Before I could even begin to review this game I faced two pretty huge obstacles. The first was more down to me being immature but I’ve always refused to play on ‘football’ games due to the fact it is not proper football, it is posh rugby man. However my second obstacle was rather difficult to overcome, I do not own a Nintendo Wii. Shit.

Not to worry though, after an unsurprisingly quick run through of my phone’s address book I found one suitor who owned this priceless console, first name Nintendo, second name Wii. Game on.

Now that I’d addressed this major problem and rather quickly overcame my reluctance to play on shit sport games I was in a position to review. According to my sources (which are normally unreliable I must say) Madden enters the third year of it’s 5-year exclusivity contract with the ’08 entry in the series, only two more years to go then, start counting.

The game features an all-new Party Mode where you can play trivia or chose from 22 different mini-games, each lasting 67 hours no doubt (apologies for my sarcasm). You can also break down plays and highlight key moments with the all-new Madden NFL 08 telestrator (Don’t actually know what that is really.)

If you love the Internet then feel free to bring the game online and play head to head with your mates as well as keeping up to date with the live sports ticker for the ultimate online experience. Madden 08 Wii includes many new features with some exclusive to the Wii version only. For example, the Wii version includes the franchise’s Read and React Player Weapon system. This basically means that during gameplay you can manually display and see where your impact superstars are and where best to exploit mismatches on the field.

In all honesty I have very little, if no knowledge of this game, which has clearly affected my liking and understanding of it. However if you like American football then this is your FIFA 08 equivalent so enjoy my friend.

Game courtesy of Jodie Van Hibb at EA Sports.
www.uk.ea.com

James Henderson