lectronic Arts announced this week that they are going to bring Madden to Wii this year.  GI’s Madden hardcore Matthew Kato and Billy Berghammer got the specifics about the title from Madden Wii Lead Producer Jason Armenise, and Senior Product Manager Chuck Blevens. Plus we head to the 5th quarter and give you our thoughts on the game before we get to play it next week. Hike!

Game Informer: What kind of things from Tiburon are you using that will help you create this version of the game?

Jason Armenise: We’re building upon Tiburon’s base Madden code. We’ve got a lot from Tiburon that way.

GI: Are you sharing graphical elements like skins, textures, facial animations, animations at all in general?

Armenise: We are relying a lot upon EA Tiburon, and they are definitely a big help for us when it comes to Madden Wii and making that happen.

GI: When the 360 version of Madden came out last year people dinged it because it didn’t have the full feature set, are we going to see that same start back at square one with the Wii version of Madden?

Armenise: At this point, I don’t think we’re talking about all the different features that you’ll see in Madden Wii. I will say that we’re not going to set out to disappoint the consumer. We know there’s going to be a lot of Madden fans out there who want to see a great game on the Wii we are going to do our best to make that happen.

GI:  Obviously Tiburon is working on the GameCube version of Madden NFL 07, would you say that this will be much more enhanced than the GameCube version?

Armenise: The Wii version is going to stand out on its own.  The uniqueness of its controller is going to be a completely new experience to consumers. Comparing it to any other console would be shortening the potential of the Wii, and what could happen with Madden Wii.

GI: How does the game work with the shell controller?  We’ve heard that the Wii will incorporate the nunchuck controller, but there will also be a shell controller for people who want more of a traditional experience.  If that’s true, can you talk about how the game will feel while using the shell controller?

Armenise: Alternate controls other than the remote control and nunchuck controller – right now what you’ll see at E3 is all dedicated towards the freehand and nunchuck combo.  I think that’s where people are going to see a huge change, and be very excited about Madden and how Madden plays – those two controllers and how that works.

Chuck Blevens: That’s really what the difference is in terms of the Wii version of Madden for this year.  It’s just taking the new controller scheme and really creating an all new different and unexpected experience by using that controller scheme and it really brings a big difference in how you approach the game in terms of playing the game by using the nunchuck system.

GI: Can you explain how offense will work with the freehand controller and nunchuck controller? And then can you explain defense?

Armenise: I can talk about some aspects of it.  Let’s talk about offense to begin with – we’ll talk about a few of the biggest most important things you need to know about. Obviously if you’re playing a football game you need to hike the ball, and you need to be able to pass the ball, and you need to run. If you’re at the line of scrimmage, you’ve called your play – and by the way what I’m about to describe this is all the things that other people and yourselves will see at E3 – if you’re right handed, people will have the freehand controller in their right hand, and the nunchuck in their left hand – to snap the ball you’ll flick your right wrist back towards your body.  You can just flick your wrist or pull your entire arm back towards your body. That hikes the ball.  It’s hopefully intuitive, and it’s hopefully something that football fans would think, “Wow if I was going to hike the ball that’s how a real life action a center and quarterback have” is mimicked here. You’re pulling the controller back just like a quarterback would pull the ball back. That kind of intuitiveness – and if you’re a football fan you believe the construction this way. That is a lot of what we’re trying to do with Madden and the Wii. Those specific recreations of unique football situations in the game using the Wii.

If you’ve hiked the ball and you’re moving with your quarterback, or standing still, it doesn’t matter, you basically do a flicking motion or a throwing motion with the freehand controller and the quarterback will throw the ball.

GI: There are some quarterbacks – I’m a Packer fan so Brett Favre might side arm it or underhand toss it.  Will that be reflected in the game at all?

Armenise: Right now the controls you’ll see at E3, basically for passing focus on the differentiation of passes based on force. So whether you throw a bullet or throw a lob or a regular toss – are based upon the force you put on the throw.

GI: How are you going to work the accuracy as far as someone’s bringing their arm forward apart from force, whether the motion is a little bit to the left or the right or high or low – is that going to affect the pass in the game?

Armenise: I don’t want to give everything away with what we’re going to be doing with Madden for the Wii. I think you guys will be pleasantly surprised with what you’ll see with Madden at E3, and I will say that what we’re showing at E3 is not the full enchilada. We are constantly trying to innovate with what we’re doing with these controllers and we are pushing the uniqueness of the Wii so what people see on Madden, the game they play on the Wii is significantly different, has gameplay depth, and is very intuitive for them.

GI: Would you say in a general sense that the Madden player who has played the previous games will be able to do all the pre-snap functions with the Wii version?  Audibles, hot routes, flipping the play, things like that?

