Most college basketball games are merely NBA basketball games with college teams and logos thrown on at the last minute. It's obvious that the March Madness development team did its homework by realizing what's different about college basketball and making sure the game included those features. For example, play is a bit more structured and team-oriented than professional basketball, which lets college basketball fans who understand the college game apply what they know, like running a good half-court offense and changing up defenses to keep teams off their rhythm. Sure, you can try to drive straight to the basket every time you run down the court, like you might in NBA Live 98 (EA Sports' NBA basketball game), but that might lead to a blocked shot or a steal more often than in most NBA basketball games.
Another pronounced feature of the college game is the effect of the home crowd on its team, and March Madness uses a momentum meter to mimic the effect. The more successful things a team does consecutively, the more the meter moves in its favor, even increasing the ability ratings of the players. But where the meter fails is that the crowd doesn't react as enthusiastically as it should, something that plagues all EA Sports games, making the meter only a visual indicator of the crowd's excitement and not its cheering. It might roar right after a dunk, but then it will quietly sit back down shortly thereafter - not quite how it really is in most college arenas.
Another college basketball-specific feature in March Madness is the USA Today poll, which ranks all teams and not just the top 25 (all Division I teams are included). Of course, there's plenty of brass band music, and all the basketball floors are all accurately rendered with few exceptions (the arenas themselves are generic). You can also set up a tournament at any time.
March Madness makes a pretty good attempt at simulating the college game, but it has a few shortcomings. For instance, although the use of college players' names is prohibited by the NCAA, you can't even write in your own or edit a player's ratings. And if you're not into substituting players yourself, the computer coach doesn't do a very good job of it, since it disregards a player's position and might replace your center with a five-foot, eleven-inch guard.
On defense, you can establish position to draw a charge, but you can't get in a defensive stance like you can in NBA Live, a key element to playing good defense in a video game. This makes it a little too easy for the ball handler to drive past your man. In a zone defense, computer-controlled defenders don't rotate over very well, making zones somewhat ineffective.
Offensively, it's a bit too easy to fastbreak a lot, since most defenses are a little slow getting back in transition, and most long passes way down court are rarely errant. The money play, if there is only one, is the alley-oop pass. Just pick a play that moves one of your men underneath the basket then direct pass the ball to him. Three-pointers are hard to hit consistently, since it seems your shooter has to be wide open to make it - a strong inside game is the way to go.
For the most part, March Madness is a good basketball game and an even better college basketball game. You will, however, start to learn what works and what doesn't, which makes play a little dull over time, even at the hardest difficulty setting, giving you little reason to stray from your usual style of play. But even with its somewhat dated graphics (it looks like last year's NBA Live), adequate AI, and uncharacteristically high-scoring games, March Madness '98 definitely supplies most of the qualities of big-time college basketball.
