March Madness 07 certainly lives up to its name because this “madness” resembles bipolar disorder. The game is at once a lot of fun to play and a frustrating experience. You’ll be exposed to this dual personality right from the beginning. On the one hand the game lets you shoot baskets while it’s loading which is awesome. No more passive load screens (well, after the initial one when you start the game) that force you to just sit and stare – just practice some shooting and the next thing you know the game will be ready to go. Very cool. Now for the flipside – the game uses the same new menu system that’s been added to all of EA’s next-gen sports titles and this menu system should really be scrapped and the game’s interface redesigned. It can be pretty frustrating trying to navigate your way through these pop-up menus that seem to do a good job of hiding the options that you need to access the most. Even worse, it seems that you can navigate your way down to screens that you can’t exit or that you’ll pull your hair out trying to figure out how to leave. Worst of all, even with autosave enabled every time you back out of a screen, mode, or game you’ll be warned that exiting may lose unsaved information. The problem is that you never know what’s been saved and when. I played three games into the NCAA Tournament (which, BTW, makes it hard as heck to reach the bracket screen and when you do you can only view one game at a time) finished the third game, had a look at the schedule, and exited the mode. So did autosave bother to save anything? No! Furthermore, it’s pretty darn impossible to find the right option to force the save yourself. These interface issues knock the game’s rating down a few pegs because they will have you frustrated and at least slightly peeved before you even hit the hardwood. I really hope that EA Sports’ 08 teams are working a complete overhaul of their sports games’ menu systems and interfaces.

OK, enough about my frustrations with the interface, let’s look at the game itself. You can jump right in and play a single game with a match-up of your choosing or run your favorite team in the dynasty mode or take them through the brackets of the NCAA tournament. The game is missing a single season mode which is a big omission because many gamers will want to take their favorite school through the current season’s schedule without worrying about things like recruiting. Unfortunately the team schedule in dynasty mode doesn’t match up with the real 2006-2007 team schedules, so you can’t even play the first season of the dynasty mode as a substitute for the missing season mode.

The dynasty mode does give the player that likes to get his or hands into everything a lot to do, from setting the team’s schedule to recruiting players and trying to keep the current ones from turning pro early. All of these activities are pretty standard for a sports game’s dynasty mode, but NCAA March Madness 07 adds campus upgrades that can be achieved by meeting goals set by the school’s alumni such as winning the season opener. When you accomplish a goal you’ll be able to add your campus facilities to give your team a boost in one area or another. A bigger band will boost their intensity in games while a bigger weight room will improve their conditioning.

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