Off The Shelf - Madden 08
When you browse the HMV shelves looking for a new Wii game to buy, current sales suggest that it's very unlikely your arm will reach for Madden 08. In fact, if Amazon's current Wii rankings are anything to go buy, it'll be 97th in your top 100 list of Wii stuff to buy. There, it rubs shoulders with Telly Addicts (which, I must admit, sounds strangely tempting) and "Controller Graphix Masks 7-Pack". Yes, people would prefer to customise their Wii Remote with some brightly coloured plastic than play American football.
All of which seems a little unfair. Madden 07 was, by all accounts, one of the best Wii games released last year, taking full advantage of the console's unique controls: a flick here, a thrust there, and before you knew it you were crossing the line screaming "Touchdown!" at an embarrassingly high volume. And Madden 08 adds a number of enticing features - including online play. Don't start imagining 22 of you hooked up to a communal game, this is strictly one-on-one stuff, but it does mean you can challenge friends, family and other Madden fans to truly test your skills. There's even a friendly "rookie only" area, so you don't have to rough it with the big boys straight away.
EA Sports have also simplified the game controls, with Family Play dumping the Nunchuk and allowing you to concentrate on passing and tackling. But that won't satisfy you for long: the game's real power comes when you're juking left with the Nunchuk before spinning on the spot (press A), offloading and sprinting (press B) to the line.
That said, there is a learning curve. I'm a complete newcomer to Madden and it took a fair bit of fumbling around before things started to click into place. And when I say click into place, I mean at an incredibly simple level: I managed to successfully throw the ball to my wide receiver and, miracle of miracles, he scored a Touchdown. (I whooped.)
Others have criticised the graphics, but they're perfectly respectable. After all, it's gameplay that really matters, not whether the players look lifelike as they're about to sack your quarterback. If anything, it's the rock/heavy metal soundtrack that will get to you. The guitars became so unrelenting I felt I should have grown my hair to waist length, left it unwashed for a week and headed down to my local moshpit.
Musical tastes aside; Madden 08 is a good game. It takes advantage of the Wii's controls, it's got enough depth to keep people interested for many an hour, and once you do feel confident in your skills there's a world of people to challenge. It's one hell of a lot more addictive than Telly Addicts ever will be, and, I suspect, a slightly better long-term investment than those Graphix Masks.
3/5 -- Tim Danton
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