If you want a glimpse into how the Japanese view American football, Eyeshield 21: Field Saikyou no Senshi Tachi for the Nintendo Wii is a good place to start. The game, based on the popular manga series from Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata, follows the exploits of one Sena Kobayakawa, a diminutive player who nonetheless finds great success on the football field thanks to his great speed and agility. Forced to hide his identity with a green eyeshield (thus the title of the series), Sena and his Deimon Devil Bats teammates battle all comers on the gridiron. Like last year's Eyeshield 21 for the Nintendo DS, Field Saikyou no Senshi Tachi (which roughly translates to The Field's Strongest Warriors) features controls that are completely different from typical Madden and NCAA football games, along with a healthy dose of Japanese craziness.
Eyeshield 21 contains two main game modes--a story mode that seems similar to the one found in the DS game (which had our hero Sena recruiting kids to play on the Devil Bats) and a separate mode that lets you jump into matches against any of the teams found in the game. We spent the majority of our time in the latter mode and found it remarkably similar to the DS Eyeshield game. As in the handheld game, which made vigorous use of the stylus and touchpad, you can play the majority of Eyeshield 21 by either moving the Wii Remote or pressing a few buttons. The controls are simple enough, though they can be challenging, especially when it comes to the passing game.
Forget the halfback option and shotgun twin TE trips plays from your Madden playbook. You've got only four basic plays in Eyeshield 21, and they all revolve around specific players in your lineup. There's a basic running play, which lets you hand off to either your running back (such as Sena, if you're playing the Devil Bats) or the full back; a passing play; a second type of running play that puts emphasis on the play of your offensive line; and a kicking play for either punts or field goals. Let's take a look at how each of these play types work in the game.
Like all of the plays in Eyeshield, the snap is called by the quarterback automatically. For running plays, you can choose which runner you wish to hand off to by pointing at his picture with the Wii Remote. Once your quarterback hands off the ball, you have a minimal amount of control over which direction you run the ball by pointing with the Wii Remote. This makes practically no difference, however, as you're guaranteed to run into more than one defender. Once you encounter a would-be tackler, you're taken to a minigame that puts you in a first-person view of the action. A timer at the top of the screen shows you how much time you have left before you are eventually brought down. As a defender approaches you, you can move the Wii Remote in one of four directions--up, down, left, or right. An icon pops up on the screen to show you where your defender has chosen, and if you choose any other direction, you'll get by that defender. Should you choose the same direction as the defender, you will either get a huge amount of time lopped off your clock or be tackled outright. How much yardage you gain depends on how many defenders you can successfully juke.
Be quick with that remote and you just might avoid a few tackles.
Once you get used to the controls of running the ball, it's time to try a passing play or two. Passing is more complex than running and requires a bit more precision with your Wii Remote. After calling a pass play, your quarterback will take his drop, and a timer will appear on the screen, similar to the one you have when running the ball. If that timer runs out, your quarterback will be sacked, so quick decision-making is crucial. After his drop, you're taken to a first-person view of the quarterback's field of vision, and you can look left and right to spot receivers by moving the Wii Remote left or right. You can then choose the receiver you wish to throw to by pointing at him on the field and pressing the A button. The next step is the actual throw--a green and yellow horizontal meter appears onscreen with a cursor sliding quickly back and forth. The idea here is to stop the cursor in either the green or yellow portion of the meter by flicking the remote forward. A "green" pass will make it to the receiver, and a "yellow" pass will give the receiver a better chance of getting yards after the catch. With the ball in the air, the final job is to actually catch it. To do so, you switch to the receiver's point of view. As the ball hurtles through the air, you have to point at it with your Wii Remote and click on it before it falls offscreen. If you click in the green zone before your opponent, you'll catch the ball and immediately fall down. If you click in the yellow zone, you'll catch the ball and be able to run with it.
The alternate run play lets you play as the offensive line in a sumo-like minigame that has you shaking the controller, trying to push the other line back and gain your runner some crucial yards. This play seems mostly designed for those times when you need a quick few yards to get a first down, though we were able to bust a few longer runs a couple of times. Finally there's the kicking game, which gives you a horizontal kicking meter, the top portion of which will be green. If you stop the cursor in the green zone, your kick will be successful (be it a punt or a field goal), no aiming or wind adjustments needed.
As you might expect, playing defense is very similar to the offensive game in Eyeshield. To tackle a runner, for example, you try to choose the direction he chooses with your Wii Remote to run down his timer and eventually bring him down. When playing as a defensive back, you have a chance to block or intercept the ball by clicking on it with your Wii Remote when the ball is in the air. You can also try to push your opponent's offensive line back and stuff a runner during his short-yardage attempts. In addition, by shaking the Wii Remote during passing or kicking plays, you can rapidly decrease your opponent's timing meter and maybe even get a sack or a blocked kick in the process.
Yoichi's got a gun for an arm. And that's in addition to his actual gun.
Though the controls are very different from your typical American football game, they aren't the only reason Eyeshield 21 feels very different from what you might be used to. For one thing, the characters seem to run forever during their various plays but end up gaining only four or five yards at a clip. At the default two-minute halves, it's very difficult to score at all unless you rely solely on big passing plays. Because all of the passing, running, tackling, and receiving animations are prerecorded, there's a strange sense of disconnect when playing the game; you rarely feel in control of the players. Then, of course, there's the absolutely over-the-top character design and frenetic pace of it all. Characters are always yelling, and in some cases they fire automatic weapons in the air in celebration. It's crazy stuff, and you'll spend much of your first few minutes with the game with your mouth agape, shaking your head at just how nuts everything is.
Still, once you get used to it, Eyeshield has its own charm--a blend of its unique controls and the characters' exaggerated earnestness. No, this isn't the deepest football game you're ever going to play--far from it, actually--but it is unlike practically any other sports game we've ever played. Unfortunately, it seems like the odds of the game making it stateside haven't improved over those of the DS game. Still, if you're a fan of the series or are just looking for a football game that's 100 percent Madden-free, Eyeshield 21 might be a good import for you.
Source : http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/eyeshield21/news.html?sid=6167496
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