Until last year, I was not much of a basketball fan, and even less of a college basketball fan. The excitement of the playoff tournament, however, changed my mind, and it led me to buying this game. I had a lot of doubts before buying this game (available on all three consoles; this is the PS2 version), mainly due to a poor experience with a NBA game on the N64, which was all luck and no skill. That being said, all basketball games have that potential problem, of the game being totally based on luck, whether the ball goes in the net or not. That's one of the main reasons I was worried of possibly wasting my money when I bought this game.
Again, this Review is on a 0-4 star
scale. Warning to all non-sports fans: sports terms and sports-related
words coming up ahead. Be extremely
careful. Proceed with caution.
Graphics: ****
The graphics in this game are simply
amazing. The fans in the arenas look real from a distance, the players
look extremely realistic and smooth,
there is no sign of any ugly polygons, the players on the bench are
actually your real players (unlike
other games where they are just generic players), and the basketball is
round. That's right, it's not a cube,
or a pyramid, or a tetrahedron. It's a sphere. That in itself is great.
Of course, that's just a microcosm of the rest of this game's fantastic
graphics.
Sound: no stars
We go from some of the best graphics
I've ever seen in a game to the Achilles' heel of this game, the sound
system. I'll break this up because
I have a pretty big rant about it.
-First of all, the play-by-play is just plain awful. The announcers are generic losers, even though the game is fully sponsored by ESPN. Surely ESPN could have let a couple of real announcers do the play-by-play, like they did for NCAA Football 2003 (which, coincidentally, is actually the rival game of ESPN's college football video game). That's not the worst of it, though. The play-by-play is usually behind the actual game. You'll hear "Number 3 steals the ball!" after Number 3 has already shot and scored. Worse, sometimes the announcer will tell the final score and say goodbye, then react to something that happened in the final seconds of the game. "That's all for today; we'll see you next time. Number 33 puts up the Hail Mary... and it's no good!" The announcers will say something about my team "getting closer to the lead" when I'm winning by 20; instead of announcing 2 minutes to go or 1 minute, they'll tell me when there's 1:47 or 2:34 to go; and they'll rant and rave about someone stepping out of bounds while ignoring a last-second 3-pointer.
-The arena announcer (not one of the
play-by-play guys) makes matters worse. He will announce first and
last names of the same person differently,
like this: "Luuuuiiiiggii!!! Mario." Also, during the NCAA
Tournament, the games are played on
neutral courts, with neither team being the home team. However, this
doesn't stop him and the crowd from
favoring the higher-ranked team over the other. He'll say, "And now
time for the starting lineup of YOUR
Conneticut Huskies!", even though the game's being played in Utah.
-Then, we come to the fight song business.
In one of my all-time favorite games, the aforementioned NCAA
Football 2003, around 80 or so teams
have their authentic fight songs. In this game, there are about 10 or less
fight songs, so many teams share each other's fight songs. That means you'll
hear the same song for Duke as you will for North Carolina (those two teams
are big rivals of each other). Come on, if that game can get 80 fight songs,
surely this game can.
-This game couldn't really get any worse in the sound category than it is already. The only good things about it is that the buzzer sounds real, and the menu music is great, but if I give this category any number of stars it'll take away from how bad the rest of the sound is in this game.
Difficulty: *1/2
I'll be honest with you: it's not that
hard to win at this game, though it's not exactly a cakewalk either. Most
of the difficulty just comes down to what difficulty level the computer
is on, but there are some other easier ways to win as well. By pressing
the Circle button enough, you can usually steal the ball of the computer,
as long as the computer's waiting for a chance at an open shot. Also, you
can usually then let the shot clock run down, then just shoot as it expires,
and you'll get it in half of the time. Shooting isn't completely random;
it is important to release the ball at the time your player is at his highest
point in his jump. That way, you have more of a chance of the ball going
in. The computer is nearly unstoppable on foul shots. If you don't have
a good foul shooter, you're going to have a hard time making them, another
thing that is not entirely under your control. These things pump up the
house advantage a little bit.
House Advantage: 8%
Controls: ***1/2
The controls are surprisingly very easy
to follow. I was amazed that even with all the things you have to
choose from, the game-makers still
made it simple for you to memorize the buttons, such as R1 being Turbo
and Circle being Steal. Of course,
I may be saying something different if I had the GameCube version of this
game, because less buttons (on the Cube's controller as opposed to the
PS2's and Xbox's controllers) in this case means more confusion.
Gameplay: ***
The gameplay is not something I can sit here and describe in one paragraph, so I'll break it up.
-I'm amazed. Sega Sports was able to
make a basketball video game fun and not all luck! You can get exciting
endings all the time, with the strategy of running the clock and shooting
a shot at the last second, giving your opponent no time for a comeback;
or, if you're losing, you'll need to intentionally foul your
opponent (R2 on the PS2) in order to
stop the clock and make them beat you at the free-throw line (if they
miss, then you get the ball back with
plenty of time; even if they make the shots, you'll at least see the ball
again). All the strategy and clock management makes a game fun. I've always
liked when games have clocks and force you to have to be concerned with
the time, and that makes this game more fun. Of course, all the choices
on offense (Dunk? Jump shot? Three-pointer?) and defense (Steal? Block?
Foul?) make the game even more fun. Playing against other live opponents
instead of the computer makes things more exciting, and a lot less predictable.
