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NCAA Basketball 09’s strategic gameplay features challenge gamers to replicate their school’s style of play, set the tempo and win. Whether your school plays up tempo looking to push the ball in transition, runs a half-court offense that utilizes the clock and limits possessions or features a balanced attack that combines transition offense with set plays, NCAA Basketball 09 rewards the strategic gamer and emphasizes team specific styles of play. The game features Division I coaches in-game for the first time. Each coach will provide real time instruction and feedback, helping gamers control the tempo by executing their team’s offense and defense to perfection.

This year on Xbox 360, NCAA Basketball 09 operates on a gameplay engine with over 1,000 new animation sequences that deliver a more responsive experience with improved ball physics and more intelligent AI. The animation system enables gamers to apply pressure defense with full-court presses and traps. Plus, improved AI and animations enable quicker players to get up and down the floor faster and make better decisions running the lanes and driving to the rim. Animations can be interrupted at any time, enabling you to read and respond to the action on the floor, just like real life.

Genre: Sports

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Canada

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November 17, 2008 –
When people think about mid-November sports, college basketball is likely far from their minds. After all, the collegiate season really doesn’t heat up until next year when March gets a bit closer. Still, that never stops EA Sports from putting out their perennial collegiate basketball game to coincide with the beginning of the college schedule. This is the first time in more than ten years that the title of the game doesn’t include “March Madness” but that doesn’t stop the game from feeling very familiar.

Part of that is because NCAA Basketball 09 is built on the same game engine as NBA Live; a first for the series. It’s a good thing too as that helped the game to quicken its pace from the slow and prodding speed of March Madness 08. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty to improve about NCAA Basketball 09, but the series is finally beginning to hit its stride in some of the core areas of the sport.

The first, and most evident for me, improvement is the fast break. Players do a much better job of recognizing when their momentum needs to carry through a catch animation and no longer break stride as has been the case in the past. There’s also better range when using the lay-up button close to the basket. You’ll now see a wider variety of shot animations, most of which were clearly pulled straight from NBA Live 09. The gameplay incorporates other NBA Live nuances (like the overly dominant pick-and-roll control) but also tries its best to not forget its college roots.

It’s just a shame that the features focused around the authenticity of the college game don’t exactly hit their mark. There are two that impact gameplay: tempo and coach interaction. There are three types of tempo that are applied to every team in the game: up-tempo, balanced and half-court. If you successfully keep the tempo of the game within your desired range then your players get an attribute boost. Their shots start to fall a bit easier, passes are crisper, and other aspects of the game fall into place if you play your game. Tempo is displayed through a meter that pops up on the screen, so you’re constantly reminded of how to adjust your game.

I found that the up-tempo play style was the most conducive to my skills. The tempo meter did a decent job of making its adjustments slight enough so one slow possession wouldn’t kill my bonus entirely. There are also coaching tips that are displayed in a picture-in-picture box at the start of nearly every possession. Between that and the meter, there’s never a question of how you adjust your speed of play. It can be frustrating to watch your attribute bonus fade at the end of the game, when the pace of the game is inherently slower. These frustrations were exacerbated when grappling for a lead during the last few minutes of a game. Of course it’s going to be slower, yet my coach was still yelling at me to push the ball even when it didn’t make sense to do so. Likewise, when playing with a huge lead your coach won’t stop yelling to adjust your pace.

The coaching options go a bit deeper and now give players the ability to designate three points of focus for a game. There are no bonuses tied to following the guidelines, but more often than not if you follow through on your goals, you’ll get the win.

You’d be hard-pressed to find any other additions to the standard gameplay formula. Crowds look better and deliver a more authentic feel, but by the time you hear them chant “warm up the buses” for the last two minutes of a game for the hundredth time, it starts to wear thin. There’s nothing resembling NBA Live’s DNA system, nor is there five-on-five online play. Heck, you can’t even easily make substitution changes. Typically there are packages like “starters” or “three-point shooters” that you can select during a timeout, but NCAA Basketball 09 has none of it. Instead you have to swap out players individually without knowing who your starters are. You can pause the game and find starters the long way, but where’s the fun in that?

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