NCAA March Madness 08

It's all quite confusing, too, considering that NCAA 08's big brother NBA Live 08 was so darned good this year. While we weren't expecting to get that exact game splashed with a coat of collegiate paint, it probably would've made us much happier than what we did wind up with.

For every nifty feature introduced - and believe us, there isn't a whole lot new happening this season - there are two aggravations we can point out. Sure, the low post game is improved (if you can figure out the ungainly controls to make that work), but steals happen far too often and distributing the rock is an exercise in crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Granted, icon-based passing exists, although we guarantee that you'll accidentally alley-oop the ball to no one except the spectator in the front row plenty of times, since the same button controls both features. Frustration, thy name is the right bumper.

To be fair, we were happy with a few things, most notably the improved online options and an awesome selection of classic teams. It's always fun playing as Bird, Magic, Jordan, Walton and Kareem (or Lew, if you prefer) in their short shorts. However, no matter what we jumped into, our overlying frustration at the gameplay stifled any momentary buzz.