After the 2002 football gaming year gave me two great games and one very poor one, it's time to see what the 2003 selection has to offer. It starts with this one, a college football simulation-style game. It has easily been my most anticipated game since Super Mario Advance 2. Since EA Sports made the excellent Madden NFL 2002 and now this one, I expected no less than a game to match Madden. The 2002 predecessor was highly rated although I did not buy it, which put more pressure on this one. I also expect a lot out of a football game, which is why I've only bought high-acclaimed football games. Except for NFL 2K2 (a disaster), the rest that I have bought have been successes. Could this one match its predecessors?

This Cube game, also available for PS2 and Xbox, is rated on a 0-4 star scale, with 4 being excellent and 0 being very poor. Keep in mind this is NOT Cube-exclusive, so any compliments or complaints about the game are directed towards the game itself, not the GameCube.

Graphics: ****

It's very hard for me to find a complaint about the graphics in this game. They are absolutely beautiful, and I'd say they rival the PS2's Gran Turismo 3 and Super Smash Bros. Melee for the best graphics I've ever seen. The mascots are what won me over. They are so very well detailed, yet they have no rough edges,
completely smooth. The fans don't look as cardboard-like as in past years of Madden games. The players are even better-looking than before, and even the sideline cheerleaders look great. The only fault in this game is the rough, square-like cups on the sidelines and the octagonal scrimmage line marker, which should both be circles. The thing is, those are so minor and unseen, they cannot take away anything from the rest of the graphics. Next year I'd expect those cups to be fixed, or the marker, but for now the rest of the graphics are too beautiful for me to insult.

Sound: ***

The announcers' calls in this game flow much better than I've heard in any other game before. They'll even
talk over each other when they're arguing, making it sound like they're right there! The referees sound real as well, talking in real-life talk (like "We've got a face mask penalty..."). The pregame music is pretty good, and I like most of the schools' fight songs, especially Penn State's and Tennessee's. The only problem? Some of the songs repeat so many times over, they get annoying. That's really the only fault I can find in the sound, other than maybe a few of the songs being boring.

Difficulty: *

This game is the type any gamer can love: its difficulty is adjustable. The trouble is, on some modes, even the worst team can win a game against a championship team! My sister started it out on Junior Varsity to get used to it, and it's way too easy! You'd think that a first-time player couldn't beat the computer that easily, but I think that's because Madden's so similar to this, and she's played Madden a ton. Also, this game is slightly harder than a pro game because the passing plays are not very strong, but it really doesn't hurt much.

Controls: *1/2

I have mixed feelings on the controls. A player who is new to the game will have a hard time learning it, while one like me who's played it Madden for a long time gets it easily. Also, a problem is the passing game. It's very easy to forget that Y will cancel your pass, not throw the ball like X will. You must hit Y again to be able to pass again. Also, Z will throw the ball away when your quarterback's back to pass (an automatic incomplete pass), but you may hit that when trying to lateral to a teammate (also Z, but when you're running, not passing). Those confusions don't hurt much, but they can hurt at bad times. Also, the controls may need to be changed in future games so you may throw halfback option passes (I'll explain this complaint later).

Players' Names (or lack of them): no stars

The game gives you a ton of players all named generically, like QB #3 or HB #33. That means that if you want the real players on your team, you'll have to look in your newspaper or on the Internet and find the roster, then manually change each and every name on your team. Fun, fun, isn't it? Why is it like this? Because the NCAA doesn't allow college players' real names to be used, which would somehow be making them professional. The player you see on the cover graduated last year, and he's now in the NFL. Yes, it gives the game a generic feel (and I hate that generic feeling), but in my case, I would have renamed the players anyway. You know someone's crazy when they decide to name your team after people from Lemmy's Land. The announcers will say tons of last names (in encouragement for you to rename your players), but I'm still trying to figure out why the announcers won't say "Packers Fan", "Guest256", or "Koopa". This isn't that important of a category anyway.

Passing: **1/2

Passing is pretty hard to learn but easy to follow: after snapping the ball with A, press A to bring up passing symbols, and press the button that is the same as the letter that appears over the head of the receiver you want to throw to. If you hit Y, your quarterback will run with the ball, and if you hit Z, you'll toss the ball to the sidelines (usually if you've got no one to throw to or want to stop the clock). The troubles with passing are the poor selection of passing plays, and also any "option" play: your quarterback has the choice of running or throwing. Your A button is your turbo button, and you always hold it down while running. But, if you hit A,
you'll bring up the passing symbols. This can be very confusing. Fortunately, these difficulties don't make
passing too difficult to do, and on Tuesday I threw 11 touchdowns in a 2-minutes-per-quarter game. So, it's
obviously not THAT hard, especially if Crazy Packers Fan is the one throwing the ball.

