Most Europeans won't give a second a second look to a Madden game on the shelves, but the truth is, if sport games are their thing, they might be missing out on something really fun with Madden 08.

This game is ripe with different modes, start with "Learn Madden", a tutorial where you can learn the rules (will be useful for a lot of people), the basic and advanced controls and can practice to your hearts content until you get the hang of it, because if this is you're your first foray into Madden games it will take you a while to get used to the game. There's the Franchise mode where you can create a team from scratch or choose an already existing team and stick with it for 30 years and you can also choose to have total control over the team, calling the shots from outside the field.

There's also the NFL Superstar: Hall of Fame, which is basically a career mode, where you start with a real NFL superstar or rookie and live the life of a NFL player. You have your own apartment, which works as a main hub where you can check your stats and schedule, you can gain influence on your team mates by playing very well in specific moments, like throwing a touchdown or you can lose influence by failing at something. Another stat is your ego which allows you to have more influence in your team and in your roles and gains. Boost your ego by answering questions in interviews in a professional way or lower it by being a douche bag. All these stats will affect your game and may determine if you enter the Hall of Fame, where the 5 top NFL players are. You can also play in party mode with 3 more friends or answer trivia about NFL, which might not be easy for a lot of Europeans. What's cool about the Party Games is that you can save multiple profiles associated to Miis, set up tournaments and there's also a Telestrator for replays, with a pen and everything, just like the real thing.

Besides the local 4 player multiplayer you can also play online this time and guess what? You won't need any friend codes! Madden 08 uses EA's online service: EA Nation, so you just need to create a profile, which is simple and free and you're good to go. You have worldwide rankings, friend lists, a whole load of options to set before the game, lobbies and a list of the latest players to have joined, but unfortunately there's no text or voice messaging, you can only use pre-determined phrases. The game isn't always lag free either, but for most of the time you can play without any problems. Basically, online is a mixed bag: you don't need to use those dreaded friend codes and the service is more robust that the usual online efforts we've seen on Nintendo consoles, but on the other hand, the lack of text messaging and lag and erratic servers bring it down. It may also be too confusing for those hoping for a quick play session like they're used too on Mario Strikers for example.

But what sets the Wii version of Madden NFL 08 apart from the other ones are the controls. There are two control types: Family Controls and Advanced Controls. Family Controls, are obviously simpler and provide a very good way to let a friend who never played this game before have some fun. You use only the remote to perform the basic offensive moves, like passing the ball or try a defensive manoeuvre, like a tackle. The rest is handled automatically. Advanced Controls are the main dish; using both the Nunchuck and the Wii-mote you can control everything with amazing detail and in a very intuitive manner, since you basically have to emulate the player's movements. Going through every single move would take a while, so they won't be listed here, but they change if you're kicking, on the offence or on the defence, for example lift both controllers to receive the ball high in the air, push the remote forward to hit you opponent, swing the Nunchuck left or right to evade or if you want to pass the ball, choose the receiver with the D-Pad or A button and swing the remote (the faster you swing the remote, the faster the ball goes). Plenty of stuff to know, so you'll have to practice for a while to let all the control options sink in, but after that happens, you'll be playing like a pro and you'll never want to play Madden with a regular controller again. Unfortunately some AI glitches occur once in a while and ruin the experience, which is a nuisance, because with the well-implemented controls, you'd expect the computer controller players to react accordingly. Thankfully, this doesn't happen very often.

Graphically, Madden 08 is only slightly better than 07 with bad player models, mediocre animations and bad textures, so another case of no effort on the graphics front. The presentation on the other hand is great, with easily accessible menus, game modes and all the explanations you need at the distance of a button. The sound is very good with a very varied licensed soundtrack ranging from Metal to Rap, great speech from the commentators, nice sound effects and great use of the Wiimote speaker, which even allows you to hear the other team's tactics occasionally.

In the end, Madden NFL 08 is a good game with lots of options, game modes, features and a very appreciable attention to detail. The addition of online, even though rough around the edges is certainly a welcome addition and the rest of the multiplayer including the party games will certainly guarantee a lot of hours spent around the game. The graphics are still last-gen unfortunately, but the time EA didn't spend working on them, they spent on the controls which are very responsive, refined and intuitive. A good game for NFL fans and who knows, it looks like newcomers may enjoy it too.