Madden NFL 10 Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 12th October 2009

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Wii take to the field.

Madden NFL 10 Details:

	Sports
	PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii/PSP
	EA Sports
	EA Sports

Out Now

1-4

American Football has its fans in the UK, I however am not one of them and compare it to a softer version of rugby with some absurd amendments to the rules, therefore my terminology may not be completely correct throughout this review, and as I find it hard to get excited or enthusiastic about this sport I maybe slightly biased.

The first thing I noticed was that it seems to be aimed at multiple players with all the modes playable by up to 4 people. Even the tradition championship mode (called Road to the Super Bowl) seems to have multiplayer at its heart. This does make it seem a bit lightweight as it lacks the clout of a big, heavy single player season mode, that said you can play a full or half season or skip straight to the Super Bowl playoffs, but just winning games may not be enough, as you gain points whilst you play in this mode by completing offensive or defensive plays successfully, and it is this points total that decides if you reach the Super Bowl final or not.

As for the gameplay itself, it doesn’t change from one mode to the next as you would expect from a sports title. There are two main controller settings, the popular All-Play controls, that simplify the controls down to simple gestures and button presses and the more advanced control settings for the more experienced and “hands-on” players. I stuck mostly to the basic All-Play controls as I found the advanced controls disorientating and left too much for me to control, but this mode does allow you more freedom with your plays and the actions your players can perform, which you will undoubtedly be required on the harder difficulties. The All-Play control allows you to select the player you want to move and move him by pointing where on the field you want him to be, or point at an opposing player to tackle him and by flicking the remote at the right time you can achieve a big hit. When you are on the attack you choose whether to have a running play or a passing play and then either control your runner with the control stick if you have a nunchuck attached or the control pad on the remote, a passing play sees you assume the role of quarterback and you point at the player you want to throw the ball to and tap the A button, you then have to swing the remote down at the correct time to catch the ball and then run it to the touchdown zone. There are other actions that can be performed whilst running such as breaking tackles by drumming the remote or power through people with a well timed shake of the remote. The action is very smooth and the action orientated control scheme seems to work fine at the lower difficulties, once you start making the opposition harder you will need to up your game and probably change to the more complicated control setting as this allows you even more actions to perform such as spinning away from tackles making it easier to “sack” the quarterback! There are occasionally spotlight moments which act like quick-time events where the action slows down and the camera zooms in as you avoid big hits and so on, but these seem very rare.

As always there is also a selection of mini-games to compliment the main game modes, but these are unlikely to hold your attention for very long but are also a welcome break from the normal action of the main game.

The graphics are not as detailed as on other formats as expected with the under-powered graphics engine in the Wii, they are functional and perfectly suitable to the gameplay style. The audio is fine with some realistic grunting and some satisfying groans from the big shunts and hits. The commentary eventually gets tedious and repetitive but overall it is voiced pretty well.

All things considered this game is fairly playable and is accessible even to the completely uninitiated like myself, thanks to the simple (maybe over-simplistic) All-Play mode and the Ask Madden feature that automatically selects the most appropriate offensive or defensive play. I did get some short-lived enjoyment from this game until the computer opposition started to hammer me as I upped the difficulty! I did find it a little lightweight and short on game modes compared to the game on other formats and other EA Sports games on the Wii (especially Tiger Woods 10). It is a decent effort that does plenty right and very little wrong, any NFL fan would be quite happy with this arcade-like version of a classic game mechanic.