Running: ***1/2

Running is almost too easy in this game. That's because in real college football, running is more commonly used than passing, so naturally running is more prevalent in your playbook and easier to do on the field. Laterals make things nicer, as you can toss the ball sideways or backward to a nearby opponent in case of emergency. The only problem may be that diving into the end zone is harder due to the fact that you don't have any of the fancy dives available in Madden. The laterals and dives also are an important part of the "Special Moves" section you'll see later on...

Kicking: ***

Kicking is made kind of difficult if you don't put on the EAsy Play option of Kick Assist (yes, it's EAsy and not just Easy, for EA Sports). With Kick Assist, the game will automatically line up field goals for you, so you don't have to do it manually. If you try doing it the hard way, you'll have lots of trouble trying to make that last-second, 50-yard field goal, so good luck without it! I started out without help, but eventually I got sick of trying it that way and took the lazy route out.

Special Moves: **1/2

The special moves include laterals (Z), hurdles (Y), spins (X), jukes (R), stiff-arms (L), and dives (B). Laterals are great in desperate situations, as well as just making things fun and sloppy. They are very dangerous, as you can fumble very easily, but converting one makes things very exciting. Hurdles (small jumps) aren't very useful, while spins can sometimes fool opponents. Jukes can also fool opponents too, though not very well. Stiff-arms work sometimes to give you a few more yards, and dives are your way of getting out of bounds, over the first-down line, into your opponents' end zone, or out of your own end zone if you're about to be tackled. You cannot do a fancy dive like it was possible to do in Madden, where you could dive over the end zone pylon (out of bounds) but keep the ball in bounds, letting you make an impossible squeeze between the defender and the out-of-bounds line. All in all, some are useful and some aren't, and the key is using the
right move at the right time. The best ones to use are laterals and dives, but keep in mind that laterals are
high-risk tosses to teammates, and once you hit the ground after a dive, the play's over.

Playbooks/Play Variety: *

This is part of this game that needs to be changed desperately. The playbooks may be real to a certain extent, but the plays themselves aren't real enough. For example, in college football, you'll often see a
"halfback option pass", where a quarterback hands or tosses to a running back, who then throws a pass. This cannot be done in this game, nor can the quarterback throw a forward pass even if a back laterals the ball to him behind the line of scrimmage (such a play is known as a "flea-flicker"). Also, I'd like the fun of
NFL Blitz 2000 back, where you could create your own plays, which was awesome. However, at least there are QB option plays and lots of college realism to the playbooks, which saves this section from getting no
stars.

Play Now: **1/2

This is an exhibition game between any two teams. This may not have any fire or excitement to it, but it is a
good way of practicing or using an unlocked team.

Season Mode: ***

This is a very fun mode where you go through an entire season, playing any game you want and "simulating" the rest (letting the computer pick the winner, with better teams having better chances of winning). It lets you go all the way from week one to the national championship. However, this is a one-year mode only. You can convert it to Dynasty Mode after the season if you wish, but this mode then technically turns into
Dynasty Mode.

Dynasty Mode: ****

This is the heart and soul of the game, and probably the best part of it. You get control of one team you
choose, and you make your own coach for your team. Multiple users may play, but they may only play for the team of their choice. You make all the decisions for your team, as do any other users. You can even enter a created school into this (my sister's Junktown somehow is the #1 team in the nation, even above mine,
sadly). You can edit players' names and appearance, but not their stats here. You then play games and try
to win trophies, like the Heisman Memorial Trophy, which is the NCAA's MVP award, basically. You also try
to get into bowls, and the bowl rankings system determines whether you make it into the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (the national championship game in Year 1) or possibly one of the many pathetic bowls like the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl, the Insight.com Bowl, and the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl. The advertisements are sad enough, but at least the national championship trophy isn't named the Sears Trophy in this game
(unlike in real life). Your coach will be fired if he doesn't do what the school expects of him in three years.
Anyway, it's the greatest mode ever made for a football game, and you can play from year to year, for a long, long time. Plus, even better, once your players graduate, you can save them to a Memory Card and import them over to Madden NFL 2003, placing them in the NFL draft! That makes me want to buy Madden NFL
2003 instead of skipping it this year. Yes, it's the best football game mode ever, in fact probably the best for any sports game. More sports games need this mode. It's awesome. Need I say more?

Rivalry Game: **1/2

Anyone who likes the history of college football should enjoy this mode. You can play for a few trophies in games that are between fierce rivals. There are lots of other games that aren't for trophies but huge rivalries, like Penn State vs. Pitt (even though it's not much of a match-up, as Penn State is much better). It's a pretty good mode, though it's not as great as the other modes.

Mascot Game: ****

This was probably the best idea for a single-game-type of mode I could have ever imagined. You take an entire team made up of a team's mascots and play against another team of mascots. It's hilarious watching an
orange tackle a soldier, or an old guy that looks like Mr. Peanut diving over a horned frog. This mode also
proves the beauty of this game's graphics, but it offers the same quality of gameplay as if you were using normal players. It was a great idea, and I hope it stays.

