A huge thanks to EA Sports’ Will Kinsler who was nice enough to invite me to their football community day this past week at the Tiburon Studios in Orlando, Florida. In the first part of a three part series, I will go over my experiences with NFL Head Coach 2009, NCAA Football 2009, and Madden NFL 2009.

Initial Reaction
I really didn’t know what to expect when I first sat down with the game. I knew I was going to be calling plays, but I had no idea that the game would include such off the field detail. I thought it was neat to prepare draft boards and bid on free agents, but I really loved the ability to create a play while you were in the midst of a game. I was playing against the Ravens as the Packers and Ray Lewis and company were blitzing the crap out of me in my full house formation. I went to five wide and created a new west coast offense scheme with short passes landing every which way. I pretty much out coached John Harbaugh after the first quarter. One of things that I had a bit of a problem with was the quarter lengths. You play the standard 15 minute quarter lengths just like in the pros so it can get a bit tiring after a half. When you just sit there and call play and not control players you tend to wish you were actually controlling them. So I can see where gamers would get a little tired of that aspect quick.

Senior Designer Josh Looman
To be entirely honest, I never played the previous NFL Head Coach that came out in 2006. I knew what the game was about, but like most other gamers I felt like I needed to control my players instead of simply calling the plays. So when it came to the presentation of NFL Head Coach I wanted to see what Senior Designer Josh Looman had in mind for the second edition of this game. Looman and his colleagues described right off the bat that they wanted to make the deepest football strategy game they could make. He also went on to say that this is game for all NFL fans who are experts at being armchair quarterbacks and who can’t help but scream at the decision making of teams on Sundays. Instead of groaning about certain play calls, NFL Head Coach lets you write the history book for your favorite franchise. To make this possible, Looman sat down with 30 of the 32 NFL head coaches in order to bring you the most in depth coaching experience ever.

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Can’t make it to Austria-Switzerland next month? Don’t worry, EA Sports has you covered with UEFA EURO 2008. In what may be their best soccer game to date, EURO 2008 includes all the ins and outs of what makes the sport enjoyable. UEFA EURO 2008 combines excellent game play, innovative game modes and most of the all, the tradition that every soccer fan loves.

*Game review based on XBOX 360 version.

Key Features:

Story of Qualifying. Sad that England missed out of Euro 2008? Don’t be. This game mode lets you retrace the qualifying round to compete as one of Europe’s 52 nations.

Interactive Celebrations. Back in FIFA 64, you had the option of choosing a sound effect after scoring a goal. Finally EA brings this feature back after almost a decade of absence. Score a goal and see what I mean.

Battle of the Nations. “Represent your country online against your rivals around the world to win global supremacy. Earn individual and team points. Think your nation is the best? Now you can prove it! A groundbreaking points system means that your every performance is rated, recorded and uploaded and your ratings all count towards players and nations.How crazy is that?

Captain Your Country! Wow! Create yourself, select a nation and take that team to European glory in Be A Pro mode!

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In an effort to promote the upcoming release of the new Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii, the people of Nintendo are taking their “Mario Kart Driving School” across the country. We here at Sportable were lucky enough to be invited to the first of such days held in San Diego and the good folks let us in an hour early to preview the game. A full review will be coming once we get our hands on the game, but for now there will be a few thoughts based off about an hour of game play.

The first impression was that the Wii Wheel, which is a fantastic idea, is a little tough to get a hang of. When you get to the character selection menu, all the usual are there, undoubtedly with more unlockable characters waiting in the depths of the game. The ability to choose between a motorcycle or a go kart seemingly is a minor detail, but makes the game incredibly more fascinating, especially because of the ability to do a wheelie on the motorcycle at will.

There are 32 tracks in Mario Kart, 16 new ones as well as 16 re-makes from previous editions of the game. This means that there are eight “cup” events, four of which were playable from the beginning of the game. The remade tracks are spot on accurate from previous games, and the new tracks are great, with new dangers and nuances to get used to. Along with the new tracks comes a few new items including a pow block, a mega mushroom, and a rain cloud that I still have no idea how to use effectively, though the Nintendo representatives promised me that it was effective if I could figure it out.

The battle mode, a personal favorite of mine from the Nintendo 64 era is back with new levels and old levels coming together for great fun. Team battles provide opportunities for you to team up with computers or other players and take on large numbers of opposing CPU players, and this time instead of being limited to 3 lives, you are able to come back after being hit 3 times, the scoring system now keeping track of total take outs per team.

The time I got on the sticks of the new Mario Kart really showed me that this game is everything that I hoped it would be. The game lives up to previous editions of Mario Kart and I can definitely see multiple people sitting on a couch with the Wii Wheels doing battle. I know that I will be investing in more Wii controllers and Wii Wheels when this game is released, it is too great of a game to not look forward to. Check back for a full review when we get a copy of the game, and check to see if the driving school is coming to a city near you.

