Nintendo Wii Fanboy

If you enjoy football games but aren't into the NCAA, it looks like NCAA Football 09 might still have something entertaining to offer. Granted, it's the silliest of features -- and rather pointless, in the grand scheme of things -- but we'll be the first to say that watching teams of mascots throwing the old pigskin made us smile. Where else can you play football as a team full of elephants?

Of course, if you do like college football, this is just an added bonus. Interested parties can NCAA Football 09 All-Play to release next week on the 15th in North America.

Remember that whole thing about Mii versions of your favorite soccer stars? Lo and behold, we've come across the first images for FIFA 09, and it's looking pretty fast-kickingly good. Ronaldhino (the guy who clearly uses special effects and isn't really that good) and Wayne Rooney head up the cast of for Footii Match mode.

The graphics look great, to be completely honest. FIFA 09 on the Wii will never be the best-looking version, but it includes the full simulation of regular FIFA gameplay along with the arcade-style modes. Since Wii owners are very accustomed to Mii characters by now, there's every reason to add light-hearted gameplay into the mix. If it's as good as Mario Strikers: Charged, then we're looking at a winner.

EA knows that football soccer is a somewhat popular sport. Maybe not as popular as curling, but it does its best to fit in. On account of the FIFA series being super popular, EA has revealed just how hard they worked to create each version of FIFA 09. Instead of just a simple Wii port with waggle additions, Andrew Wilson of EA says they "have innovated features, created new modes and designed controls that are tailored to each specific platform."

FIFA 09 is part of the recently revealed All-Play series, used to market EA's line of Wii sports games. It will feature a standard 11 vs. 11 simulation mode (with "refined motion and point-and-play controls"), and the 8 vs. 8 Footii Match mode. Footii Match is an arcade-style mode featuring Mii versions of various soccer stars (like Ariaga, Ariaga 2, Bariaga, Aruglia and Pizzoza) and the gameplay will be fast and furious -- similar to the recent Madden trailers.

The All-Play series has really put the Wii where it needs to be when it comes to sports games. After a little bit more research, we discovered soccer is a little more popular than originally thought (somewhere in the vicinity of Most. Popular. Game. Ever), so EA is on the right track by giving it the specialized attention it needs.

[Via press release]

With EA planning on crashing the peripheral party, we figured our morning topic would be the perfect place to see what the community could come up with. Sure, some ideas seem simple enough, as EA could bundle in a wheel, much like Nintendo did with Mario Kart Wii, for its NASCAR games, but what about the other sports title? What kind of peripherals can you come up with?

Apparently, EA sees the Wii's success with bundled peripherals as a sign of its future prosperity. Following in the footsteps of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit, EA Sports have made their intentions to bundle peripherals in their future sports titles known to one and all at GDC Paris.

During his lecture, EA's David McCarthy commented that it isn't just about tossing some hunk of plastic into the package and jacking up the price (funny, that's what we thought they had in mind). "You have to be careful with it," he said, adding "because Rock Band, that's a great peripheral, but it's a big expensive box." As nice as it would be for EA Sports to jack up the price, McCarthy commented that the company doesn't want this approach to "raise that barrier of entry and accessibility" the titles currently enjoy.

With all the talk about the EA Sports division creating more accessible sports titles for Wii gamers, many of the fans who've enjoyed the respective sports franchise's innovations over the years might have gotten a tad bit scared. With all this focus on catering to the needs of the Wii's casual crowd, which is where the money is, would the more hardcore sports nuts be left in the dust? The senior director of brand marketing at EA Sports, Reg Hamlett, says the company hasn't forgotten about those folks.

"Hardcore fans are our base and our biggest fans," commented Hamlett. "Their opinions and seal of approval are of extreme importance to us. That said, the All-Play brand is aimed at those consumers who seek to leverage the unique attributes of the Wii and play a sports game that utilizes these unique features." So, it would seem, those of you looking forward to the option of playing with more casual controls, yet immersed in the same tried-and-true form of the respective sport, can rest assured. Apparently, EA Sports won't be dumbing down any of its big sports titles. But, with the introduction of Facebreaker, the opportunity for EA Sports to develop spin-off titles in that tone might be one too great for the company to ignore.

If you're in the gaming industry on the development end, odds are you've had plenty of meetings talking about the success of the Wii platform and how your company needs to get its own slice of the pie (well, unless you're Epic). EA has decided that they want a fairly decent slice of that pie, and are doing so with special Wii versions of their sports games. EA expects that sales of its sports games will account for $1.3 billion in its fiscal year (which just ended in March), coming to a third of their total revenue.

The model for them (like others) has been Wii Sports. Peter Moore, head of EA Sports, commented that EA has "no intention whatsoever of dumbing down the experience that we all love and that drives this multibillion dollar business ... we need to make sports games more approachable." He then comments how Wii Sports became so popular "and we saw that and decided we needed to redefine what our sports games were about." These new accessible Wii versions of EA's popular sports games will have an "All-Play" label attached. Moore explains it as "like how swimming pools have a deep end and a shallow end. EA Sports has really only built a swimming pool with a deep end. It's intimidating for a lot of people to jump right in the deep end. With All-Play, we're building a shallow end."

Maybe with all this Wii support, Reggie will finally send Peter one.

It looks like 2007's Ubisoft has turned into 2008's EA, as the latter has a slew of new titles lined up for the Wii. And in supporting the console much as Ubisoft did during the launch, we're wondering if EA has some actual quality products lined up for us, or if this is going to turn into just another opportunity for someone to shovelware or port us to death.

With eight new games lined up by the company, EA Sports also has a new IP planned for the console. Electronic Arts wants their own slice of that delicious casual pie, as EA head honcho Peter Moore comments "we now have eight titles in development for the Wii, testament both to the global impact of that console currently in the global marketplace, as well as to our desire to attract more consumers to experience EA Sports games, no matter their experience playing games nor their prowess with a traditional controller."

So, are you excited? Still hate EA? What games do you think we're getting? What's your opinion regarding all of this?