March Madness 98 isn't the game I wanted, but its better than I feared
it might be.  In fact, despite some glaring problems with the game
presentation and appearance, if you give it a chance, you might be
surprised to find that it has possibly the best basketball AI out right
now.  If you can forgive EA for not matching the quality and overall
immersive experiences they revolutionized in NHL 98 and Triple Play 98,
and you love college hoops, this still is a game worth having.

PRESENTATION/INTERFACE: C
The setup screens and navigation are solid and simple.  There are tons
of options for setting up an exhibition, a season, or a tournament.  You
can play games at 2, 5, 10, or 20 min halves (10 seems about right for
realistic scores). More of the options match those of Live '97 (which in
my opinion is still the best basketball game on any system).  You can
check your standings in two competing polls (EA Sports or CBS
Sportsline) after every game, and check your standings in a season
conference race.  Team and individual stats are tracked is great detail,
as is always the case with EA, but suprisingly (unless I just can't find
it) there's no way to compare your stats with other teams.  For example,
after three games in a season, my PG was doing really well, scoring
about 15PPG and dishing out 12 assists as well. I was curious to see how
he ranked among other guards in the NCAA.  I guess I'll never know since
there's no way to compare individual stats.  On the positive side, the
game stats are comprehensive, including shot charts to see where you
made and missed shots and scoring graphs to look at the ebbs and flows
of the game.

In actual gameplay, the presentation is pretty much the same as Live 97.
The notable addition is the "momentum meter" which shows which team has
momentum and by how much.  Each basket, dunk, etc…  shifts momentum.
The bar goes from green to yellow to red.  The crowd responds
accordingly.  After seizing momentum on the road, the crowd becomes more
quiet.  And against the CPU, if you push the momentum meter into the
red, they will call a time out to try and stop your run.  This is a nice
innovation and a great addition to the game.

One gripe about the presentation: when you start to a game and you see
the matchup screen with the names of the teams and the location, the
announcer says, "Good evening and welcome to tonight's matchup…"  I keep
waiting for him to finish the sentence.  He doesn't.  This is silly
since tons of sports games have an announcer say, at the very least, who
is playing whom.  There's no reason they couldn't have had him say where
he was and who the teams were.  

Another example of a missing piece with the game presentation: when you
finish a game in MM98, it ends very abruptly:  there is no "player of
the game" or on-court player celebration.  Not even an CG-animation
sequence.  Even the old NCAA Basketball on the SNES had a little image
after a game with the final score- for example, if you lost, you saw a
player sitting on a bench in the locker room, his head down in
disappointment.  There's no reason EA couldn't have had the players or
crowd react to the end of a game, since they've done it before in other
games.  I love the way  in NHL 98 that after the final horn the players
go nuts and celebrate on the ICE, pumping their stick in the air and
jumping around.  Likewise, in Triple Play, you get fireworks and
celebrations at the mound or home plate after a win.  Why nothing like
that here, especially if they point of MM98 is to simulate the
"environment" of college hoops?


GRAPHICS: B
This game was based on Live 97, but the players don't look quite as
good.  The animation also seems a little choppier.  It think so many
people complained about players "skating" that they revised the player
movement.  I wish they hadn't - the player move less realistically and
seem jittery.  The camera angles are limited - a disappointment since
Live 97 had great camera angles.  It's hard to find a good angle that
lets you see the whole area of play without requiring the court to turn
180 degrees on a change of possession.

On the other hand the arenas and crowds look great.  The arenas look
larger or small depending where they are, and the seating layouts vary
accordingly.  Good realism here. The crowds on the lower level are
animated and wear the colors of the home team.  More than that, they
don't just move randomly.  When you score or make a big play, they jump
to their feet and go crazy, unless, of course, you are on the road and
they don't react to your plays at all.  When a player is at the
freethrow line, the crowds jump up and down for the visiting team, but
cheer intially, then sit down quietly for the home team.  And at the
freethrow line, the players standing on both side swap and move their
arms.  It looks a lot better than live 97.

