NCAA Football 09

In its first two seasons on Xbox 360, the NCAA series struggled a bit. EA always made sure that the beating heart of the franchise — Dynasty mode — was done right, so that kept us playing despite some… well, some B.S. But this year, the football fiends at EA Tiburon took Dynasty to stratospheric new heights and applied some much-needed polish elsewhere in the game.

The downer of Dynasty mode has always been that it’s a solitary, hardcore pursuit to manage a recruiting pool of thousands and build your college from dud to stud over decades. NCAA 09 poleaxes both of those weaknesses, primarily with the awesome new Online Dynasty mode. Twelve players can pick schools and compete for recruits over Xbox Live for 60 seasons. When player-controlled teams have a scheduled match, you’ll arrange to meet up online, and a commissioner controls the Dynasty, kicking out absentee players or merely setting them to autopilot until they return. If you’re not feeling the love, you can save an offline copy of the Dynasty and continue solo whenever you want. It all worked beautifully in our testing, as did the optional new CPU assists that help less-hardcore players manage the many intricacies of recruiting. Brilliant stuff, plain and simple.

Campus Legend mode, however, remains forgettable and weak. Almost unchanged from last year, it still starts you as a high-school star striving for the Heisman. You’re still mired in the tedium of an unrewarding series of practices, homework, and playing at a single position. We wish EA had cut it instead of letting it wallow in this mediocrity.

Fortunately, the new “college atmosphere” touches fare much better. When your quarterback’s composure crumbles, passing routes and icons get jumbled, and you have to correctly answer a quiz about what formation the defense used on the last play to get rid of the jitters. Between that, the cheerleaders, and the riot of school colors worn by the fans crowding into every seat in the stands, the game really gets your “Go Team!” going.

But what we appreciate most are all the small but massively noticeable improvements. Quarterbacks lead out receivers with passes much more effectively and realistically, and there’s much less of a “pro” feel — mistakes are made that open up holes in coverage for you to exploit. Tighter, more responsive controls enhance gameplay across the board, and even the bigger playbooks are easier to manage with new options that let you look for plays by type (shotgun pass, short run, clock management, etc.), rather than just formation. Players can now upload and download one another’s rosters, and even the stadium lighting is noticeably prettier.

So although we’re definitely impressed with NCAA, we have to say that if you’re looking to play one great football game this year, it’s gotta be Madden 09 (reviewed in the September 2008 issue of OXM). NCAA doesn’t match its big brother’s dazzling upgrades in graphics and features, but it’s no slouch, and if you’re a college fan at heart, you can kiss the rest of your summer goodbye and go bury yourself in an online dynasty.