Coming from a Madden hater this game isen't bad at all

I got Madden 07 because my brothers were bugging me to try it, with the game available at 20 bucks at GameStop I decided what the heck I’ll try it, despite hating the franchise. To many rules, to many menus for me, I lime a more arcade type of sports environment anyways. Well after playing through one season on franchise, and a little bit on the all star mode I decided time to review the game.

Graphics.
While not has jaw dropping has the Madden games that have appear on the 360 and PS3 the Madden Wii gets the job done pretty good. The faces look ok but you still see some of the jaggiest are in last generation systems but then this is the Wii were talking about here not suppose to be about graphics and compare to a few other Wii offerings I have seen the graphics are pretty good.

Sound.
We get some rock and roll music coming from the EA tracks that appear whenever your not on the field, you can also turn on the EA sports radio show and hear about the football season from the announcer, but these are all generic conversations and they get old quick. On the field you get an ESPN sports announcer and of course John Madden narrating the game, while they get repeative after a while there not has bad has I thought they would be

Gameplay.
Ok first I’ll tell you about the gameplay, this follows the rules of football down to the letter. Basically like any football game you have a 100 yard field with two end zones on it. The point of the game is to try to make it to the other teams end zone for 6 points, you have 4 tries to make at least 10, succeed and you will get another 4 tries, don’t you will either have to punt it so the ball is has far away from your end zone, or try to shoot it through two posts located on your opponents end zone for 3 points. Of course the opponents will try to stop you by sacking you for lost of yards, by intercepting your passes or by simply by making you drop the ball you’re carrying.

Now if your even interested in the game you know the basic rules the main reason your looking at it is what about the controls well step up and I’ll tell you. The wii controls work pretty darn good but there not perfect. To snap the ball you simply flip the wii mote up, you move around your players with the nunchuck and you can stiff arm using the wii remote and juke by shaking the nunchuck. To pass the ball you use the control pad or A button to choose a man down field and then swing the remote. It’s pretty simple and basic approach to football. For kicking you point the wii remote downward press A while flipping it upwards to determine your power and slice goes on the speed and direction the remote went when you flipped it upwards.

On defense to strip the ball you pull the remote back has you tackle a player, or you can get some extra oomph on your tackle by pausing both your hands forward has you tackle your guy. All in all it’s pretty simple to figure out once you get into and you get some exercise.

If your new don’t worry there is the learn madden mode that not only tells you A. What the move does. B let you practice the motion first. C and finally drops you in a field were you can practice the move in a real game environment. Also during the pre season games on the franchise mode it will alert you to a tutorial you can access by pressing the 1 and 2 buttons on the wii remote. So basically the wii remote gives a fun unique twist on Madden right, well for the most part but like all 1st generation wii games there are kinks in there.

First off there were times when I was on field trying to pass and because I moved the Wii remote to aggressively by pass went crazy, then was just from the excitement of the moment but it gets frustrating when you all ready had the person you wanted to pass it to line up and was actually ready to pass and have the QB just throw it away, even more annoying on 3rd and long.

But the worst parts were when I had to kick, while most of the time it does it right, there was all to often times when it sliced heavily. And then there was time when the thing didn’t give my kick any power, it was at 0, definitely frustrating when you need a long field goal. These things don’t screw the game up but when you encounter them they will frustrate you. Now on to the main two player modes franchise and NFL all star mode.

Franchise mode.
In Franchise mode you pick your main team and you go through 30 years managing that franchise. Most of the time it’s building up your players and managing your rosters and then playing games has you go through pre-season, season, play offs and hopefully super bowel. But in-between you will have to rebuild your team and this got me annoyed with all the menus and while you can let the computer take care of it takes a long time and the computer doesn’t always pick the best members of your team. More annoying and kind of silly is that you have to manage your teams money and stadium. I bought the game to play football, I don’t really give a &&^# about how much foam fingers are going at my stadium. Still the franchise mode is pretty fun and with 30 years to play through it will give you a couple hundred hours of gameplay right there if you are really into football video games.

All star mode.
I don’t really care for all star mode, basically you choose your guys by rolling the dice between what is position is, and what is parents profession was, when you find a roll that works for you and position that works for you go for it. Basically the game follows just your guy through a carrier in the NFL. The problem is has long has your character you choose is on the field the camera follows him and only him and you can’t change players. In less you choose QB then the game is going to get old weather your catching, tackling or blocking the fact that your only doing these things rather then being in complete control of the game gets old after a while. I only played a few games before I decided to retire my all star in the first season.

There are also some mini games that can be played some of them are training mini games you will see in franchise mode that make up training camp, another one lets you play through 2 minutes of a game and practice on your long throws or stopping your opponents rush during these vital two minutes of a close game.

Final Recommendtation.
I don’t like Madden games, and all though Madden 07 had a few of the same old things that frustrate me like wasting by time setting the price on the foam fingers it wasn’t a terrible experience. And the control scheme shows promise and if EA gets rid of the kinks Madden 08 may be worth the purchase on release day. I also hope EA brings what I consider a better series called NFL street to the Wii using a similar control scheme they have all ready established with Madden.