Shall we Dance? EA Sports marches on in 'Madness '98'

The NCAA Tournament may start today, but March Madness started two weeks ago. EA Sports is at it again, this time re-entering the college basketball arena with "March Madness '98."

Most avid gamers remember - and some still play - "Coach K" for the Sega Genesis. "Coach K" left us drooling for more and the dawn of the newer systems heightened that anticipation. Well, EA Sports has finally thrown college basketball dogs a big fat bone in "March Madness '98".

EA has jam-packed this CD with quite a few hype features. The most prominent of these is the addition of the 'Momentum Meter' to the game. Making baskets raises the meter and the stats of your team. Allow your opponent to go on a run, and you'll have to nail a three or call a timeout to calm things down.

EA Sports' trademark "T-Bar" interface for free throws has been replaced with a new, innovative method. A randomly moving basketball now has to be centered over the rim, and accurately stop a distance marker from moving. Not an easy task with Brickhands O'Neal, since the ball fights against you depending on the players' stats.

The game also keeps a graph of score versus time to see how the game transpired. One button allows players to set picks or take a charge - and it works very well. The players often take an in-your-face approach to dunking the ball, cramming it down into an opposing player or two under the rim. A mammoth dunk might even send shards of what used to be the backboard careening through the air.

During the season, two polls track your progress - the CBS Sportsline Poll and the EA Sports Poll. Updated daily, the polls let you know exactly where you stand, but they hardly ever agree - a familiar occurence to Michigan fans. EA attempted to recreate most of the actual college court floors, but some are a bit inaccurate. For instance, Crisler Arena's hardwood looks 10,000 times better on the game than at Crisler.

The game has 107 men's teams, representing most of the major conferences. The most noticeable omission is the Midwestern Athletic Conference - sorry EMU fans. As a video game first, EA has included nine of the top women's teams into the mix. The women's teams are only available for exhibition play against the other female squads, so squash any ideas of taking the Lady Tarheels into battle with their male counterparts.

On the negative side of things, a few standards apparent in other games are missing. The game has no player of the game award and no season statistical leaders tracker. There is no way to add or remove other people during the game. Goaltending is called too frequently and sometimes the ball moves too fast to keep up. The graphics are decent, but the players are small. Very infrequently, a foul will be called, but play won't stop. Finally, the commentator is silent for the majority of the game - odd after the recent boom in colorful commentary in sports games.

Placing all the features aside for a moment, the most impressive part of the game is the artificial intelligence -an aspect normally placed on the back burner in sports games. The computer-controlled players actually make smart decisions on the court and as an extra special bonus, play tough defense! Your computer teammates will make sweet cuts to the basket in anticipation of a pass, and you may find yourself in awe too long to dump the ball off in time.

In addition to the great AI, the control is very tight and turns breaking ankles (in lay terms, faking someone out) into a breeze. Of course, you can always pull up and make the open 16-footer - usually not a good idea in most basketball games. But, hey, unlike the players in those games, these guys and gals actually have talent, so go for it!

Something else that keeps the game from going stale is that at any point in time, even the worst team can give you a run for your money. EA has captured the spirit of college basketball very well in that aspect. It isn't uncommon to be up by 20 midway through the first half, only to watch the game become a nailbiter in the waning seconds. And for once, it doesn't seem as though the computer is 'cheating' - it just battles its way back into the game, bit by bit. On the other hand, if you find yourself in a deep hole, hang in there and you just may bite, kick and scratch your way to the lead.

EA Sports deserves quite a bit of credit for this gem. Applause as well for not making "March Madness" be an "NBA Live '98" clone with college jerseys. "March Madness '98" will certainly keep players hooping it up until '99.

- Deveron Q. Sanders

03-13-98