Playing with madness

by ERIK LEIJON

Sometimes I get mad at EA Sports. During these last two transitional years, the most recognizable brand name in gaming has essentially coasted on its marketing dominance. The old-gen sports games were retreads of years’ previous, with only new rosters and a price tag to differentiate them. The first wave of Xbox 360 sports games weren’t much better—graphically souped-up versions stripped of most gameplay modes and options.

As depressed as I can get struggling through a new year of half-built sports games (even though it remains my favourite genre), listening to the GSU Tiger marching band performing the publishers’ fight song, “EA Sports’ (It’s in the Game),” in NCAA 07: March Madness (Xbox 360/EA, EA Canada) reminds me of why EA became so massive in the first place.

March Madness isn’t a great game by any stretch: the passing system is broken, it’s still too unbalanced towards fastbreak offence and there are graphical woes. But the more one delves into this college basketball game, devoted to the best tournament in sports, the more the problems become manageable, and only a trip to the Final Four seems important.

TRIP TO THE FINAL FOUR: March Madness

The major issue with March Madness (beyond Adam Morrison’s ugly ’stache) is the choppy animation, especially when it comes to ball movement. The character models are sharp and the crowds are befitting of a wild college-crazed audience, but the game action is hardly fluid. The ball moves in a herky-jerky way, causing the rock to perform a disappearing act in mid-flight. A few times, I had to double-take just to confirm the ball had actually reached its target.

It’s hard to believe EA could have released both NBA Live and March Madness this season. The former is simply unplayable due to a ridiculous amount of attention given to jamming and showy extras, but March Madness has an ingenious in-game play-calling system that shows great potential. Using the control pad, ballers on offence can direct traffic and use set plays with only two quick button presses. It is necessary to pre-set these plays, since you won’t have enough time to look at the plays on the fly without having the ball stolen. It also works on defence, but I preferred sticking to man-to-man and pressing left on the control pad to double-team.

In abiding with the earlier stated rule, this 360 title is bereft of game modes, but there’s a beefy dynasty mode that gives you full reign over a college program for 30 years, and the bracketed tournament system is really all anyone needs. Dick Vitale provides highly repetitive colour commentary (including a belittling of my free throw skills when I miss—regardless of how well I’m shooting overall from the line), but when it counts, he’ll belt out an “Oh baby!” and our collective hearts shall melt.

I didn’t get a chance to try 2k’s College Hoops, but March Madness at least is a passable representation of the college ball experience.

Tangent: it’s about time the NCAA loosened their Stalinist grip over their players and permitted the use of actual names. I know why the rules are in place, but this would be a case where the players would collectively benefit, so it’s not really payola.

BOWSER IN YOUR BROWSER

Who knows how long a rogue site like this will last, but nearly every NES game imaginable is available for free as java games at www.virtualnes.com, all playable from your browser window.

The obvious classics are there (Mario Bros., Metroid, Megaman, Blades of Steel and even Battletoads), but might I recommend the less glamorous Base Wars, a baseball game starring weapon-equipped cyborgs, and the Duck Tales series.