Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Madden Football is now entering its twenty-first year as a franchise and you'll be hard pressed to find a gamer that hasn't heard about series. Madden 10 for the Nintendo Wii isn't a straight port of the high-definition game that is featured on the PS3 and 360 but a game all of its own. In fact, it follows last year's "All-Play" style and philosophy more and makes the Madden franchise accessible to the casual Wii crowd but provides plenty of modes and features for the crowd that craves slightly deeper gameplay.

What's Hot
The EA Sports label has been on a hot streak. They have cracked the mystery of design and developing games for the Wii. Instead of shoehorning a PS3 or 360 game into the Wii, the Wii gets its own special treatment. Instead of going for realism, Madden 10 adopts stylized visuals that look great on TV. The gameplay itself can be distilled into a simpler form or it can be a slightly more complex affair if that is your play preference. At no point does Madden 10 for the Wii feel "dumbed down" compared to the other versions. It instead feels like its own game that can stand on its own merits and not suffer from a comparison list. There isn't the depth of the other Madden 10 versions but that is okay since the Wii version is enough of its own game that it acts as an addition to the other versions, not a competitor.

What works in favor of the game is that you can enjoy a full game or you can pick and choose your favorite parts and play them exclusively if you want through mini-games or condensed games. To up fast paced ante, you can even bend and break the traditional NFL rules all together and concoct your own brand of football tomfoolery. Changing all the rules might make you wonder how the controls handle all the changing variables available to you in Madden 10. Using the Wii-mote with Madden 10 is a breeze. It is awesome to aim at the player you want to have the ball and effortlessly get it to him. There are a few gestures you can perform to block and receive the pigskin, and they aren't overly complex or used to reduce the controls down to waggling.



What's Not
It feels like the game was split into two pieces. It is nice to see two different styles of gameplay at work but at the end of the day, if the developers would have picked one style, the result could have been stronger. As Madden 10 stands, it feels stuck between a traditional Madden game and an NFL Blitz type of loose and fast with the rules gameplay. It is hard to watch the split personality when it is obvious that the visual style indicates it should lean more towards arcade style football.

Along with that criticism is that when you want to explore a deeper, more simulated game of football, it is impossible to find on the Wii version. The most hardcore options still feel watered down and you'll likely be reaching for the high-definition versions of Madden if you wish to satisfy those cravings.

Final Word
Madden 10 on the Wii is enough of its own game that it feels like a fresh entry into the Madden franchise. It's like the supplemental reading to a literature course. It isn't a huge concern if you don't cover it but it provides a different perspective on the same subject. The biggest issue with the game is that there is a tale of two cities but they are diluted in a large bucket of water while waiting to be tipped to one side. What it boils down to is this: Is Madden 10 targeted with smart precision to what is popular on the Wii? Yes. Is that going to sit well with everyone? No.