One of the biggest faults I found from the previous years of the
March Madness series was the lack of team offense. Much of it was all based on one-on-one moves. This year, you are really forced into running set plays, along with going one-on-five if necessary. The point is: you have options around you. And you can build your team around the offense you want. Whether you're a perimeter type of coach, or you want to bang it inside, you'll be able to do it all. The great thing is you don't have to go in for a dunk each possession. Players can knock it down from all sides of the court. Don't worry, Phi Slamma Jamma still rules the roost, but again: you have options.
There's an endless amount of game modes to play around with in March Madness 2004. First off, you can create your own school or player, which is always great if you want to upgrade your D3 school to Division One status like me. Once you've finalized all of that, play through an Exhibition game, either in a regular fashion, Rivalry match-up, or in a Mascot game. Believe you me, there's nothing funnier than watching mascots pull off high flying dunks. I recommend being Syracuse, those fat oranges are the best! There's also Online play, only for PS2, which I'll discuss later. You can also set up a Tournament for you and your friends, selecting which teams make the final 64. Plus, there's a Season mode, although who wants to play just one year? That's where the Dynasty mode comes into play. Take your school through 30 years of college basketball drama, recruiting the top prospects from around the country. Of course, I had some pros and cons from this mode.
First, the pros. Throughout the season, you can check stats, records and awards through the Sporting News magazine (much like the Sports Illustrated in NCAA Football 2004). Also, as you progress during the year, you'll earn points for accomplishing certain tests. With those points, you can upgrade either your team or an individual player. This is great if your shooting guard hasn't quite perfected his three-point shot. Now for the cons.
When you're recruiting in the offseason, you have to pitch one of four reasons to attend your school (again, like EA's football counterpart). However, when you check back the following week to see his status, it doesn't tell you why he is or isn't interested. The other little thing I got peeved about was the ranking system. I was undefeated after a few weeks, and so finally I was ranked number one in the country. After keeping my undefeated status going, I was dropped down to ninth the next week. This doesn't happen in real college basketball, and it shouldn't happen here either.