Armenise: We have not decided which features right now.  At least we’re not talking about what we are keeping or cutting from the basic game play experience.  I will say this, we are not going to try and disappoint the Madden hardcore.  We know we have to respect the Madden hardcore, and make sure they can come to the Madden Wii and have a really good time, and do all the functions they’re used to.

GI: Passing is all done with force on the freehand controller, but what about pump fakes?  Will that be done by pressing  button to say, “Hey, this isn’t a real throw”?

Armenise: (laughs) You hit that one really well, actually. So a fake pass is the exact same motion as a real pass except you’re holding the B-trigger down.

Blevens: You can imagine playing side-by-side with someone and being able to fake them by doing the pump fake motion, and them springing on the defensive side of the ball, and anticipating pass while you’re throwing the pump fake.

GI: Madden NFL 07 is the year of the running game, are you working towards something like freehand controller hand offs?

Armenise: There will definitely be big running features that you would expect from the other versions to be there. I’m not going to talk about all of the different features.  I can sense how excited you guys are, so at E3 I think you should check out all of those features. And as we go further down the road with development on Madden I think you guys will be very surprised and pleased with the amount of control you can have with the controllers.

GI: We’ve got the offense down, but how are you utilizing the nunchuck and freehand controller for defense?

Blevens: We definitely have a lot of things in store for the defensive part of the game, more of that will be revealed at the show next week, as well.  We want to save some things for next week so you’ll walk away impressed.  Just know that there’s a similar approach in terms of using the free motion controls to emulate defensive moves.

GI: I know you’re obviously trying to save stuff, but the quintessential Madden experience is two guys on a couch throwing down in a big game. So obviously utilizing the freehand controller and the nunchuck there’s going to be a lot of motion on the couch because you’re going to have one guy trying to pass the ball, and the other guy is trying to run around the offensive line to take down the quarterback with the freehand controller hypothetically, or however you’re going to do it. How are you making it so the two guys aren’t knocking each other around on the couch?

Armenise: (laughs) We don’t want any Madden injuries. I will say that all the controls that we’re doing – we’re calling “free motion controls” which are gesture based control systems in Madden Wii.  John Shappert has been talking about doing big throws with your arm – that’s how you do a throw. Basically every gesture can be done with a flick of the wrist. So we think that people are going to be passionate and excited about Wii Madden and they’re going to get into the game, and I think what’s going to happen as people play the game longer and longer they’re going to go to a more conservative arm flailing and do wrist flicks and find that the timing they want to achieve can be done with wrist flicks and the force can be done with wrist flicks. You won’t see people knocking people over on the couch because they’re trying to do moves that conflict what they want to do with each other.

GI: Are you just working on two player? Meaning one-on-one? Are we going to have two-on-two gameplay?

Blevens: That’s definitely something we’re not going to talk about right now, unfortunately.  At E3 it’s a one player experience only.

GI: Dare I ask if you guys are going to even consider online?

Armenise: The Madden experience has a strong online presence….

Blevens: More details are forthcoming as we get closer to the release date.

GI: With the freehand and the nunchuck there’s a cord length of about three feet. With passing how it is, is that a concern of yanking the cord out?

Armenise: The first time people pick it up people think they’re going to do vast big movements with their arms, and they don’t have to. So the length of the cord is fine for us.  Once you sit down with the game, it’s just not an issue.

GI: You were talking about big arm movements versus small arm movements, and there’s basically no difference.  Is sensitivity an issue if the freehand controller is reading the small movement the same as a big movement, I imagine balancing the sensitivity must be a pretty tough thing and how that transfers with what happens on screen.

Armenise: There is definitely a big programming challenge for a smart team like ours to come up with controls. What we have to do is make certain that every user who picks up our game understands what a hike is, and once they understand the gestures for a hike, that all the different variations of hike movement is out there.  Billy, Matt, you guys might hike differently just because the way your arm is.  Your preconceived notion of what a hike is may be different. So the challenge for us is to make certain that Madden takes both of your gestures and outputs the correct result. That’s one of the great unique cool things about the Wii, is that everybody who picks it up can play. The better we do our job doing that the more innovative, and the more fun people are going to have with the Madden Wii.

GI:  How are you handling kicking?

Armenise: Come back at E3 and find out.  The E3 demo has a kicking mini-game in it, and you’ll be able to kick then.

GI: With the freehand controller I’m assuming?

Armenise: Mmm-hmmm.  (ed: meaning, yes)

GI: Can you talk about what other things will be in the E3 demo?

Armenise: The E3 demo has two challenges in it, a passing challenge and a kicking challenge.  It has a core Madden single player in it as well.

