NCAA March Madness 2004

NCAA March Madness 2004, released on XBOX and PS2, is another production released as part of a popular series of sports games presenting the games of the academic basketball league licensed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. As befits the title with the EA Sports logo, every year we receive a slightly improved product offering, for example, an additional play mode, some new character animations and, above all, updated line-ups of teams.

Mechanics

At the beginning of the game, we choose one of more than 300 teams (not all of them are licensed) or we create our own by choosing from a limited pool of logos and outfits. We can also name it. Then, we take part in one of the many modes. Apart from the classic single match or season, the main core of the game is the Dynasty mode. We manage the team for many seasons taking care of achieving better and better results. To do this, we set the team's strategy using sliders, e.g. whether we want to focus on defending under the basket or on covering the opponent's players on the whole pitch. Similarly, we decide whether we want to shift the weight of the game on the best basketball players or allow the whole team to show off. Between each game, we make transfers and the best team receives an invitation to a national tournament. Once the season ends, we focus on discovering young talents by observing them at training camps.

Game modes

For the first time in the series, the main menu of the game is maintained in the style of the selected team. The same applies to cheerleaders and mascots. The latter has even its mode, in which we can check how their skills look like during the game. We can also play against friends.

Technical aspects

The graphics of NCAA March Madness 2004 look a little worse than those found in NBA Live 2004. This is mainly due to the smaller detail of the individual players. In both titles, the characters seem to slide on the pitch floor. The game encourages us to fight by playing special songs of individual teams and by providing comments.

Last updated on 22 August 2012