NCAA March Madness 07 First Look

When it comes to basketball, what's the difference between a school like Duke and a school like Campbell University (apart from the three national titles since 1985 and five straight conference titles between 1999 and 2003, of course)? We don't mean to pick on the Fighting Camels here, but the main difference between the two schools--at least on the basketball court--is tradition. The two schools might be located in the same state of North Carolina, but when it comes to storied basketball histories, they might as well be on different planets. Tradition and school pride are two of the most dynamic aspects of college basketball, and they're also central tenants in EA Sports' upcoming March Madness 07, which is making its next-gen debut on the Xbox 360.

Start a game between traditional powerhouses Duke and the University of Kentucky, and the atmosphere in the Xbox 360 version of the game is electric. The Kentucky crowd, decked out in their blue and white, rock the Rupp Arena like it's the end of the world, while the Wildcat mascot is dancing up a storm. You almost expect to see Ashley Judd in the crowd cheering on her favorite team. Take a closer look, and you'll see the crowd will actually be in sync with the cheers on the soundtrack, clapping and stomping along with whatever cheer is playing. This dynamic atmosphere is in stark contrast to the small-time programs found in the game. Start a game with the Hartford Hawks, for example, and the atmosphere at Chase Arena will be a decidedly more low-key affair, with only a few fans dotting the stands, no band to speak of, no audio commentary by the March Madness duo of Brad Nessler and Dick Vitale, and barely any energy to speak of.

That said, just because your favorite program starts off in the dumps doesn't mean it has to stay that way. In dynasty mode, you'll be able to improve your school's facilities and school-pride rating as you complete challenges throughout the season. Completing challenges such as winning your home opener or signing high-profile recruits lets you upgrade the facilities of your program. Four main facilities can be built and upgraded: a practice gym, a weight room, a study hall, and an injury clinic. The higher rated a particular facility is, the more of a bonus it will give the players on your team. In addition, a school with better facilities will be better suited for attracting high-profile talent when recruiting.

An offshoot of your program's success will be an increasing level of fan and student support as you go. Start winning games and you'll unlock a pep band, a students' section, and a cheerleading squad to help motivate your players on the floor. It should be noted that the team behind MM 07 has worked to make sure that the location of bands and student sections are as authentic as possible, though with 325 schools included in the game, they can't claim 100 percent accuracy.

Better facilities and a more rabid fan base bring us to the third aspect of the atmosphere in MM 07: intensity and composure. Both teams on the floor have an intensity meter that they can fill up by performing successfully on the floor, or deplete by screwing up. In fact, there's a fun way to earn an intensity boost at the beginning of a game, but we'll get to that in a bit. Intensity will let you access specific interactions that can provide your team with a boost. By pressing the left button on the Xbox 360 controller, you bring up a quick access menu that will let you "interact" with one of four groups: yourself, your teammates, your opponent, or the crowd. You choose one of these four by pressing the directional pad in one of four directions, and you'll then interact with each group accordingly, be it encouraging your teammates, pumping up the crowd, or "interacting with your opponent," which is really just an NCAA-approved way of saying taunting them. Fill your intensity meter all the way up, and you'll be treated to so-called impact moments, which will let you run around the floor, interact with the cheerleaders or the pep band, and even dance around with the mascot. That part might be silly, but the positive impact on your teammates (and the negative effect on your foe) is no laughing matter.

How you choose to spend your intensity will affect the composure of all the players around you. Every player on the floor has a composure meter associated with him, so you'll always have an idea of how calm, or how rattled, any player is. If a young guy is playing in his first away game against a rival, he'll likely start out a little spooked and that will show in his composure. Conversely, a senior in a big game might be raring to go when the whistle blows and his composure rating will be positive accordingly. Of course, play on the field will ultimately determine how your composure rating moves. Play well and your rating will go up; miss too many shots or turn the ball over, and your game will suffer accordingly. In fact, as players earn or lose intensity, you'll see small plus or minus signs appear over their heads--call it the college-hoops equivalent of the Sims.

This being an EA Sports next-gen game, it wouldn't be complete without an interactive loading screen of some sort, and MM 07 fits the bill with a fun little minigame you can play. You start out in an asphalt court in a generic college campus setting, and once you've begun the loading game, you're taken to a shot contest while the game loads. Various areas of the court are worth anywhere from one to four points, and your goal it to score as many points as you can in the time allotted. As you play through the minigame, the asphalt court dissolves into the actual stadium itself (which is a nice effect). The player with the highest amount of points at the end of the game is given a small boost of intensity, and as a result, will be able to immediately access the aforementioned interaction menu, or save up his intensity for an impact moment.

Beyond these changes, March Madness has some familiar holdouts from previous entries in the series. The lockdown stick lets you play aggressive defense against opponents by pointing the right analog stick toward the player you are defending and moving him with the left analog stick. It's a good way to stick tight with a charging defender, as well as cause a few turnovers here and there. The floor general play-calling system is in place, too, which lets you call plays by pressing the D pad in any direction. A nice touch here is that new plays are illuminated on the court itself, giving you an idea of what you need to do to make the play work. Once again, the team at EA Canada has tried to make sure that team playbooks are as accurate as possible. Still, things are customizable here, and you can change the playbooks to your liking.

One area that EA has clearly invested a lot of time in is the player models. Compared to older March Madness games on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the difference in player faces and bodies is astounding. Player faces, especially, have benefited from the upgrade and are more expressive and realistic than the series has ever seen. Players will react to their situations on the floor realistically, and their animations will change within the context of the situation. A meaningless three-pointer in an early season nonconference matchup might not merit more than a fist pump, while a huge dunk to seal a championship game will elicit a considerably more excited reaction. As good as the player models and faces looked, we can't necessarily say the same thing for the animations--some of the standard running animations look especially stiff. Still, for a next-gen debut, it's not a bad start at all.

Other modes in the game include the standard dynasty, quick game modes, and online play, as well as three tournament modes--the NCAA tourney, the Maui Invitational, and the NIT. There will also be ESPN audio and video integration into the game, including actual college-basketball video highlights, and considering the prickly nature of the NCAA's "protection" of its student athletes, it's a surprising and welcome inclusion. The game's 25 Xbox Live achievements include entries such as getting a quadruple double, nailing 100 percent of your free throws on All-American difficulty, or grabbing 51 rebounds with a single player.

EA Sports has taken a chance by releasing their college basketball game in the middle of the real college-hoops season and several months after their direct competitor. Still, an early 2007 release makes sense in a way--the holiday rush will be over, conference play will be just getting started, and the NCAA Tournament will be coming to the forefront of the sporting world. Of course, March Madness 07's success will have less to do with its release date and more to do with its gameplay, and we'll have a full review of the game once the game is released in mid-January. Until then, stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.