Madden NFL 07 review

There's an outrageously good chance that if you're reading this, you're already a fan of sports games. If that's the case, rest assured that all your updated stats and faithful stadium recreations are intact with Wii's Madden NFL 07, but the greatest accomplishment here is the genre-opening motion controls. Much more intuitive than anything on the PS3, these gesture-based commands deftly control passing, tackling and hiking in such a way that anyone can wrap their minds around playing a game of Madden.

Why are they so fun? Because they make sense. Here's a typical play: You hike the ball (flicking the remote upwards during the snap count), eyeball your receivers and toss a pass (miming a throw with the remote hard or soft for different types of passes), which your man catches (holding both Nunchuk and remote up like two outstretched arms) and runs into the end zone. Now that the ball's on the move, the remote acts like your runner's arms, jutting out chest-crushing stiff arms. A shake on the Nunchuk jukes him to the side, and you can even wave both up and down to high-step it down the field.

Defensive motions are less varied. It's possible to both intercept and swat away passes, but they seemed to connect a lot less often than they should. By thrusting both controllers forward, you can execute a neck-breaking mega tackle, but again, this move never felt like a sure thing. These wonky play breakers serve to make the game a lot more about offense than defense, as successfully stopping passes and runs happens so rarely that it's obnoxious.