NCAA Final Four

Steamer Trunk | home

NCAA Final Four

The first college basketball sim out of the gate for PlayStation 2 is 989 Sports offering NCAA Final Four 2001. When new systems come out there are always a few games that end up being rushed to meet the launch date and unfortunately NCAA Final Four is one of those titles.

The graphics are pretty awkward looking and not much better than your standard PlayStation one games. The players move sluggishly and their shots are rather lame looking. When you make a shot the net doesn't even move, taking away from the realism that the game tries desperately to create. I mean even after thunderous dunks the rim doesn't so much as move. A lot of times it doesn't even look like the players are running on the court, but sliding across it like ice skaters. The sound and commentary for the game is also pretty lame. Quinn Buckner is said to have done the color commentary, but if you ask me it sounds a lot more like the Saturday Night Live character "The Ladies Man" doing the play-by-play. At random points in the game he will scream out such memorable phrases like "Shoots tha jumpa" or suddenly launching into a minute and a half speech about team defense.

As if this game didn't have enough problems the control lay out is poorly thought through. The X button on defense lets you rebound and block shots, problem is, on offense the same button is used to shoot, so it's unavoidable that at least three times a game you end up accidentally heaving a full court shot. Also on defense the square button is supposed to make your player attempt a steal. What it actually does is turn your player into a bigger spaz than your eight year old brother after a week off of his Ritalin. Off goes your player running as fast as possible, sometimes magically passing through other players, to the ball and ramming into whoever has the ball, not a very useful skill. The one nice thing they had in this game was a shot meter. To make a shot you had to release the shot button right when the bar moving up matched up with an arrow on the meter. If you did that there was no doubt that the shot was going to fall. Sure it made the game almost impossible to lose at and a lot easier, but it was an interesting feature that other games have not tried yet.

Another nice thing about this game is that they include all 300 or so Division one basketball teams. Which means you can play as your favorite MSU basketball players, and no I don't mean Michigan State. The only problem is apparently they are using last years roster and the SLC's leading scorer Mr. Demond Mallet is no where to be seen on this game. However you can create him with the recruit a player option which fails miserably when compared to EA Sports NBA Live 2001. When you create a player you have to switch him out with someone already on the team. Thing is when you switch the players out, unfortunate it just switches out the player ratings so you can't change a players number, hair, accessories, or skin color. There is an option to change the height and weight of the players, but it doesn't seem to effect anything when you do. So when I attempted to create McNeese starting center Raynell Brewer he some how turned out to be a chunky 6-9 white guy, with blonde hair, which is probably about as far off as it can get. There are other nice options like a season and NCAA Tourney mode that make the game a little more bearable, not that you'd want to play it long enough to get through them.

If you really need a basketball game for your PS2 go with NBA live and hope that 989 figures out what they are doing wrong for next season's game. Unfortunately for you college hoopheads this is the only college sim available for the PS2. The game has loads of potential unfortunately none of it is realized and the game is just a major waste of time and money. Oh, and if your wondering according to this game this years NCAA championship game will feature McNeese State and Duke, with the Cowboys thrashing the #1 seed Blue Devils 83-60.


	Steamer Trunk \| home stuff about me \| album reviews \| PS2 game reviews \| pictures \| web watch \| getting in touch NCAA Final Four 2002 \| Grand Theft Auto \| EA NHL 2002 \| Dave Mirra BMX \| Nascar Heat 2002 \| Crazy Taxi \| Madden 2002 \| NCAA Football 2002 \| Madden 2001 \| Triple Play \| Knockout Kings \| NBA Live 2001 \| ESPN Hockey Night \| NCAA Final Four NCAA Final Four The first college basketball sim out of the gate for PlayStation 2 is 989 Sports offering NCAA Final Four 2001. When new systems come out there are always a few games that end up being rushed to meet the launch date and unfortunately NCAA Final Four is one of those titles. The graphics are pretty awkward looking and not much better than your standard PlayStation one games. The players move sluggishly and their shots are rather lame looking. When you make a shot the net doesn't even move, taking away from the realism that the game tries desperately to create. I mean even after thunderous dunks the rim doesn't so much as move. A lot of times it doesn't even look like the players are running on the court, but sliding across it like ice skaters. The sound and commentary for the game is also pretty lame. Quinn Buckner is said to have done the color commentary, but if you ask me it sounds a lot more like the Saturday Night Live character "The Ladies Man" doing the play-by-play. At random points in the game he will scream out such memorable phrases like "Shoots tha jumpa" or suddenly launching into a minute and a half speech about team defense. As if this game didn't have enough problems the control lay out is poorly thought through. The X button on defense lets you rebound and block shots, problem is, on offense the same button is used to shoot, so it's unavoidable that at least three times a game you end up accidentally heaving a full court shot. Also on defense the square button is supposed to make your player attempt a steal. What it actually does is turn your player into a bigger spaz than your eight year old brother after a week off of his Ritalin. Off goes your player running as fast as possible, sometimes magically passing through other players, to the ball and ramming into whoever has the ball, not a very useful skill. The one nice thing they had in this game was a shot meter. To make a shot you had to release the shot button right when the bar moving up matched up with an arrow on the meter. If you did that there was no doubt that the shot was going to fall. Sure it made the game almost impossible to lose at and a lot easier, but it was an interesting feature that other games have not tried yet. Another nice thing about this game is that they include all 300 or so Division one basketball teams. Which means you can play as your favorite MSU basketball players, and no I don't mean Michigan State. The only problem is apparently they are using last years roster and the SLC's leading scorer Mr. Demond Mallet is no where to be seen on this game. However you can create him with the recruit a player option which fails miserably when compared to EA Sports NBA Live 2001. When you create a player you have to switch him out with someone already on the team. Thing is when you switch the players out, unfortunate it just switches out the player ratings so you can't change a players number, hair, accessories, or skin color. There is an option to change the height and weight of the players, but it doesn't seem to effect anything when you do. So when I attempted to create McNeese starting center Raynell Brewer he some how turned out to be a chunky 6-9 white guy, with blonde hair, which is probably about as far off as it can get. There are other nice options like a season and NCAA Tourney mode that make the game a little more bearable, not that you'd want to play it long enough to get through them. If you really need a basketball game for your PS2 go with NBA live and hope that 989 figures out what they are doing wrong for next season's game. Unfortunately for you college hoopheads this is the only college sim available for the PS2. The game has loads of potential unfortunately none of it is realized and the game is just a major waste of time and money. Oh, and if your wondering according to this game this years NCAA championship game will feature McNeese State and Duke, with the Cowboys thrashing the #1 seed Blue Devils 83-60.