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Who says you have to grow up? Here at SI.com's Game Room, our staffers review the latest sports video game titles to hit the market and welcome your feedback.
  
3/23/2007 01:03:00 PM

Review: College Hoops 2K7 (PS3)

By Paul Ulane

Whether it's the NCAA Tournament, the NIT, or the Dick Vitale Hooters commercials, March is a time for college basketball excess, and College Hoops 2K7 has just the prescription for the overdose: more college basketball.

The thing is, once you get a good look at College Hoops 2K7 for the PS3 (also on Xbox 360 and PS2), you'll gladly welcome a couple more hours of sneaker squeaks and student chants into your living room. In fact, the only challenge you might not be able to handle in 2K7 will be peeling yourself off the couch at the end of a particularly long march through a single elimination tourney.

College Hoops 2K7
College Hoops 2K7 :: 2K Sports
The leading college ball simulator stays strong this year, making sure to keep the structure from last year's build while improving through subtle upgrades. As usual, there's the Legacy mode that leaves no detail unturned -- including everything from your coaches facial features to the incoming recruits from your local area -- on an engaging ride from Midnight Madness to March Madness. If you're saddled with the short attention span of most hardcore gamers, then try out a Quick Game. College Hoops Classic mode lets you carry a team through 2K's annual tournament at Madison Square Garden, while Pontiac Tournament Mode tests your mettle in conference tourneys or the NCAA pool of 65.

No matter how you get onto the court, the game play and visuals in 2K7 stay ahead of the competition. All the big college arenas are in play, and the lights reflect off of the freshly lacquered courts from baseline to baseline. Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery are on hand to call the game -- though silly NCAA restrictions still mean they're not so much impressed with the play of Kevin Durant as they are with "#35". Greg Gumbel also pops up for a recap after each game.

The standard controls still let you run through your options on offense smoothly, though as was the problem in 2K's pro hoops game, for some reason the players practically crawl to a stop when you attempt to move them laterally. While purists will probably shriek in horror, the new dribble stick creates more creative forays through the paint. It's not quite NBA Street, but the new freedom allows you to mix it up during the course of a game. That being said, smaller guards and lesser known players can't pull off the spectacular maneuvers some of the bigger names can, so we suggest you do most of your dribble stick damage with the likes of "#35."

College Hoops 2K7
College Hoops 2K7 :: 2K Sports
A more team-related addition to this year's Hoops build revolves around the Unity Meter. The better the ball moves on offense, the better the shot for your team. The better the shot, the more baskets. As this trickle down effect builds, the intensity on defense picks up, and the team's Unity Meter grows. The higher the meter, the better the team plays, and the more likely you are to take off on a game-changing run. 2K7 also develops this idea from an individual perspective with the Player Confidence Meter, which helps negate the superstar effect by allowing even the least known players on the roster an opportunity to get hot with a couple consecutive jumpers. It takes patience to kick-start one of these rolls but the ensuing rally from an unlikely source adds to the game's unpredictability.

Continuing the sports gaming world's obsession with first-person perspectives, the bizarre Coach's View game option gets you an all access view from the sidelines…to watch the game. Sure, you can call a 2-3 zone or pick-n-roll, but the novelty wears off before the halftime buzzer sounds. Next time 2K wants to toy with a view from the court, they should give it a shot with the point guard.

Two new elements of the game leave some room for improvement. The Chant Creator is a little too vanilla for our tastes. Sure, you can channel your inner-frat boy by spelling out short, randy cheers, but how are we supposed to really heckle another team when the meanest phrase available is "Airball"? Props to the first couch potato who hacks into the foul language chants -- and don't be afraid to post your rant ideas in the comments section below.

The other new aspect of the game that remains in limbo lies in the free-throw shooting gimmick. Just like NBA 2K7, you shoot with the SIXAXIS controller by mimicking a free throw stroke. Pull back, then follow through, as if you're shooting a jumper. It's not so hard to sync up between your wrists and the player on the screen, but in College Hoops, free-throws aren't shot from a first person perspective. Mimicking a player's shot from a press box view doesn't have the same effect as NBA 2K7's first-person charity stripe simulation.

But the best part of this game has little to do with next-gen looks or controller flourishes. Just like in real college ball, 2K7 lives off of its emotion (and, of course, advertisers, but that's a bitter blog post for another time). The crowd in a rivalry game reaches a deafening roar before tip-off and rarely lets up. A chorus of "Thhhrrreee!" sets off every time you pull up form behind the arc, and as the above mentioned unity meter builds, so does your team's confidence, usually leading to an extended rally to put away your opponent. Pretty soon, the basket will be swallowing every shot you throw up and you'll be able to scan the HD crowd for fans flipping out in the student section. Yeah, the bells and whistles are nice, but it's the energy in 2K7 that separates the game from other hoops sims -- and makes sure you can get your fill of madness 12 months a year.

Ratings System (1 to 10)
Game Play: 8
It's easy to run an offense and fun to attack on defense, but until they fix the slow sideways running bug, we're not going to be completely satisfied.
Graphics: 9
Star player likeness are exhibited in everything from body type to hairstyles, while historic courts and rampant student sections appear pretty much as they do during conference tourney clashes on ESPN.
Replayability: 9
The ability to play every game in any tournament means you could continue to find new options with this game until Durant's ready for his NBA 2K8 cover shoot.
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Comments:

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Posted: 2:15 PM, March 24, 2007   by moegreen4
This game is unplayable because of the lay ups that are missed 90% of the time. Obviously, that is not realistic!!!
Posted: 10:31 PM, March 26, 2007   by Anonymous
One small correction: This game is also available for the original Xbox console, in addition to those mentioned in the review. Regardless, this is definitely the best college b-ball game on the market.
Posted: 2:45 AM, April 12, 2007   by Anonymous
The player names in the game are ridiculous. NBA 2K7 is better!!
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