NCAA Basketball 09

"With no competition, EA puts out utter garbage..."

I had little expectations with EA's release of NCAA Basketball 09. With the 2K series of college hoops not continuing this year, I had a sneaking suspicion that EA would put out a pathetic effort because it had no competition. And so, much like the popular Madden franchise, EA put virtually no effort into making a college basketball game that truly gave the player the feel of an authentic college basketball experience. For every single thing that NCAA Basketball 09 does correctly, it also, if it's possible, manages to screw it up.

To be honest, NCAA Basketball 09 plays an awful lot like College Hoops 2K8. Many of the visuals are reminiscent of 2K's game, including a majority of the animations and stadium/crowd looks. That's a good thing. Problem is, it still looks like last year's awful game. Some players taking jumpshots just look weird (same problem with 2K) and the animations are tired (ie, we've seen the same exact rebound-to-put-back animations for years). Nothing new, as in no "floater" shots or effective turn around jumpshots. Things that you see every day in college basketball has still been ignored and instead, EA has rehashed their old graphics engine to make an almost identical looking game from last year.

So if EA didn't put time into improving graphics, they must have spent their time elsewhere, right? My guess is they spent their extra time on lunch. Lots of lunches. Because EA didn't stop at simply the graphics when it came to rehashing and putting in a lot of half-assed effort.

To be fair, the actual gameplay is not half bad. You can download the demo from the Playstation Store and the game will play just like that demo. The crowd noise and announcers don't do a whole lot for the atmosphere, so you need to be focused on the gameplay to get much enjoyment from this title. In truth, the only reason this game even got a "3" in the first place is solely based upon the gameplay. It's pretty solid.

But then you have everything else... which is garbage. I'm not even sure exactly where to start, so I grabbed the back of the case. It says on the back that NCAA Basketball 09 boasts 64 classic teams so that you can have your "dream match-ups." This title also boasts a few classic teams that I had not come across before in the 2K series. Unfortunately, EA somehow screwed this feature up, too. When looking at teams, you are told you can "swap players." 2K8 allowed you to take any player from the classic teams and put them onto any team you desired. EA apparently didn't like giving the player that much freedom, so while it says you can swap out players, they can't actually change teams.

Personally, I always preferred taking the best players from a team's history and putting them all onto one single team. For example, I would take Syracuse's 1988 and 2003 teams and add the best players to the regular Syracuse roster. Now you had yourself a challenge! EA didn't want you to have any fun with this game, though, so it scrapped that idea. Instead, you can only play exhibition games or set-up a tournament with these classic teams. That's right, you can't even add them to your dynasty like you could for the past several years of the 2K series. Oh well, perhaps EA can add this as a "new" feature in 2010.

Moving along, the dynasty mode has it's own ups and downs. The best part of this is that generally when you choose a mode such as this, you are forced to choose a lousy school and work your way up. NCAA Basketball 09 allows you to start as some pretty decent teams, such as Washington, instead of being forced down to the likes of Richmond. Sadly, while this was a good idea on EA's part, the good idea's stopped there. The most annoying aspect of this mode is that you cannot change your schedule during your first year of running your program. You can during the 2nd year and beyond, but not the first. I've heard that there may be a patch to correct this problem, but seriously; why wouldn't you allow a person to choose their own schedules from the start?

This game does have a few tournaments (with their actual names), but it only has about 6 of 'em. 2K had every tournament, even if they weren't all named with the authentic names. And just like in years past (of EA titles), you must be invited to a tournament to participate. You can't just pick your own tourney to enter and see how you do. So unless you are a powerhouse (or otherwise just scheduled to take part in the tournament like the actual team is in real life), you can't get into one. Lame, EA. Just lame.

And finally, and this is by far the worst part of EA's pathetic efforts: The NCAA Tournament is a complete and utter joke. The 2K series had presentation. An entire Selection Show dedicated to the NCAA Tournament. EA on the other hand, has a bunch of text you can read with exciting news such as: "Sleeper Teams: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Texas Tech." Whoopie. Basically there is no presentation for what is effectively the most important part of the entire game. And it gets WORSE.

The seedings/final standings are a joke as well. #1 seeds in real life are NOT 21-10. In this game, though, they sure are! In fact, by tournament time, during two different simulated seasons, there were exactly 8 teams that had only single digit losses. Combined!. It just doesn't happen But, in this game, though, it sure does! Adding insult to injury, teams make the tournament with records they couldn't possibly have in real life. Rider (yes, RIDER) got a #3 seed with a record of 16-3. Yes, 16-3! They only played 19 games, against a bunch of tiny schools, and somehow managed a #3 seed! To make matters worse (as if it could), some tiny school out of Texas was 22-2 and didn't make the field!. Oh, and get this... they didn't make the NIT tournament either!. Completely unrealistic to the point of being comical.

And for a cherry on top, EA still has the same tournament mechanics that it has had since the days of March Madness. Essentially, any team can beat any other team at any time. "But that's what happens in the real NCAA tournament!" you say. Well, do all four #1 seeds lose in the first round in real life? NO! No #1 seed has ever lost to a #16 seed, and yet, in my 2nd simulated season, all 4 #1 seeds lost in first round! Are you kidding me, EA? You think this is funny!? During my first simulation, two #1 seeds fell before the might of the #16 seed.

That second tournament was so pathetic that my Final Four looked like this: Weber State (#13 seed), Jacksonville State (#14 seed), Oregon (#6 seed), and get this... Mississippi Valley State (#16 seed; who also is 0-10 right now in real life). The sad part is that Oregon didn't even win it's semi-final match-up with Weber State. The finals pitted the mighty Weber State squad against the juggernaut known as Mississippi Valley State. So yes, a #16 seed actually made it to the Championship Game. Luckily, Weber State won by 12 to take the title.

I swear, if you aren't laughing at how ridiculous these outcomes are by now, you will after you buy this game. Well, actually you'll start laughing and then begin to cry uncontrollably because you just realized you spent $60 on a game that you won't want to play. It is just sad that whenever EA has no competition, they just don't try (excluding NCAA Football, which is pretty darn good every year). Sadly, EA will likely take the Madden route and change only the most minor of details every year instead of just putting in a little bit of work and getting the title up to par with the now deceased 2K series.

-- Bottom Line --

NCAA Basketball 09 is an awful game. But, since there isn't any other choice this year, EA took advantage and put little effort into the title because that's all it had to do. The graphics are okay, but the animations look stolen from the 2K series and offer nothing new. The crowd noise and announcers offer little to add to the atmosphere of the college basketball experience. The sole shining spot is the gameplay, which is pretty solid, despite the lack of some of the luxuries that I became accustomed to with the 2K series. There is virtually no presentation, especially for the NCAA Tournament, which is supposed to be exciting. The tournament itself is an utter joke, with lousy team records, lousy team seeding, lousy team selection (no 22-2 teams in the NCAA tourney or the NIT???), and especially atrocious outcomes such as #16 seeds clobbering #1 seeds.

My personal recommendation is to skip this hunk of junk. I honestly went back to College Hoops 2K8, skipped a season, and played from there. You need to do that, too, and keep your $60 for a different Christmas present this year.

Peace.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/08

Game Release: NCAA Basketball 09 (US, 11/17/08)