NCAA March Madness 08

Description

The college basketball season is like a locomotive shooting down the side of a mountain. It starts slowly, pushing off from a fully stopped position, then continues to build speed and momentum until it reaches its terminal velocity, symbolized in college round ball by the tournament to end all tournaments, otherwise known as March Madness. Each year EA Sports' collegiate contender of the same name goes through a similar process of releasing to little fanfare and then gaining popularity as the suspense and excitement for the NCAA Tournament builds. For basketball gaming diehards however, their fix for college b-ball has just arrived for the ensuing season. Does it perform under pressure or crumble at the first sight of adversity?

Each year NCAA March Madness focuses on one new feature that will hopefully help to deliver a more complete basketball package to fans. This year that one focal point of development attention is low-post play, both on offense and defense. EA Canada has said that they intended banging on the block to feel like a mini-game of sorts and in some respects it does as most of the mechanic's features fit right in with the natural ebb and flow of basketball. On defense players can flick the right stick to switch their defensive stance around to give the offense different looks and on the opposite side of the ball there is a whole list of moves that can be pulled off once you get the rock. Your big banger can pull off pump fakes, up and unders, spin moves, and a few other moves, all of which are portrayed fairly well by the game's animation system.