Another year, another new edition of FIFA across most consoles. And by now, gamers know what to expect: lots of leagues, knockout cups, hundreds of teams and thousands of players. FIFA 08 boasts a total of 30 leagues, 620 teams and over 15,000 players from all over the world. This year, however, marks the first time that the game will appear on the Wii.

As always, the main thing separating the Wii version of the title from another is its motion controls, which EA have been working hard to make feel active and intuitive. Gone is the default left-right camera angle; replacing it is a Sensible Soccer top-down viewpoint to help make the directional motion controls easier to perform. Tap A to pass, or hold and move the remote in a direction to control the direction of the pass. Doing the same with B will activate a through pass. Pulling the Remote up hard and fast allows you to shoot - the harder you move the Remote, the more power the ball has. During a free kick, the angle the Nunchuck's held at gives the ball relevant spin. Throw-ins are performed by holding the Remote and Nunchuck above your head and making a throwing motion. The Wii version also allows you to control your goalkeeper directly during the game by making diving motions.

EA are also including an alternate control scheme inspired by Wii Sports. These “Family Play” controls use just the remote and gives control over players' movements to the computer. To help you further, the Wii version also includes a training section called the Football Academy to teach you the Wii controls. If done right, regular FIFA players should be able to have some good matches against non-gamers who use the Family Play method of control. However, depending on the AI, people using the Wii Remote & Nunchuck will still have a distinct advantage over Family Play. Nevertheless, it opens up some new multiplayer possibilities.

Another exclusive to the Wii version is the Footii Party mode, which consists of three minigames: Juggling, where you use the Wii remote to keep the ball in the air; Boot It, a specialised penalty shootout where you can play as the goalkeeper or shooter, and Table Football, which uses the Wii Remote to simulate an accurate-feeling version of the playing the table-top game. All these minigames make use of Miis, and some offer unlockable content for gaining high scores.

Like Madden 08, FIFA 08 on the Wii features an online mode. EA promise that the online problems that riddled Madden will be solved for FIFA and that FIFA will be much more fluid. The title will also use the EA Nation system, as opposed to Nintendo's usual Wi-Fi set-up, meaning that EA's persona (i.e. a username) replaces Friend Codes. Players will have access to random matches, friend matches and roster updates – all in all, a decent online title for the Wii.

Will the Wii controls bring new life to FIFA or will it fail to keep up the pace? Only time (and our forthcoming review) will tell.