Madden NFL 07 (Wii) Preview

[RainOfTerror]

Madden NFL 07 is being custom-designed for Nintendo's next-gen console, Wii. Using the console's unique remote to pass, kick, snap, throw, catch and run, players will interact with the game in an entirely new way. Our resident non-believer was sent on a mission, here is a snip :

What makes this Madden so special? What we have here is a melding of technicality and accessibility. Plays are picked via a combination of the analog nunchaku stick and a laser sight conveyed with the remote. Snapping the ball is as easy as flicking the remote towards yourself. Want to pas the ball? Pick a receiver with your right thumb - no more checking around an entire controller's layout for eligible players. Once you pick the receiver, you make an actual throwing motion with the remote. Do it soft, and you'll lob it; do it hard, and your football becomes a bullet.
Check the full Madden NFL 07 preview (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=34347) over at WorthPlaying.

[bapenguin]

Sounds pretty cool. I'd be curious to try it.

[AniAko]

Woah, now THAT sounds like it's going to be a workout title. I'll be sitting in the hottub soaking my throwing arm after that one. :eek:

Pick reveiver with your right thumb? Like on the d-pad? Or MOVE the controller to scan the field, then select a receiver? I doubt I'd like either method.

[LarsenNET]

I wonder how long it's going to take before someone impales their $4K HDTV with a wii controller?

[MaiXu]

Now that sounds cool. Here's hoping EA doesn't suckify it.

[AniAko]

I wonder how long it's going to take before someone impales their $4K HDTV with a wii controller?

Nintendo thought of that! That's why it doesn't have 720p support ;)

[Salesmunn]

Nintendo thought of that! That's why it doesn't have 720p support ;)

Bahah! Very nice! Nintendo is so innovative, no HD support, what an ingenious idea!

[AntB]

Everytime I read about the games on the Wii, it makes me want to buy it more and more.

/One gamer sick of controller pads.

[bone_matrix]

While this sounds like fun, I hope you don't always HAVE to play like that. I'm a passing game type of guy, but I don't think I could play a while game without getting tired, especially after a 10 hour day of lifting and moving furniture all day.

[thenefariousone]

While most previews are little more than adding the writer's first impressions to a developer's list of features, this one comes across as, well weird.


For starters, the writer's need to elevate himself/herself in such a grandiose fashion, is illogical and ill-placed. This writer believes that EA kept details of Madden 2007 for the Wii hidden because they are coveting the market known as:

"The elitists. The self-professed "hardcore." The people who stay away from yearly sports games (the Tony Hawk series aside, of course) and are darned proud of it. The people who say that Madden is all about pressing random buttons, nominal roster updates, confusing plays, and rapid video game value depreciation. In short, people like me."

Huh? The entire point of the console is to get people who normally don't play games at all to play them, not just self-proclaimed "elite" gamers. Current game players who don't play madden, do so for multiple reasons - not just because of control or the lack of a streamlined interface.


Please - Talk about the game, and leave your "l33t" ego at the door.

Leave Tony Hawk there too. Because that yearly-random-button-pressing-nominal-roster-update-value-depreciating game franchise, which you play despite it having the very problems you complain about in Madden, sucks.

Okay.


Back to the preview - at first glance this preview sounds interesting.

However - this is really just a preview of the Wii control. You can basically summarize the entire preview as "Oh my god - the Wii controller is really cool! It's so cool it doesn't matter what the game is actually like, it's just totally awesome that we get to use motions to control it!"

What about the game itself?
How does it play?
How's the AI?
What game play features does it have to separate itself from the other versions that will be coming out?
How did it compare with Madden 06?

The only thing I've learned about the game is it's available for the Nintendo Wii and uses the Wii controller. We already got all that information during E3 at the Nintendo Press Conference.

[EternalGamer]

While this sounds like fun, I hope you don't always HAVE to play like that. I'm a passing game type of guy, but I don't think I could play a while game without getting tired, especially after a 10 hour day of lifting and moving furniture all day.


See if you want to play that type of game, why not play one of the fifty other versions of Madden? This is the one that you play in a different interesting way. I don't think they should cripple it by bifurcating the control mechanism. Make it unified and work on polishing it. I doubt I would actually buy it, but this is the first Madden title that has ever sounded even remotely interesting to me.

[Chainsaw Killer]

madden 07 can suck for all i care i'am still buying just because its madden .

[bone_matrix]

madden 07 can suck for all i care i'am still buying just because its madden .

Exhibit A, Ladies and gentlemen, to what is wrong with the game industry, and the world, today.

[Mozgus]

Bahah! Very nice! Nintendo is so innovative, no HD support, what an ingenious idea!
Where were you a year ago? Did you just now catch wind of this?

[IndependentGMR]

So, how do you control the defensive side of the ball?

[AniAko]

So, how do you control the defensive side of the ball?
You run around your living room and actually tackle things. Little siblings, grandma, fishtanks, X-mas trees. The possibilities are ENDLESS!

[devicelimit]

I think a wrist strap should come with every controller. That way if you accidentally let go of you controller it won't sail across the room and K.O someone/break expensive furniture.

[AniAko]

I think a wrist strap should come with every controller. That way if you accidentally let go of you controller it won't sail across the room and K.O someone/break expensive furniture.

At the E3 press conference, all the Wiimotes they brought up on stage has wrist straps

[Siraris]

I dunno, it seems pretty gimicky to me. I don't see why it is so hard to snap the ball and then press one of three or four other buttons to pass to a particular receiver. I would think snapping the ball and then having to toggle the receivers would be frustrating as hell. I know that if I'm in a stressful situation in a game, sometimes I'll hit a button more than once, and if it's 4th down and 3 seconds to go and I'm trying to throw a touch down, I'd much rather hit triangle or y to throw the pass than cycle to the receiver and then throw the ball.

And I have to agree with thenefariousone, how is the actual GAME? I know the Wii is new and innovative, but it's not going to save a game from being utter crap, as cool as the controller may be. The controller can be as innovative and incredible as it wants, but if the game itself is boring, who cares?

[Salesmunn]

Where were you a year ago? Did you just now catch wind of this?

Nope, I knew about it. Just loving his quote about it.