Learning curve with great reward

Welcome to the true "next generation" of football.

Welcome to Madden 07 on the Nintendo Wii - one of the few football games that actually makes you feel as if you're a player.

The first thing to notice when comparing Madden 07 on the Wii to the XBOX 360 and PS3 is just how many more features there are. Long forgotten (and sorely missed) features such as Create-A-Team and Mini Camp are back, making this game a more complete package and automatically well worth the money. Owner Mode is even included, and several other game modes and features are included, giving this game an edge over the PS3/XBOX 360 versions.

As soon as you hop into a game ("Play Now"), you'll realize just how hard the game is to control at first. You'll probably have trouble both passing and running.. and the game may even be a pain to do anything with.

You'll probably be a bit cautious at first.. ..that is until you discover a feature on the main menu called "Learn Madden" mode, that teaches you everything you need to know in terms of how to play Madden 07 with the new controls on the Nintendo Wii.

This mode is unique in that it allows you to choose which aspect of the game to learn (OFFENSE-PASSING, OFFENSE-RUNNING, DEFENSE, SPECIAL TEAMS, etc.), then it presents you with a dialog box first and inside the dialog box you can do little drills in which it tells you how to move the controller or what buttons to press, and as you successfully complete these dialog boxes, you can automatically skip the dialog box and then go straight to the field where you actually act out the play with the controls you just learned.

At first you'll probably struggle a bit even after you're taught what does what, and I personally will never forget how badly I performed on the "Pocket Presence" (QB) drill in Mini Camp the first time; but I quickly learned that passing the ball on the Wii takes MUCH more concentration and awareness than it ever did before on any other system.

Hell, the entire game takes more concentration now.

Instead of tapping a button to throw a pass, you first flip the controller upwards to snap the ball, then you look for an open receiver, and once you find one, you press the corresponding direction on the D-Pad (or the A Button) for that certain receiver, and finally you flip the controller downwards to throw the ball.

This system is a challenge to learn at first because you have to be much more coordinated and concentrated on everything that's happening. Since the nunchuck's joystick is used to move the QB, and the Wii Remote is used to select a receiver and pass the ball, it's a skill that almost reminds me of learning how to "juggle" or concentrate on many things at once, since you're:
1) Dropping back
2) Looking for open receivers
3) Attempting to avoid defenders via the nunchuck
4) Attempting to make a pass while precisely navigating your QB via the nunchuck, and actually throwing the ball by using the remote.

What I didn't expect, however, was to quickly master the controls for passing. It does take about 10-15 minutes to develop most of the coordination required, but after that it just really feels great being able to drop back and complete a pass with two snaps of your wrist instead of two taps of a button.

In fact, snapping the ball is something that seems simplistic, but adds much more to the Wii version. Before, you just tapped a button and the play started. This time, you'll snap the ball by snapping the controller backwards, giving more of a "realistic" feel to the game even before the play has begun.

The running game is also a blast to play, and is another difficult aspect to learn. The nunchuck (left hand) can make the ball carrier juke left or right, depending on which way you quickly snap your wrist, and the Wii Remote is similar, only instead of juking, it stiff arms to the left or right, and the A-button performs a spin, while the B button performs a dive.

Pushing both controllers towards the screen causes the ball carrier to do a power move, and "drumming" with the controllers (going up and down with one after the other) allows you to have the possibility of breaking loose if a defender is slowly making the tackle.

As you can imagine, the running game is probably just as intense, if not MORE intense than the passing game, and the controls are what make it so.

This time, it's actually just as fun to run the ball because you really have to concentrate and use your hands and arms in a variety of ways to make plays happen instead of your fingers. I found myself swinging my wrists to the left and right, pushing the controllers toward the screen to run over defenders, and drumming the controllers up and down like a mad man to attempt and break tackles.

Believe it or not, throughout this, I actually didn't feel tired at all -- I just felt BETTER because it made me feel like I was really DOING something this time instead of just moving a joystick in a certain direction and pressing a number of buttons to make my guy automatically do moves.

Special teams isn't really anything to write home about. To kick the ball, you just swing the Wii Remote upwards AFTER choosing the kick direction by using the nunchuck's joystick.

Defense is an exciting part of the game as well because you can actually push both controllers toward the screen to make harder hits, and you can even do such things as jump up to knock down or intercept a pass by raising both controllers above your head. The controls on defense tended to be a bit unresponsive from time to time, but this isn't too much of a problem because the controls still work fairly well.

Another awesome feature in terms of using the controllers is the fact that as a quarterback, you can 'quiet' the crowd by moving the controllers up and down, and as a linebacker or anyone else on defense, doing this will pump up the crowd!

When you take the first snap or complete the first pass or even power over the first defender by using a "pushing" motion with both controllers, you'll understand just how awesome this game really is. It actually takes time to master, but once you've mastered the controls, you'll feel just like a quarterback throwing a pass or a linebacker pumping up the crowd, then rushing in violently for a sack.

Madden 07 is the most unique, fresh football game for any console this year -- there is no comparison.

Set... HUT!