls the direction of the kick as marked by a red arrow on screen.  While making kicks with long distances is made much simpler, trying to be more precise with say, an onside kick, is very difficult the way the mechanics work on the Wii.  But then again, the controls are trying to replicate real play more and more on the Wii, right?

Beyond the basic controls, Madden 08 boasts a ton of new gameplay features, most noticeably the Weapons.  Weapons are "abilities" players can have, depending on certain conditions, which amount to something like a "special move".  While not necessarily fantasy-like, it is more akin to heightened stats in one element of the player's game.  Games can also draft players, either from the in-game draft, but unfortunately there was no Wii version of NCAA 08, so the option to import players from college into Madden 08 is not available on the Wii.  Still, most of the features in terms of team management are available on the Wii version of Madden 08 so Wii owners will get a pretty good version that's nearly as complete as the other versions.

Online gameplay in Madden finally makes it onto a Nintendo console, as players can connect to EA Nation using their EA accounts (no friend codes here) and then can search for opponents or join "rooms" to seek players.  In the experience with the online mode, three times the connection to a player at the start of finding an opponent dropped and we were taken back to the lobby.  Once we finally connected to a player, the game was pretty laggy, with times where we had to press down hard or twice quickly on the analog stick to move around in the playbook, and kicking and passing were greatly effected because timing was off.

Also, something not encountered in the offline play was the weird issue that our team kept going into "no-huddle" after a play and then doing a false start.  This happened so much, the opposing player must have been wondering if we were messing with them or not.  Additionally, lag led to some late hits, which cost us our first game - we were up 10-6 with less than a minute left and had the opponent pinned at their own goalline on 4th and long.  Twice in a row, we were hit with roughing the kicker penalties, even on the second time when we thought we moved the rushing punt blocker to the left to avoid contact. Quite frankly, the lack of any way to communicate with the player (and lack of a headset or keyboard option in general) and the connectivity and lag issues seriously affected the experience, which otherwise could have really enhanced the presentation of this Madden title.

Another penalty flag that should be thrown at Madden is in regards to the visuals.  This is EA's second attempt on a Wii version of Madden, and the visuals are not vastly improved from Madden 07, or even the GCN incarnations.  Many of the textures on the field and player's jerseys and faces were not nearly as detailed as we would have liked, and compared to the other next-gen console versions, we were left desiring much more.  Madden is about the visuals, quite frankly, and EA needs to do a better job getting more out of the Wii than what was on display in Madden 08.  While one shouldn't expect the visual levels of the Xbox 360 or PS3, EA can certainly churn out something better looking than what is seen in Madden 08.

Madden 08's soundtrack is a mesh of rap, alternative rock, techno, hip-hop and pop-rock, which does actually suit the game very well.  When one goes to a football game, real music from artists from various genres are played during time-outs or breaks in the game.  The music also plays non-stop while navigating menus and setting up matchups, and there's the option to cycle through the music or disable tracks one doesn't like.  As for the sound effects, Madden does a great job of recreating the frantic chaos that is the gridiron, with big hits making bone-crushing pops.  Madden and company's audio commentary adds to the realism, and surprisingly the remarks do not get redundant at all.  Though some of the analysis may be ridiculous to some, there were points where Madden would bust out a pretty interesting line or two.

This title really is for all types of players, from kids to adults, from skilled gamers to newcomers.  The difficult setting, ranging from Rookie, Pro and All-Madden allows one to select just how intense the gameplay will be.  The two different control schemes allow players to have an option best suited for them.  The amount of stats and customization is not necessary, but is there for players who want to go that deep and get the rewards of a simulator.  The minigames involve your Mii character, and may be fun for some, but really are there for younger players.  If not for the flaws in the online mode, this truly would be a spectacular title for gamers.  But as it is, the online issues, along with the mediocre visuals, keep this title from being stellar.

Gameplay Footage:
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