NCAA March Madness 07

The next-gen debut of EA's March Madness series serves up some serious January delirium by delivering, hands down, the best crowd in any sports game (humbling College Hoops 2K7's impressive show). I felt like a witness to a real college game as players pumped their fists after dunks and the crowd hollered "three!" when a home-teamer chucked a long-range bomb. But while the atmosphere rocks, the gameplay--like the UConn Huskies--is still a year away. The fast-paced action is fun, and, unlike in other hoops games, defense (a foreign word to cover athlete Adam Morrison) plays a role because of the still effective "lockdown stick." But the goofy flaws include the ball magically warping to a player's hand on rebounds, overly plentiful fouls, and maddening free-throw shooting. It's a solid effort, but it just doesn't have the minute-by-minute gravity of 2K7's college game,

March Madness has always done a superb job of reproducing the college b-ball atmosphere. But man, when I saw a UNC player--after his team's intensity meter got maxed out--walk over to the Blue Devil faithful and taunt his rivals' rabid fans, I knew 07 had taken it to the next level. But, like Todd says, it's too bad the gameplay doesn't quite match the ambience. Uncharacteristically, fouling is out of control here (even when you jack down the in-game slider), and you can't help but look like Shaq at the tree-throw line--in the words of Dicky V, "It's brick city, baby!"

March Madness definitely has the framework for a great college basketball game. It does an excellent job of tying in the exuberant college atmosphere with player performance thanks to its composure feature, which also makes it really feel like you can control the flow of the on-court action. But, overall, the game is just too sloppy in other areas. The controls lack precision, forcing you to constantly fight the game to be a decent ball-handler, shooter, and defender. Also, someone get announcer Dick Vitale some glasses, because he's watching a different game than I am far too often.