Practice: **1/2

Here you can practice any play you want, on defense or offense. You can play on offense without a defense to worry about, and also play kickoff (the offense kicks off). For fun, call a running play with no defense, then lateral the ball to your teammates as many times as you possibly can before the ball eventually goes out of bounds or a player accidentally scores or walks out of bounds himself. It's a good diversion from the actual game itself.

Create-A-School: ***1/2

This was yet another great idea, first used in Madden NFL 2002 as Create-A-Team. You create a school, then
add colors, field type, uniforms, stadium stuff, a fight song, a logo, pride stickers (stickers that go on your players' helmets for each good play they make), and much, much more. You even choose a state or Canada, which actually matters. If you live in California you'll get lots of blue-chip prospects signing up for your team, while if you live in Wyoming you'll be lucky to even get Smokey the Bear to join your team. Also, you can choose how well-known and respected your team is, as well as their skill level, which puts pressure on your coach. Of course, if you pick the A+ Juggernaut team, your coach will be expected to lead your team to the Top 10 two out of three years or a conference title three years in a row just to keep his job in Dynasty Mode. It all brings fun to the game.

Create-A-Player: no stars

This mode is practically useless. Why? Just go to the Rosters and edit a player, and you'll save yourself all the trouble of creating one and having to sign him to a team. In past games this was huge, but now that
editing is allowed, it's useless. Skip this mode.

Rosters: ***1/2

Here you can edit players' stats, equipment, appearance, names, and numbers, change the depth chart
(your starters and bench-warmers), change who plays in which formation, and do basically everything you want to the rosters possible. The only thing you can't do is give your players very long names; that's why I
have a cornerback with the last name of Cheepcheep and not Cheep Cheep.

Settings: **1/2

Here you can change anything you want, from help on kicks to penalties to play clock time (keep the play
clock on!) to sound volume to control configuration to quarter length... well, you know how long this list
could get. Too bad there's no "playbook" setting, where I could make the plays better...

Load/Save: no stars

Am I crazy to be putting this section in this Review? What I mean by the poor rating for this section is that it takes forever to save (75 seconds at least to save Dynasty Mode) and it takes up 216 blocks to save Dynasty mode, plus 53 more for Rosters, and 8 for Create-A-School! That's most of a black memory card and a gray one combined right there, with maybe about 20 extra blocks free. That's ridiculous. I had to erase at least six smaller files to finally squeeze these onto my memory cards. I thought my new black memory card was so big, but it turns out it was barely enough. I can bet Madden NFL 2003's going to do the same thing to me, and it's uncalled for. This is when Roy ought to say, "BOO!!!"

Trophy Room: *1/2

Here you can see the trophies you've won. Yippee. Actually, this is not too bad, because at least you can show off what you've won, but it's not like it's that great.

Campus Challenge: **1/2

Enough of those complaints for now. This mode lets you buy pennants (provided you have a saved profile) with points earned by doing certain things in games against computers. You can unlock certain All-Star teams and get bonuses like Unlimited Timeouts to use later on in games with the pennants. Too bad you only get one pennant per 50 points, unlike the 15 cards for 100 points in Madden. Still, this is an above-average mode because it gives you more incentive to play well.

Replayability: ****

This is one of the few games that can actually bring data (graduated players) over to another game. That
means you've got all the seasons of Dynasty Mode (endless fun) and also Madden NFL 2003 added onto the
excitement, so your game can go on and on. Although I don't have Madden NFL 2003 yet, that feature has given me incentive to buy it, and that's not even including all the features of this game itself. Checking out all the Mascot Teams, winning all the trophies, and beating your rivals should give you even more things
to do in this game. Plus, sports games hardly ever get old, until the new version comes out. This one is like
that. It's replayable.

Fun Factor!: ****

Well, there's the Mascot Team fun, there's the lateral games you can play while practicing, there is the
excitement of trying to get to the national championship, and of course, there is the great deal of fun of trying to beat your friends in the multiplayer part of this game, which I haven't even mentioned yet. It's fun.

OVERALL: ****

This game, despite a few shortcomings in the playbook and the player problem, has got to be the best sports
game ever. Now I may like Madden NFL 2003 more, but this one was made better than last year's Madden and a lot better than last year's Blitz. This game's a whole lot of fun, and it can be played over and over and
over again. If you love football, you must buy this game, as well as a couple of memory cards, including at least one black card and one gray card. If you like football, you still should buy this game. Also, if you even slightly know football, you should get this one, because it's exactly what a football game should be. If you don't know anything about football or hate it, then you're perfectly justified in skipping this one, but it's an excellent game, and I can't deny it. This one beat my expectations. It looks like EA Sports' games just keep on getting better and better. If I could only say that for Mario's games...

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