NCAA Football 06 Review

The improved game balance and new features make NCAA Football 06 arguably the best in the series, as well as a game that's a must-have for college football fanatics.

The Good

  • Much improved game balance over last year's  
  • Controls mapped to right analog stick mean more-intuitive gameplay  
  • New animations make for a great-looking game overall  
  • In-season recruiting and improved features in dynasty mode .

The Bad

  • Certain new features not quite as refined as they could be.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, NCAA 06 is much improved over last year's version thanks to a refined balance in the passing game. One of the criticisms of last year's game was that it was all but impossible to throw a pass, as defensive backs reacted too quickly to balls in the air. Receivers in 05 would frequently drop passes as well. In NCAA 06, it's much easier to throw the ball with success. You'll still need skill to pass well, but good placement of the ball (and using highly rated receivers and quarterbacks) means you'll get away with throwing into coverage from time to time. Another change to the passing game is that you no longer need to bring down the passing windows to scramble. Simply hold down X on the PlayStation 2 (or A on the Xbox) and your quarterback will bring the ball down to move more quickly in the backfield. The passing icons stay up, so you can quickly flick a pass once you've stopped running. This tweak sounds subtle, but it makes rollouts much more effective.

It's no longer impossible to pass the ball thanks to the refinements in game balance.

It's also much easier to practice passing in NCAA 06 thanks to the inclusion of the passing skeleton minigame, where you can practice throwing passes against a coverage, but without the pressure of a pass rush. This mode is extremely useful for honing your coverage reading skills. There are three other minigames that can help you improve your skills in the running game, the option, and defense; all four are dubbed "spring drills." These spring drills seem to have replaced the college classics mode, which is not included in NCAA 06. However, the spring drills do help you improve on different aspects of the game, so they're less of a gimmick than the college classics mode was.

Other tweaks have been made to the control scheme in NCAA 06 relating to the right thumbstick. Though the series has yet to adapt the playmaker controls from Madden, NCAA has adopted the hit stick from the pro football sim. Now, as you close in on the ball carrier, you can tap the right analog stick in the direction of your target to apply a bone-crunching tackle, which increases the chances of a turnover. The swim, spin, and bull-rush moves for defensive linemen are also mapped to the right analog stick, making line play more intuitive than before. On the offensive side of the ball, you can use the right analog stick to juke or sidestep left and right as the ball carrier, or you can even do a little stop-and-go move if you tap in the down direction. That particular move is great for getting past defenders approaching you from a steep angle. Overall, the use of the right analog stick for various moves in NCAA 06 improves the game a great deal, making jukes and other spectacular plays more intuitive to pull off.

Impact players are immediately noticeable because of the white shadows underneath them.

The inclusion of impact players is also worth mentioning. Your impact players on both offense and defense are denoted by solid white shadows underneath them. These players are basically your go-to guys--the ones you turn to when you need an important first down or need to make a key stop. From time to time during a game, your impact players will get "in-the-zone," and their white shadows will pulsate. It's never quite clear why a player will get in-the-zone when he does, because the timing seems unrelated to recent performance. It just seems to happen at random. But when it does happen, the player that's in-the-zone will be capable of performing even better than normal. A ball carrier, for example, may be able to break a tackle that he normally wouldn't be able to evade. A linebacker who's in-the-zone may be more likely to force a fumble upon contact. Sometimes these special plays will result in brief pauses in the action, and the camera will then zoom in to show off the feat. These Matrix-like camera tricks don't happen all too often, but when they do, they always highlight something pretty cool. Over the course of a dynasty, it's possible for impact players on a team to change. For example, while playing as Cal, the quarterback became an impact player in the middle of our season because he piled up great statistics over the first six games.

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NCAA Football 06

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