We’re talking about a game that’s based on last year’s Madden engine, so expect a lot of similarities. You can also expect a lot of references to Madden 2001 and what improvements NCAA has made over it. Graphics are nearly identical, but you have to admit they had a good base there to start with. The players bodies are a little better proportioned now, but they have these gigantic craniums. How do they stuff their heads in those helmets is what I want to know. The eyes still aren’t right either, creepy. The logos and stadiums aren’t necessarily improvements, but they are different and numerous which is good.

Let’s talk a little about NCAA’s first marked improvement over its parent, speed and animation. I didn’t have a problem with either of these areas in Madden until I saw what they should be like. This game is all around faster which makes the controls feel even tighter. It also makes the game look closer to TV quality.

Another thing that helps is the animation that was added, and more importantly, the ones that are used less. It’s kind of a joke around here how often offensive players fell to their knees in Madden. Seriously, how often to real players fall to their knees like they’ve been shot in the back? The number of different tackle animations that occur now are wonderful, but it’s still not perfect and maybe never will be. With each incarnation we do continue to blur that line between game and broadcast TV though. The other pick me up NCAA delivered is the new catching animations. Similar to the tackles, you’ll now see a variety of two handed grabs across the middle which were lacking before. On the downside, you’re still going to get the weird filler animations like the “Superman hands on the hips” pose and the limping full speed run. Did all these guys have recent hip replacements?

Weren’t John and Pat from Madden enough to make you want to punch someone squarely in the face? I guess we do take full voice commentary for granted nowadays, but man, that stuff had me wishing for Joe Montana’s Sports Talk. Well, maybe not, but it was bad. With nowhere to go but up or out, we are now treated to the trio of Brad Nessler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit. These three do an adequate job. I don’t feel like I’m watching a game on TV, but it is much better than, “Ooh, that’s gotta hurt!” Still a ways to go to catch to NFL2K1 in this department. I do like the idea that you don’t always get the TV announcers as not every game is televised. When your team doesn’t get national coverage, and UCF doesn’t get much, then it’s just the field announcer on the intercom system. Some of the better teams have fans that chant for them, and as far as I can tell, all the teams’ fight songs are in. Speaking of the fans, that reminds me that our games don’t sell out the Citrus Bowl here in Orlando, and that is accurately reflected in the stadium in the game.

I have to give EA credit here. They do listen to their consumers. It seems a lot highly talked about problems from Madden were addressed in NCAA as you can already see, but it doesn’t stop there. If anybody could hold a team in Madden to zero points on any difficulty level, then they deserve a prize. Why? Because the secondary reeked in that game. The computer could drive any team, Bengals included, to some kind of score with their “proficient” passing attack. Oh man was that frustrating!! It made you rely on unrealistic defensive play calling like repeatedly picking Dime/Double Wide, and I was constantly tweaking the AI controls to make them run better and pass worse. CPU defensive players play so much smarter now that I hadn’t even thought about it until I started to write this review. That’s the way it should be. They should do their job, so I don’t have to be concerned with it. The secondary is rarely out of position now, and I haven’t seen them get stuck standing behind the receiver yet. If I get beat it’s because of a poor defensive scheme, or the fact that the receiver is just more skilled than my corner/linebacker (highly likely with the Knights). When I was playing today I did notice one of my corners leave his zone to chase a player all the way across the field, but I guess mistakes happen like that in real life with 19 and 20 year olds.

Diving tackles aren’t as fruitless as they were in Madden either. It’s that happy middle ground between falling flat on your face and soaring five yards through the air. A huge defect was repaired in the department of chasing a defender down from behind. I would get so infuriated in Madden when I would take control of the closest defender in a foot race to the goal line only to LOSE ground on the player even while holding the sprint button down. If I relinquished control, then that same player would run faster again. I thank the stars that that glitch is gone. Now if you lose a foot race, it’s because you are slower and not because you are you.

There’s a couple of things I’m still miffed by. It’s hard to hit holes on defense like you can on offense. You get engaged in a block too easily, and then you can forget about getting out. Sure is convenient how I can’t get out of a block, but the computer sets sack records against me every game. The blocking pertains to offense too. All the great plays where guards and tackles pull don’t actually work because the defender grabs them like a wrestler in a lock up and won’t let them do their job. This makes a play like the RB screen utterly useless.

That’s it for the details. The rest of the game offers what the features promise, and I‘m particularly impressed by the diversity of the play books. The Dynasty Mode is a real treat, but comes at a price, 3.1 megs of cold hard memory. It was nice to see the requirements for holding your coaching job vary between teams. For instance, as coach of the UCF Knights I just have to have winning seasons two out of three years, or bring home a national championship, but if I was Ohio St., I’d need to place in the top 15 two out of those three years. I still don’t think this mode holds a candle to 989’s offering. I loved the thrill of being offered some mediocre jobs, like defensive coordinator at Purdue, and then getting new offers for accomplishing goals geared towards that position. You take what you can, and I’d rather have a good time playing the game of football in NCAA.

This is more than filler for Madden 2002. It’s a necessity for football game fans, and the best one available to date.

Click Here to purchase NCAA Football 2002 from Amazon.com