Madden NFL 11 Wii preview

Transitioning from EA Canada back to the original home of Madden, EA Tiburon, Madden NFL 11 for the Nintendo Wii is ready to be considered as a serious football affair.

Revamping the franchise to create the deepest iteration on the platform, Madden NFL 11 brings back a lot of classic options that fans should find appealing. Whether it’s the campus-esque presentation where players can view how their franchise is doing as a whole or the inclusion of setting the prices of park tickets for better finances, Madden NFL 11 should offer a heap more of value than last year’s release.

There’s even more incentive to be successful in the franchise mode outside of winning the Super Bowl. This time around, EA Tiburon has packed in the ability to climb up the rankings of the Legacy leaderboards to claim the mantle as the best franchise of all time. At the top includes normal mainstays such as ‘80’s 49ers and the ‘70’s Steelers. At the bottom, the entire lifespan of the Detroit Lions (sorry Detroit fans, they just aren’t anything special since Barry Sanders left). To pass the Detroit Lions on the leaderboard, players only have to win one single game – yup, the Lions are that pitiful. Oh, as a sidenote, if you are unhappy with the beginning leaderboard positions, it’s best to voice your complaints to EA as they were done internally. There may or may have not been a few debates on whether or not the undefeated Miami Dolphins (no, not the 1-win Dolphins from a few years back) should hold the claim as the best team ever.

The more players win, the more fans they’ll earn. The more fans they earn, the more money their stadium will make. The more money you make (combined with fans and victories) the less likely the players will be fired from their position. Yes, that’s right, players are eligible to be fired for poor performance; don’t fret though, if players are fired, they’ll be sent to a sandbox mode of sorts to continue playing.

Sadly, there still isn’t the addition of super-sim, the best friend of any hardcore franchise mode fan who wants to dabble with playing a few games, but spend most of their time with general managing the team.

Tailored to the Nintendo Wii audience specifically, the visuals have been revamped with a more casual presentation to appeal the younger demographics. In addition, they have also added in: weather, social modes (aka games where you can play with friends), and the ability to be benched mid-game by the coach. The social modes include Tournament (battle with three other friends over the course of 4-5 games) and Road to the Super Bowl (work cooperatively with friends through a season to play in the Super Bowl).

The last tidbit that needs to be spoke about is that the soundtrack was overly repetitive, but we were promised that it was only an issue with what tracks were selected by default rather than the brevity of the work. A few tweaks and songs shouldn’t be played on repeat before its forthcoming release on August 10.