Before I begin I would like to throw out some things to the readers. I have been playing FIFA since I was a child. Remember the old school diagonal field back in FIFA ‘94? Yeah, that’s how long I have been playing. Second, soccer is my life; and if there is one thing that makes me enjoy my favorite sport more than anything else, it’s FIFA. The one game that I look forward to every year is this one. The FIFA 2008 staff didn’t disappoint me. The presentation: minimal to no flaws. The gameplay: significantly better and more challenging. The satisfaction: rewarding.

*Game review based upon XBOX 360 version.

Presentation: If there is one attribute that FIFA does not lack, it is the presentation. Year after year, EA Sports continues to deliver the most fashionable soccer game out there. Gameplay aside for the moment, FIFA always provides gamers with more authenticity than any other sports game on the market. To me, licensing is important. If I would like to play with Manchester United, I would also like to play with their actual jerseys and player names. Another soccer game out there does not feature that and quite frankly, I won’t even consider buying it for reasons like that. FIFA offers 621 licensed teams with 15,000 players. If you did your math from last year, that’s a 20% increase.

Upon turning on the game, you can still enjoy messing around with your favorite player on the menu screen(one of my favorite parts of the game). One presentation flaw? The graphic which shows the score, time and teams in the upper left corner of the screen is horrid. You can’t tell which teams are playing in the game because the logos for each team are about the size of a grain of salt.

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If you had any doubts or questions about Madden 08 improving on almost every area that had issues in 2007, consider them answered. Madden 08 takes the ultra-precise game control that was first installed in NCAA 2008 and has improved on it. It showcases the new ?weapons? feature that takes utilizing the best players on your team to a new level. The presentation of it is vastly improved and it even offers a new ?championship ring? feature that will allow you to build your own ring through accomplishments in the game and will actually offer you the chance to buy the ring and wear it. So let?s get into breaking this beast of a game down.

Presentation. The outstanding presentation is one of the first things you?ll notice about the game. It doesn?t load slow like Madden 2007 did and it even shows your trophy case and championship ring on the main screen. In exhibition games against other users, you have the ability to wager various trophies (15 in all) that you can accumulate through game play. Your Madden gamer profile will log each trophy that you win against the specific opponent and, if you win the same trophy three consecutive times against the same person, you are dubbed the ?champion? of that trophy. For example, if I were to beat someone three times for the Coliseum Trophy, I would be considered the Coliseum Champion and it would be exclusive to the match up that I have against that person. This elevates smack talk to a whole new level. Like years previous, you are asked to pick your favorite team and on the main screen there are video panels that show highlights from your team. Unlike years past, however, you can turn those panels off and bask in the glory of your championship ring that sits in the middle of the screen.

In Franchise mode, you no longer have to put up with the random radio and newspaper stuff that would usually clutter the screen. Instead, it?s just a simple menu that has all the options including Front Office mode available to access. Like I mentioned earlier, EA isn?t throwing anything incredibly complicated at you as far as presentation goes. That goes a long way in making the game more enjoyable because it makes it easier to enjoy and there are fewer distractions. Read the rest of this entry »

The folks over at Nintendo were kind enough to send us an advance copy of their new Wii sports game, Mario Strikers Charged. I’ve always been a big fan of all Mario sports games over the years, whether it’s golf, tennis or soccer. Strikers signals the debut of Mario sports games for the Wii and proves that the Mario Sports franchise is as strong as ever. If you’re feeling a bit hesitant about making this purchase, don’t be. Strikers utilizes the Wii Remote and Nunchuk perfectly, allowing for very intuitive gameplay and ridiculously fun times.

Let’s start with the Wii controller setup. Sports gamers like myself were initially turned off to the idea of the Wii’s controller mixing with sports games. But Wii Sports and Mario Strikers are proving the naysayers wrong. Players use the joystick on the nunchuk to move their character, while using the Wii Remote’s buttons for the essentials: Shoot and pass. However, there’s far more than that. The motion-sensing capabilities on the controller are used as a hit stick. By flicking the remote, you can control some bone-crushing tackles not normally found on a soccer field. Games of Mario Strikers resemble a hockey game more than soccer with the amount of hits you can lay on people. Using Donkey Kong? You’ll be able to physically dominate most games.

There’s a few noticeable upgrades in Mario Strikers Charged when compared to its Gamecube predecessor, Super Mario Strikers. Unlike the Gamecube version, which required you to play with a team of generic characters alongside your captain, Mario Strikers Charged allows you to choose your entire team, similar to Mario Baseball (Note to Nintendo: PLEASE release Mario Baseball on the Wii.) After choosing your team captain, you’re able to choose three “sidekicks” to play with him. Whether you’re looking for playmaking (Boo and Toad), balance (Koopa and Shy Guy), defense (Dry Bones) or power (Birdo and Monty Mole), you’ll be able to build your team. However, your goalie will still be a Kremling from the Donkey Kong Country series.

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