games
As anyone who regularly saunters into the JPJ on a Saturday in March knows, college hoops is all about the atmosphere—the crowd, the mascots, the madness.
And, unfortunately, Dick Vitale.
If Electronic Arts’ first next-gen version of its NCAA March Madness series was only about bottling the supercharged experience of a home game against the Tar Heels, I’d be slotting an automatic berth in the Sweet Sixteen. Unfortunately, it’s also supposed to be about, you know, actual basketball. In this respect, NCAA 07 March Madness’ bubble bursts far too quickly.
 Live out your postseason hopes and dreams in the latest installment of NCAA March Madness. (And, if you don’t like a call, use that reset button.) |
The final Xbox version of March Madness was best known for its crowd-intensity function—when the Cavs were losing on the road, the controller would vibrate hard enough to alter your heart rate. For the 360 version, the intensity has been shifted to the players, each of whom has his very own confidence meter. Bust enough sweet plays to max your team’s intensity meter and you can click buttons to stop the action and rile the crowd, or have a near smack-off with Duke’s annoying Blue Devil. Good times.
It’s a blast to knock the Georgia Tech center’s confidence down to the point where he’s making silly push fouls in the lane, further juicing your team’s intensity and padding the blowout you’re probably creating. (Sometimes, your players get too excited; in many cases, the forward who just scored the monster dunk will be too busy thumping his chest to notice that the opposition’s guard has already blown past midcourt.) The lack of reliable defense and rebounding, by contrast, make the Madness feel more like frustrating insanity
Gotta say that the dearth of game modes here is a Kevin Durant-sized flagrant foul —where the hell’s the basic single-season mode? If you’re not willing to commit to the minutiae of the über-deep dynasty mode (and unless your name is Dave Leitao, you may not be), your only options are single-game and tournament modes. That’s not just weak, that’s Wake Forest-level weak.
