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GamePro Q&A: Wii Madden Revealed
- September 08, 2006 22:12 PM PST
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We recently spoke with Jason Samuel Armenise, an associate producer with EA Canada, concerning the upcoming Wii version of Madden NFL 07.
The Wii version of Madden NFL 07 is unique compared to the other versions
On the Philosophy for a Wii Madden
Jason Samuel Armenise: Everything's there. The experiences you've come to love with Madden, they'll all be there. We're going to have tutorials, a simplified play picker, and we're going to make it easy for non-gamers to pick up the game. That's a huge part of what we want to do. We want the hardcore...and we want those users who maybe aren't playing Madden right now, but love football. They watch football on TV, but think, "wow, that controller is so complex."
On the Wii Control Scheme
The tutorials are up to the user to activate -- we're not going to throw the tutorials in front of your face. "Learn to throw, learn to kick, learn to hike" [and so on]. My thoughts are, the hardcore will be able to turn off the options they don't want. Those are the guys who are immediately going to want to go into audibles [and so on]. But that casual [Wii] fan who comes up, they can do moves like hiking and passing and kicking, and all these moves will make sense to them. If [casual players] don't want to do audibles, they can still have a great experience with Madden.
On the Wii Madden Fan Base: Hardcore or Casual?
At E3, we were at the Nintendo booth, and there were lines like crazy....the people waiting in line to play were the real hardcore. They would come up and play the game, and nine times out of ten, they'd say "Man, now I gotta buy two versions of Madden." [They said] "my friends are gonna have a great time with this." At the same time, I think they want the old experience, too, and maybe they want what the Xbox 360 version offers. Many people were telling me they were gonna buy both [the classic and Wii versions of Madden].
Madden fans are pretty passionate...if we do a good job, they're going to come to Madden Wii as well.
On Multiplayer
The most fun we had was in two player. We showed one player at E3...anybody could just walk up and play. Now we're playing two-player matches in the office, and it's so much fun. Smack talking is at an entirely new level. It's great.
The game is designed to be ultra-accessible, but EA Cananda is still wrestling with making the controls as simple as possible
On Franchise Mode
We're not talking about all the features right now, but I will say we're taking features from the current-gen, from next-gen, and Wii only. When the other Maddens have launched, we'll go into what you can expect from Madden Wii at that point.
All the things you expect from Madden, when it comes to depth of gameplay, are all gonna be there.
We've got some really brilliant programmers who have been working since we've got the first Revolution development kits. I've been working to create an interface that allows us to translate [movements] into a game experience. That is something we're gonna continue to polish and re-do, re-do, re-do, right up until the game launches. That is the most important part of the game, is making sure those controls are enjoyable and easy to use.
On "Wii Fatigue"
Any of the moves you see on Madden, like big throws or big hikes, they can all be done [with small wrist gestures]. When somebody first starts playing the game, they'll do big kicks [and so on], but eventually they'll get a little tired or they'll settle down and [they'll find that smaller, subtler movements do the job just as well.] That's the way people will play. Except when they're playing two-player, and they're about to score a touchdown, [people will] make big movements to taunt people.
On Motion Sensing Challenges
We do a lot of focus groups actually showing off the controls to people, bringing people in who have never played before to give us feedback. We've killed a lot of [control schemes] already. This is new: no one has done Wii development before. No one has done this kind of motion sensing before. I think we've got a very strong product.
I'm certain that there may be something in there that [might present itself when played by several million people]. That may happen. We're really trying to make motion part of the gameplay, because football's about motion; Madden's about motion. Will we make a mistake with the controls? We're doing our best to make a game that everyone can play.
On Wii Gesture Complexity
It's a launch title, there are a lot of things we have to do with the game. We're not gonna see sidearming this year. We're not going to see a sidearming gesture that you can only do with certain quarterbacks because they're sidearming quarterbacks. Maybe next year. When we get a year or two of [Wii development experience], you'll see a lot more complexity in the Wii controls, a lot more customization.
On Madden Wii versus Madden GameCube.
The things that you'd expect from Madden 07, you'll see with [the Wii version] as well. You won't see a loss of features.
We have our group -- we're not at Tiburon, we're in Vancouver -- and we're making Wii-specific games. There will be features in the Wii version of Madden that you won't see in any other version of Madden, period.
On Favorite Wii Features
The in-game controls are so fun, especially in two player. Two player is the best. Sitting down and playing two-player with people, you're so much more immersed in it. It feels like football. You feel like you're closer to the game of football in some way. I don't know exactly why that is. I think it's because you're actively involved. It's just a lot of fun...little things, like the taunts, and [quieting down the crowd with hand movements]. It's a little thing, but it's so much fun -- it's things like that, overall, that you really make you enjoy the hell out of the Wii.
