Madden NFL 08 (Wii, 2007)

I have played the Madden franchise since it's Sega Genesis days, but this year is the first time I have bought the Wii version. I didn't really know what to expect from a control standpoint, and was a little worried to go from the standard joypad control to the Wii control. My worries about that were put to rest very early, as the Wii controls are actually very natural and pretty easy to pick up. The controls make use of the nunchuck controller, but you can also play it with only the Wii remote if you like (with less controlling of course).
The graphics are a little limited and plain, but they aren't bad at all. However, I have always been more about gameplay than graphics . . . so if graphics are a huge deal to you then I'd suggest seeing a demo of the game before buying it.
Franchise Modes, Superstar Modes, Minicamp challenges are all still there, and they added a new "Party Mode" where you can compete in games with friends (including NFL trivia). That is kind of fun. There are no "Madden Cards" on this game, so if that is a big thing for you then you're out of luck. Also, the "create-a-team" option is gone as well.
The soundtrack is an upgrade I think, along with the standard hip-hop songs they've added a song from Ozzy along with a bunch of the old classic songs from the NFL Studios films. Very nice!
There are a few little things that weren't included in the Wii version that I find both puzzling and somewhat annoying. They are:
- You can't cycle through defensive players backwards. If you are cycling through players trying to get on the one you want to control, if you accidentally jump over him you either have to cycle through all the players again or point at the player you want to control and press "A" (I have not gotten the point thing to work yet).
- You can't sort stat columns. When viewing stats at the end of the game, or league leader stats they are sorted by the first column for the position. In the other Madden versions, if you are looking at QB's and you want to see which has thrown the most INT's you would move over to that column and hit a button. The Wii lets you cycle over to the column, but no button sorts it. I really miss being able to do that.
- When a call is challenged or being reviewed, the camera angle showing the replays seems like it is from the last row in the upper deck. At least it has been in each of the 50 or so replays I have seen so far. I usually just click through the replays anyways, but seems pointless to have replays if you can't see the play.
- Every once in awhile, the view is "blurred", It only seems to happen when out of the huddle it displays "ball cam" and says to press "A" to get back to the "field view" or something. If I let the cam switch on its own, it's fine. If I press "A" to switch early, it blurs. Annoying, but now that I know not to press "A" there it's no biggie.
If I had known all of this, I probably would have bought the game for my PS2 instead and waited till next year to go with the Wii. That said, it's still fun and if all you have is a Wii console you'll still have fun playing this game. I have to rate it only Average though, since a lot of functionality on the older versions of the game for other platforms is not included.
Hope this helps!