Without a doubt, college basketball brings a great deal of excitement to many people year after year.  The elevated sense of school spirit and pride is most obvious during the infamous March Madness period.  At this time the best teams in the country come together, bringing everything they have to offer in attempt to get to the final four and ultimately, fight for the NCAA championship title.  989 Sports has recently released NCAA Final Four 2002, which is their second college ball release for the PS2.  With this release they've tried to step it up a notch and capture as much of the excitement as possible, but they haven't been completely successful in doing so.

An impressive introduction video, complete with both real and animated sequences gets the game rolling nicely, but once the actual gameplay is experienced, a sense of disappointment sets in.  Being the second version of NCAA Final Four, most people would expect that it would be polished quite nicely and be able to hold its own against other basketball games, but such is not the case.  There are some noticeable flaws while playing and there's no one aspect of the gameplay that really stands out as being extremely impressive.  Instead, all elements seem to be just mediocre.   An example of a problem found in the game is when the backboard suddenly disappears and a player awkwardly dunks into open space.  That can't be good!  The AI in the game (or lack thereof) is horrible and the result is players that run into each other and even get stuck on one another and running in place from time to time.

While the game may not be remotely close to perfect, it does have some cool features to offer.  Icon passing allows you to accurately pass to any teammate on the court by pressing their corresponding button (after holding L2 to bring up their icons).  Similarly, you can utilize icon cutting and screening; both allow you to control your teammates and open up opportunities for making great plays.  Speaking of which, you have the ability to call both offensive and defensive plays on the fly, something that can result in some serious points.

Despite the game's assortment of advanced controls, a major problem is the inability to move the players around the court in a realistic manner, as they seem to be too stiff and constrained in almost all situations.  This is especially true when in the offensive zone and being guarded closely.  At this time it's almost impossible to move smoothly, since the players seem to be practically bound together.  It just feels too much like an old arcade game for my taste and there's no sense of nostalgia to go along with it.  This is also apparent in the free throw system, which allows you to choose both the vertical and horizontal position of the shot with ease.  On the other hand, the advanced free throw mode is clumsy and no fun.  A meter is also offered for every shot taken and as a result, three-pointers can be sunk without even breaking a sweat.  Dunking isn't as fun as it could be since such shots aren't can't be easily controlled or planned very well.

Gamers are presented with the usual types of game choices, which are: exhibition, arcade, season, dynasty, career, and tournament.  Most of these modes offer a surprising amount of customization and additionally, players can be created or recruited as incoming freshman, which is possible in dynasty mode when multiple seasons are played.  The recruiting process if actually very extensive and detailed, as it puts you in the shoes of the coach, assistant coach or graduate assistant; a feature that is quite unique.  In season mode you have the ability to start off as a rookie coach at a small school and work your way up to coaching the best teams in the nation.  That is, if you're able to maintain a good record.  Arcade mode proves to be the most entertaining of the choices, as it offers fast-paced gameplay with virtually no stoppages in play.

Up to this point in time, it has been obvious that the majority of the effort making basketball games has been focused on the NBA arena.  As a result, pro basketball games always seem to be of greater quality than college games and 989 Sports has done nothing to change this tradition, but has instead widened the gap.  The gameplay could be a lot more realistic and many game elements could be tweaked to alleviate some of the flaws in the game.

This game is rated "E" for everyone and it takes up 108-303KB on your PS2 memory card.

Gameplay: 5.5
The unrealistic player movements and lack of AI make this one disappointing.

Graphics: 6.5
Graphically, NCAA Final Four 2002 could use some fixing up in a few areas.  While the ball, backboard/hoop, and court are pleasing to the eye, the somewhat shaky player animations and the cheesy-looking crowd don't look so good.  Frame-rate slowdowns are noticeable at times, but aren't too excessive that they completely hinder gameplay.  The light reflections as well as the shadows in the game do look good and are accurate.  Oh, and we do like the cheerleaders too, especially when the do their dances during timeouts.

Sound: 6
The sound effects in NCAA Final Four 2002 aren't anything to write home about, as they are quite basic.  Included are the obvious crowd noises, shoes squeaking on the floor, etc.  The play-by-play announcers don't say too much, but what they do say is usually accurate and not delayed.  Don't expect any insightful commentary as it is almost nonexistent.

Difficulty: 6
There are four different difficulty settings: freshman, sophomore, junior and senior.  The only major difference between these modes if that the shot meter must be more precisely used and therefore it's harder to sink baskets at higher difficulty levels.

Concept: 6
989 Sports hasn't presented us with a very innovative college ball game.  Nothing new here...

Multiplayer: 6.5
Up to 8 players can join in with two PS2 multi-taps and additional (intelligent) players definitely make this game more entertaining.

Overall: 6.1