Reviewed by Inkhands
This is one of the most realistic basketball games I have
ever played and it ranks as probably the best I ever played.
It's gameplay and it's graphics are high quality and put
other basketball games to shame. The amount of depth this
game has gives it nearly unlimited appeal and the fact that
it is incredibly fun to play puts this right at the top of
any of the great sports game, not just basketball.
This game was made by EA Sports so it does look very much
like NBA Live. It has the same 3/4 view of the court. It
also has a lot of the options those games have. Whereas
those games focused on pro basketball, this gives you
college basketball action. The Coach K of the title is
Duke's coach, just in case you didn't know that.
There are three modes in this game and they all appear to be
rather standard - exhibition, season, and tournament. Of
course they are standard in theory, but playing them gives
you so much more than the average basketball game. You can
choose to play as one of 40 teams. Thirty two of them are
considered current teams. They are all ranked from number 1
on down to 32. I won't list them all, but a lot of high
profile college basketball teams are included such as UCLA,
U Mass, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, Wake Forest, and Syracuse.
The other teams consist of eight classic teams such as the
67 and 72 UCLA teams, 74's Nc State, 76's Indiana, 79's
Michigan St, 86's Louisville, 90's UNLV, and of course 92's
Duke Blue Devils. Which is to say that these teams were the
NCAA champions of that year. The only problem I ever had
with this game is the fact that despite the 40 teams
included, none of the players on the teams have names. They
don't even have made up names. I question the point of the
eight classic teams, if their rosters are going to be as
blank as those of the 32 current teams. However, that's only
a minor complaint, but still it tends to standout.
Some of the other options in the game include setting up the
rules of the game. You can turn off the fouls and other
violations such as traveling, backcourt, and out of bounds.
If you want to play a game without any rules then select the
Arcade option of play. However, if you want a more realistic
basketball experience, then choose Simulation, because that
enforces all of the rules of basketball. If you want a mix
of the two, then choose custom. You can choose what rules to
leave on or off. Another option is how long to make each
half between either 2, 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes long. You
can play on one of three difficulty settings - freshman,
varsity, and all american, which is of course basically
easy, normal, and hard respectively. You also have minor
options such as whether or not to have the sounds on or off
and auto or manual shot control.
During the game you have a certain amount of coaching
options. You can set the defensive matchups, in other words
who you want to guard who, and whether or not you want any
of those players to be double teamed. You can also set up
whether or not to have auto or manual substitutions. There
are about eleven types of offensive plays and about five
types of each. Such offensive plays as isolation, high
point, motion, box, and inside plays. The defensive plays
have full court, half trap, man to man, 3-2 zone, or 2-3 and
a few others. Each of those defensive plays have about five
setups, just as the offensive does.
Other minor things to note - you can run instant replays and
you can check your team stats. At the beginning of each game
you get a matchup breakdown. Each team is rated five
categories - scoring, rebounding, ball control, defense, and
an overall score. This allows you to see how your team
stacks up against your opponent. At half time and at the end
up the game you get a game breakdown which tells you such
things as how many shots were made and missed in the paint,
inside, at the 3 point line and you get a look at the
leading scorers. A nice thing to bring up is the fact if you
are playing a season you aren't trapped into whatever
options you selected. You can always change the difficulty
setting, the amount of time in each half, and the rules of
the game. In season mode you play each of the other 31 teams
one time. Then you move into the tournament. If there is any
of these games you don't want to play you can just simply
choose the simulate option. The game keeps track up the
rankings of the teams and it also gives you the Top 25 poll,
which tells you how your team was voted each week. The game
has three save slots, so up to three seasons or tournaments
can be saved at once.
There are amazingly good graphics found in this game. The
players only have slight differences in appearance, but
their movements are very realistic. The way they move their
feet when they walk and they way they move their arms around
while guarding. When they fall after a foul they will stand
up and shake their head around a little trying to shake off
their obvious confusion from being knocked down. The dunks
look great and the movements are very realistic. The rim
moves when a shot or a dunk is missed, the net moves around
when it is made, and sometimes the glass in the backboard
breaks out after a dunk. Other minor realistic things to
note is just how varied the crowd looks. It doesn't just
look like a big blob of color like a lot of games have.
There are men, women, and children out there. They have
different colored clothes and hair and are very easy to
identify. There are even steps between the the rows of
seats. You won't spend a lot of time actually looking at the
crowd, but when it does catch your eye occasionally, you may
appreciate the detail put into it. Another minor thing to
notice is that the goal has a reflection on the court. In
the paint you can see the shadow of the rim and the
backboard.
Speaking of the court, it is very detailed. Lines can be
seen and it gives it a look of bricks on the court. The
paint and out of bounds areas change color depending on the
stadium or arena you are supposed to be playing at, but the
other areas of the court never changes appearance. Still a
nice effort put into the court. On the options screens you
get a lot of pictures of Coach K, the cheerleaders, the
band, the crowd, and teams in play on the court. These all
look nice, but they tend to slow down the game's pace. If
you want to simply check a couple of stats real fast or
change a couple of options, it takes longer than it should,
because it is bogged down with these pictures from actual
games. Overall though, a lot of effort was put into the
graphics and they came out very realistic, colorful, and
extremely detailed.
As for the sound. There is little music during the actual
game. There is a very nice pounding tune that plays over the
title and during the options screen. It has a nice beat and
it sounds good, but there needed to be more music in the
game. The sound effects are all very realistic sounding.
From the boos the crowd will give after a foul to them
chanting the word defense. The ball is very quiet during
dribbling, shooting, and passing which is good when you
think about it. I don't really recall the ball ever being
loud against the court at actually basketball events,
especially not over the noisy crowds. Overall this game
sounds like an actual basketball game. It probably needed
some more music, but the music and sounds that are heard in
this game are very good.
Great control in this game, but had a couple of problems
with it. Mostly the view of the court is at fault though,
because sometimes I had a habit of shooting the ball from
behind the goal, which is not a good thing. You can switch
defenders easily and pass the ball around without any
trouble at all. Shooting requires you hit to the button
twice. Dunks aren't a given, sometimes you do miss a dunk or
two. Partly because of the timing on the buttons. The only
real problem I have with the control is sometimes my player
that is in possession of the basketball isn't even in my
control. I'll try to switch him over, but this will usually
just make him pass the ball. This is a problem sometimes
during tight defense, because I'll be trying to gain control
of my player while I'm having the ball stolen away from me.
For the most part though the controls all work fine in this game.
The challenge all depends on which setting you choose, how
good you are at basketball, and how the team you are playing
ranks. In this game the scores in the categories actually
make a difference in how that team plays. Overall though
this game can get a little challenging, but for the most
part it's not too difficult.
The realism this game gives in all categories makes this a
highly enjoyable basketball game. It's fast paced and I
actually want to set the game to be longer, because it's
just so much fun to play. It looks great, it has great
options, good control, and it is highly addictive. With all
of it's appeal it has very good replay value. It has almost
all the qualities a great basketball game should have and
for all of these reasons I highly recommend this game.
Overall it seldom disappoints and it's simply amazingly fun
to play. If you like basketball at all then you should
certainly consider playing this game.
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Control - 8/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Challenge - 7/10
Fun Factor - 10/10
Replay Value - 9/10
Overall - 9/10
