
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Soprts Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA Canada ESRB E (Everyone) Released November 17, 2009

‑ The new gaming engine, now in its second year, is a vast improvement on the previous March Madness engine ‑ Plenty of modes and gameplay refinements create a authentic college basketball experience ‑ The new Dynamic Updates feature upgrades the authenticity to a whole new level

‑ While better than its EA pro ball counterpart, controls still are too frustratingly sluggish ‑ Announcing can be off-the-mark repetitive more often than not, with too many déjà vu comments from Dick Vitale in each and every game

Review: NBA Live 10 (360) Review: NCAA March Madness 08 (360) Review: NBA Street Homecourt (360)
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NCAA Basketball 10

Score: 8.0 / 10

It all goes down each and every third month of every year: the collection of 65 teams with crazed fans, Cinderella stories and memorable, last-second game-winning shots in a tournament like no other to determine the college basketball national champion. Yes, it’s madness in March, and Electronic Arts has captured that road to glory in videogame form, first in Coach K College Basketball way back in 1995 to the March Madness series to its current college hoops title, NCAA Basketball 10, the only college basketball game on the market today (after 2K Sports bowed out of making its own competing NCAA hoops game).

In most respects, it does resonate throughout with the excitement of the famed tourney. But although it’s a great college basketball experience, it’s not a totally great basketball game because like its pro basketball counterpart from EA, NBA Live

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10, it suffers from sluggish, frustrating controls that let a lot of the air out of the gameplay fun balloon. Without much practice learning the nuances of controlling players on the floor while establishing an offensive strategy, NCAA Basketball 10, despite all its many quality features, feels more like sloshing through quicksand with sluggish controls than enjoying a

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smooth and silky college basketball contest. However, gamers might quickly forgive EA’s college basketball game for the lackluster controls with its many outstanding features.

As in its college football franchise, EA is an expert in truly grabbing the essence of the frenzied and frenetic atmosphere of college sports with a strong visual and TV-quality presentation. NCAA Basketball 10 features arenas packed to the furthest rafters with psycho fans, frothing with passion while cheering for their favorite team. Although there is sometimes a robotic quality to the crowds, where they are at times going through repetitive pre-programmed motions, most gamers will be too wrapped up in the gameplay to notice. Player animations have been upgraded, too. Though not as excellent as what 2K Sports shows in its NBA basketball title, the visuals are vastly improved from EA’s March Madness franchise days.

With a TV-quality presentation, featuring not only the ESPN license but also the CBS Sports license, there isn’t a sports game that comes closer to an actual television broadcast. Announcing is overall good, with the ESPN and CBS Sports broadcasts using their respective real-world announcing tandems. But especially with ESPN’s use of famed “Dickie V” – college hoops crazy man Dick Vitale – gamers will notice way too many repetitive phrases uttered throughout games.

This year, NCAA Basketball 10 gamers with Xbox Live service will have the new Dynamic Update feature available. Weekly, the game will auto-update each team’s current RPI rating and stats so that each college squad performs in-game based on how the real team is performing in real life. Online gameplay is strong, as one would expect from EA. Other modes include the expected season and dynasty offerings. There is also a NCAA Tournament mode that gives impatient gamers the chance to bypass the regular season and jump right into the March Madness tournament in the quest for the championship.

Plagued to a lesser extent by the same sluggish controls that hurt the gameplay fun of NBA Live 10, NCAA Basketball nevertheless is a better overall basketball game. Without any direct competition from 2K Sports, EA could have simply rode the pine with the previous March Madness game engine (which was sorely in need of a “graduation”). But EA has worked hard to create an authentic college basketball experience with everything gamers would expect in a college hoops game. Some features could still definitely use some refining, but basketball gamers will still find plenty of hoops dreams fulfilled with the overall quality of NCAA Basketball 10.

‑ Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(February 11, 2010)