GI: Will you have a special Wii version of the Madden Challenge?

Blevens: You’re talking about the US tour we have during the course of the NFL season, we’re still working on our plans for that event this year and we haven’t finalized any of the specific details just yet.

GI: How has development been for the Wii as far as graphically and things like that? Are you happy with the performance you’re getting with it?

Armenise: So far what we’ve been doing for the time we’ve been developing for the Wii, we’ve been focusing all on gameplay, and getting that unique gameplay experience for the users. I think people are really going to see that at E3 – we’re hoping we get a lot of feedback. “Wow, that’s a really unique version of Madden – I really didn’t think it was going to be like this.”  That has been our overriding focus, and making sure the game is really polished. We want to get feedback at E3 and we’ve been doing internal focus tests, and they’ve already been changing and learning about the controllers and how they work, and how other designs internally we’ve already vented them out, and said, “Wow, that didn’t work” and gone forward on stuff.  For us, it’s all about the controls and making that new experience for those folks who are going to get Madden Wii.

GI: Obviously gameplay always matters over everything with any videogame, but what about the visuals? Are you happy with the performance you’re getting?

Armenise: So far we’ve had no problems with the Wii, we’re up and running and doing great.

GI: How would you characterize them in context with comparing them with the next generation and the current generation hardware? Do you think its somewhere in between or sort of what we’ve seen in the current generation – maybe on the Xbox or PS2?

Armenise: I don’t even think I want to go there. I think I’d much rather concentrate on what the experience is going to be for the user.  I want people to focus on that. I’d like to see people come away from E3 passionate about the controls we’ve put that together. I think that’s going to be the overriding concern with how you’re going to play Madden on Wii, and once they get a taste they’re going to really like it.

GI: Have you been in talks with Nintendo on how to make Madden for Wii?  Have they been helpful in any respects?

Armenise: They sure have.  Nintendo has been excellent for us. They’ve been a big help.  We’ve spoken to them and gotten feedback from them, and they’ve been excellent.

The 5th Quarter

Billy Berghammer: When I was one of the few who got their hands on the then Revolution controller at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, I imagined how a number of games would play with the freehand controller.  Madden was one of those games.  Sure enough, EA is doing it.  I have to say, I’m extremely intrigued and can’t wait to see how it all comes together with the hiking, passing, kicking, and defense.  I do want freehand hand-offs, especially this year when Madden is focusing on the running game.  C’mon, when I play with the Packers this year and I have Ahman Green and Samkon Gado in the back field? Bring it!  And yes, I’m forgetting completely about the Packers crap season last year.  It’s a new season on a new console. Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

However, I do have a few concerns.  I don’t want the freehand controller actions to be gimmicky.  I want them to feel as natural as they say they will.  If the B trigger button is used for pump faking, do I still hold the freehand controller like a remote? And then when I pull my hand back to pass am I actually holding the controller upside down?  That seems to be pretty cool if it works.

But will we get a stripped down version like the Xbox 360 did last year?  Will the visuals be a little better than this year’s GameCube version?  Will gameplay be limited to one-on-one?  There are things I expect in my Madden. I want my QB Vision!  I want Superstar mode!  I want downloadable rosters! I want online play!  I want widescreen support! I am already fearing that if I want Madden Wii, but I want all of the Madden features in current gen, I’ll be buying two versions of the game. As always, time will tell…

Matthew Kato: I'm glad that EA – a company known for going port crazy – is giving Nintendo Madden fans something different to do when holding their Wii controllers in their hands instead of just pressing buttons. However, my question is: Do you really want to play Madden differently?

I won't get to play the Wii version of Madden until E3, so although I conceptually understand how the game is going to utilize the system's remote control, I'm curious how much fun playing it is going to be. I've never considered actually having to make a passing motion with my arm just to throw the ball, so I'm curious if playing the Wii version of the game will change the way I strategically play the game or if it'll just be a case of literally going through the motions. Another question is whether or not this title is going to give me all the controls that I'm used to. What about pre-snap controls? Will the game have the full feature set of Madden's past or will it be truncated like the Xbox 360 edition? I hope this game doesn't end up being a case where Wii owners are ghettoized with a gimmicky version of the football game they really wish they could be playing.

Furthermore, the execution of the controller's movements on the screen is going to have to be spot on. If there's one thing that Madden fans get pissed about it's when they feel like they've been cheated. If I flood one side of the field and the game doesn't recognize which of my receivers I'm throwing too, that's not good. On the other hand, if the game actually adds to the realism of the franchise, then Nintendo and EA might have an untouchable product on their hands.

Needless to say, I can't wait to finally play this title and see if it's starter material or just a career backup.