Overall the graphics are solid, but underwhelming,  To play at a
comfortable perspective, the players look a little small.  I didn't have
this problem with Live 97.


SOUND/MUSIC:  D
This is where the game is a real letdown.  I think EA has come close to
false advertising by suggesting that the game would have team fight
songs.  Unless I just haven't played wit the right teams, there is no
team-specific music.  I played several games as North Carolina and hoped
to hear the UNC fight song before, during, or after the game.  In the
game credits, EA did use the University of Kentucky and Stanford bands
for real music, so why not have actual fight songs for at least the top
20 or so teams?  If college football games can do this, there's no
reason MM98 couldn't have.  EA's big marketing push with this game was
to recreate the unique college experience.  What is more basic to that
than a team's band playing the fight song during the games??  Instead
you get some short snippets of band songs during pauses and menus.  This
is very disappointing.

The announcer is heard from time to time, but too infrequently.  He
announces three-point shots, but not much else.  I'd love this game to
have a play-by-play guy and a color man (can't EA hire Dick Vitale? - I
love the guy and he says the same things a million times.  They could
sample snippets of him and use him like Madden).  Without much of an
announcer or play-by-play man, the game seems a little quiet and
lifeless at times.  

The crowds react well, with surges in crowd noise, boos, and "owwww!"'s
shouted in unison when you miss a shot.  There are standard cheers like
"Air-Ball!" and "De-fense! Defense!."  I even heard the crowd chant
"Over-rated!" when I was blowing out a highly-ranked visiting team.
Finally there are team-specific chants, i.e. "TAR-HEELS!  TAR-HEELS!"
and "Lets-Go-Cats!"  All the special cheers are cute, but they have two
problems.  First, they usually only chant two or three times, instead of
going on repetitively, as in Madden or NHL, where a crown might chant
"DE-FENSE" indefinitely until you get the ball back.  Second, the crowds
don't sound very big.  They sound like 10 people chanting, not 10,000.
Chants sound a lot better in EA's other games…  The idea and effort here
is good, but it just isn't executed well.

GAMEPLAY:  A
This is what redeems this game to me.  I loved Live '97.  At the highest
difficulty level, I found it to be the most challenging basketball game
available.  This is better.  While scoring isn't impossible, passing is
trickier than in Live '97.  The CPU defense is a lot better at stealing
passes in MM98.  In Live 97, I had few assists because I pretty much
could play one-on-one isolation and fastbreak.  I rarely HAD to pass.
In MM98, a full court press is tough to beat, and long outlet passes are
often intercepted.  CPU defense seems smarter and tougher in general.
In addition, whereas in Live '97, I could speed burst & slash to the
hoop quite often for quick scores, but in MM98, I have often been called
for charging for the same plays.  On defense, steals are tougher than in
Live '97 and you can hit a button to "stand ground" to try and draw a
charge.

The addition of "direct passing" (like Live 98) is a nice touch and easy
to use.  You can also switch to the closest defender to the ball or use
"direct switching" to select a particular player for defense.  

EA has put in a myriad of offensive and defensive set which you can set
or call on the fly.  In addition, you can check the status of the player
with the ball (fatigue, etc…) by pressing the shoulder button while he
has the ball.

After I get over the disappointment of some of the other unrealized
potential of this game, the gameplay and AI will seem more important and
vital to replayability.  


OVERALL:  B-
March Madness 98 could have been a lot better.  I feels like it needed
another month or two of development.  However, at its core, the gameplay
between teams is challenging, fun, and entertaining, which is a lot more
than I could say about the game's flashier, more visually-stunning
cousin, NBA Live 98.   I think EA failed to create the "ultimate college
basketball experience," which is a shame, since EA's baseball and hockey
games have, in my opinion, achieved that level of quality.  But for now,
this a fun game, despite its missing pieces.  If you like sports games
and love college basketball, it's worth getting.


MP