by: John Olin

October 25, 2005

NCAA March Madness 06 has already shipped if you didn’t already know. I don’t know why, but Electronic Arts feels that it is necessary to ship most of their sports titles ahead of schedule. This year’s update is better than ever, despite still being a bit lacking in some parts, it is even easier to get into while at the same time having a great amount of depth. This year the game introduces a simple gameplay change in the form of the lockdown stick, which when pressing in the right thumbstick allows you to defend far better and aggressively against the player with the ball. Depending on which way the ball holder sways or moves, you should continue to move the analog in that direction to keep them from scoring or passing. It works fine, but at the same time it is a bit difficult to keep up and hold in the analog at the same time. The lockdown stick has a variety of uses such as keeping the ball from the star players, and stealing the ball, but the game has AI that is realistic enough that it lets you steal the ball in many cases, and they don’t move super naturally, which has been a problem recently with a lot of EA Sports titles. Still the game almost punishes you if you pick a team that is your favorite, but not particularly good in real-life. While you may have some good defense, you will end up not being able to shoot the ball from five feet away, or sometimes even dunk it. These irregularities can get annoying, and should be balanced out.

The plays you call in the beginning of the game are normally pretty general, and unfortunately can’t be switched out during gameplay. It differentiates enough from Live 06 to warrant a buy for the hardcore basketball fans, and it is actually easier to get the hang of in some cases. The dynasty mode is strange, as it forces you to suspend players, have very few players, and the stats fluctuate in strange patterns from season to season. Basically there is predictability about dynasty mode—a bad kind of predictability. Still there are some things that are done well, such as recruiting, but it still needs a lot of work. The game can be played with two people on an Xbox, or on Xbox Live, but the bad part about Xbox Live is, everybody is playing NBA Live 06. If you can wait, just get the game early next year closer to the season where there should be at least a 100 people on at once.

Visually the game is so-so. The game is definitely not going to impress anyone, and the players still have a strange-waxed shine to them. You shouldn’t really expect much though, especially when college players change all the time. The animations are pretty well, particularly when you dunk the ball. There are still some strange frame problems, as the people will change from one frame to the next when having the ball or defending, but that also has to do with the gameplay. The sounds of the court are faithfully done, as well as the cheers and roars of the crowd. You even get a bigger college feel with band tunes in the background.

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This game has a great college atmosphere topped on with some pretty solid gameplay. It does feel a bit rushed in some parts, but those of you gearing up for the college basketball season should at least give it a rent eventually. Other than that, you are better off playing NBA Live 06—either way Electronic Arts gets your money and to them, that is all that matters.

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