NCAA Basketball Final Four 1997 for Playstation - Mindscape Sports Advantage
This is another review that has been done as a collobrative effort 
between two sports video game loving Playstation Junkies  (though 
Geof has been found playing the N64 more lately than the PSX).  
Please understand that both of us bring different attributes to the 
table, Geof is the better game player, while Barry is the fan of the 
nice graphics and easy game play.  Hopefully this cooperative effort 
will give you a good over all flavor of the game being reviewed, 
with all sides nicely represented.  Please remember though, opinions 
expressed here-in are those of the authors and not necessarily those 
of the site where you are reading this drivel! 8^) ;}
Finally, a College Hoops game!
It has taken some time, (who knows for what reasons? [probably like 
everything else the NCAA does, *money*]), but finally there is a 
College Hoops game out for the Playstation.  This one, apparently a 
port of a PC game title - NCAA Basketball Final Four 1997.   
Released on the Playstation just in time to try to take advantage of 
March Madness mania, the big question is should you go crazy trying 
to find and play this game?
Some answers to the question...
Final Four 1997 is College Hoops, perhaps in more ways than one.  
While the game sports decent -- but not standout -- graphics, and 
fair -- but not great -- gameplay,  the game just doesn't seem to 
share the polish and refinement that the current crop of pro hoops 
games on the PSX has.
The game play is slower overall than say NBA In The Zone 2, and the 
action just doesn't seem as intense either.  Perhaps this is because 
the programmers wanted to more closely emulate the differences in 
the pro game compared to the school boys, but still it just doesn't 
seem to be up to speed so to say.
The game package touts the games features, such as 35 dunk animations, 
more than 10 different camera angles, and dozens of play options.  
Those sound like great features, but really, are they any different 
than what we've come to expect from Shootout, or NBA Live?  Not at all.
The ability to play with up to 8 players is also nice, but again, 
doesn't really distinguish this game from the pro sims that have been 
out up to this point.
Hitting the books...
This is an area that Barry has to really slam it home on the game 
producers for.  The documentation is 24 plus pages long, but doesn't 
go into detail on any one aspect of the game.  For instance, the game 
package mentions play calling on the fly, and the instructions tell 
you that you can use the shoulder buttons to call a play, but theres 
no indication of how to establish what play is which, or any 
instructions on how to set up the plays that will be called. Trying 
to set the game up so that your defense goes into a trap for instance 
just didn't seem to be as easy as you expect.
On the plus side Baaaayyybeeeee?
Well, for some folks, on the plus side is that you don't have to worry 
about hearing Dick Vitale, Billy Packer, or Al Maquire.   On the 
negative side, the announcer that is there seems to be more of an 
afterthought than a full fledged feature of the game.  His calling is 
smooth, but nothing special, and just about downright bland.  He 
doesn't talk much, but perhaps that's also a plus considering how bland 
he really is.
You do get to choose from most of the major teams out there, though as 
with the big dance, some teams get left home.  For the most part, if 
you are looking for a team that was in the top 25 at some point in the 
last two years, it's probably here, though don't look for College of 
Charleston, Coppin State, Texas Tech, George Washington University, or 
others that you may know the name of.
Technical Foul!
On the very negative side, there are more than a few times in the games 
where you run into the dreaded 'Loading' graph.  This is something that 
Geof has really grown to loathe, and has come to find to be so nice 
about his N64.  Barry -- the cheapie of this pair -- hasn't spent the 
money on the N64 yet  (now that they've dropped the price it's under 
consideration, but then again, the games for it still cost a fortune!!).  
For this alone, the game loses some points in Geof's book.
Barry can live with the load times, considering it's prevalent in all 
of the PSX titles (some more so than others obviously), though it leaves 
him wondering why Sony never came out with some sort of add-on hardware 
expansion that could add memory to the system that could be used for 
buffering CD activity  (what the heck is that port back there for other 
than use for a Gameshark device?).
But it's College Hoops - Final Four even!!
Well, yes, it is College Hoops, and even lets you pick any of 64 major 
NCAA teams and play them through the tourney in a quest to the NCAA 
Championship.  It was for that reason that Barry (in Geof's opinion) 
wasted the money on the game.  Geof had tried the PC version of the game 
before, and decided that it wasn't worth wasting disk space on.  Barry 
on the other hand wanted to be able to play hoops with his favorite 
College team, and opted to trade in some old titles in exchange for this 
game.
Looking at that decision now, and having played the game for a little 
while, Barry wouldn't necessarily recommend spending more than the rental 
fee on this game.  If you are really desparate for the game, get the PC 
version direct from the manufacturer (or their designated representative) 
for only $14.95  (see advertisements scattered atop various sports related 
web pages).
One last note about the game, specifically regarding the players in the 
game.  Everyone needs to note that the actual player names from this 
year's teams are not included in the game, instead a bunch of made up 
names are used.  Perhaps this was done because of licensing hassles with 
the individual school kids, or perhaps because the NCAA doesn't want to 
be that blatant about making money on the backs of these kids.  In either 
case, hopefully the kids whose real stats are used in making up the game 
will in some way benefit from the sale of this cart, even if it's just 
in some more small contribution to the scholarship funds at the schools 
that have been included in the game.
Rating: 6/10 
Geof Pejsa  & Barry Dowell
Vital Statistics
Genre:  Sports/Basketball/College
Game Format: 1 CD for Sony Playstation
Publisher: Mindscape Sports Advantage/High Voltage Software
Audience: K-A (Kids to Adults)
Players: 1 to 8 (multi-tap adaptable)
Memory card: 5 blocks
Street price: $54.95