-If you steal the ball or intercept
a pass, more than half the time, your player will pull up and come to a
stop. This hurts in lots of situations where, if your player kept running
like they were in the first place, he could go right to the net for a dunk
or an easy layup. Instead, by pulling up, he gives your opponent enough
time to get two or three guys back on defense, eliminating your fast break
threat and forcing you to have to work your way slowly to the net. You
may think this isn't much, but given the fact that stealing and intercepting
passes is 75 percent of your defense and fast breaks are 50 percent of
your offense, this really matters a
lot.
-Being selfish is actually good in this game. If you're playing a good opponent, don't try passing the ball around a lot, and if you want to pass, I suggest just handing it to a teammate while standing right next to him. Why? If you try passing a lot, unless you're a team of really tall guys (I'm talking 7-footers, not 6-footers), eventually your pass will get picked off. It's better to just try taking the ball to the hoop yourself or finding an open shot and shooting there. Now there are some exceptions to this, and I don't mean you should never pass, not at all, in fact. But, in most cases, it's a lot safer to try the shot yourself, unless your teammates are a lot better than you, the player with the ball, are.
-Overall, this game is near-perfect in gameplay, with the only flaw being that whole "pull-up" thing I mentioned, which is a pretty big problem that costs this category's rating a star. It's not all random, and it's certainly quite a bit of fun.
Legacy Mode: ****
This is the heart and soul of this game,
and it is quite an awesome mode. You can make a coach and coaching strategies,
as well as choose your own plays. You can make your schedule easier or
harder (harder is better, so you can get ready for the NCAA Tournament
by playing teams that will likely make it there, and
also to move up higher in the rankings).
You then play through your season (multiple users allowed), and
about 10 weeks into the season you
can start to scout high school players in order to try to get them to
join your squad in the offseason. You
can even play High School All-Star games to get a feel of how good
these players are and which ones you
should recruit. Of course, there's your conference tournament,
followed by the NCAA March Madness
Tournament, which, in case you didn't know, was the basis for that one
Fun Fiction named Mario Madness. Then, after the season is over, you recruit
players and get ready for
next season! Unlike many similar modes
in games of professional sports (like the NFL), your roster will
usually change rapidly due to the fact
that players graduate after four years, and if a player is really good
he'll head straight to the NBA a little earlier in his career. This mode
is a lot of fun, and it's one that can keep you hooked for a while.
Season Mode: **
This is like Legacy Mode but only one
season long, and it's lacking all the recruiting and roster changes.
You're better off playing in Legacy
Mode.
Tournament Mode: ***
This is only a tournament, but it's
more fun than a single season because you can set up a tournament with
all the teams you want and take them
on for the national crown. Of course you can also just play a conference
tournament, but that's nowhere near as fun as the tournament for the national
title is. It's actually a lot of fun to play these tournaments, but you
don't get the excitement from the surroundings. The announcer says a few
sentences about the round you're in, and that's it. The arena announcer
doesn't realize that there's no home team, the crowd doesn't realize that
either, and instead of an elaborate celebration like cutting down the nets
or anything like that, you just see the final score, the final stats, then
a screen with the trophy. You can't even put the trophy in a trophy room
like in NCAA Football 2003. The games and the set-up of the tournament
are fun. Too bad the surroundings and award don't give you the same feeling.
Gym Rat Mode: **1/2
This is a simple version of the game with different rules: no clock, no fouls, 2-pointers are 1 point, 3-pointers are 2 points, and you play to a set number of points and have to win by 1 or 2 points. You can also play 2-on-2, 3-on-3, 4-on-4, or 5-on-5. It's fun, but not as much as the real game, because there's no strategy with the clock, your opponent can take forever if they want to, and the lack of fouls lets defenses cheat. An advantage to the lack of fouls is that poor teams have a fighting chance against good teams because they can do whatever they want on defense, instead of having to foul in order to stop the opposition from scoring. I like it for playing live opponents, but it's not as much fun playing computers, who can cheat all they want.
Practice Mode: **1/2
While this mode isn't very deep, it
does let you play around and try crazy shots, as well as practicing free
throws, offensive plays, and releasing
your shot at the right moment.
Exhibition Mode: *1/2
This, of course, is just a single game.
Not bad, but of course it's not as fun as a meaningful game in a
season or in a tournament.
Replayability: ***1/2
This is a game that requires you to play it over and over again. With longer seasons, you'll have to play it more often if you want to complete a season. Fortunately, it makes you want to keep on coming back for more, and that's a big plus to this game. Also, Legacy Mode graduates can move on up into the NBA draft... then you can draft your player in NBA 2K3.
Fun Factor!: ***1/2
This game is a lot of fun, and it was a complete shocker to me: a fun basketball game. I didn't think this was possible after a horrible experience onthe Nintendo 64, but Sega Sports sure was able to make this one fun.
OVERALL: ***
This game is a ton of fun and gives you lots to do. Two things stops a perfect score: the awful play-by-play and the "pull-up" thing in the gameplay. Other than that, you won't find a much better basketball game than this one. If Sega Sports corrects both of these problems in next year's version, we could be looking at a four-star game. Until then, this one is worth buying for sports fans, especially college basketball fans. While people who want a basketball game may want all the NBA superstars instead of lots of generic guys who you'll have to rename due to NCAA rules on video games, the college game gives you lots of teams and a lot more emotion than the NBA. It's a shame the announcers don't give more emotion to the game, or this one may have been near-perfect.
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