Review: NCAA Football - A Worthy Recruit?
by Staff Writer
June 28, 2010
Overview
The one and only college football video game franchise has arrived for the iPhone. NCAA Football by EA gives you a mobile version of the 2011 NCAA Football for console arriving July 13th with Tim Tebow on the cover. There are two iPhone versions one for the 3GS and before, and an HD version for the iPhone 4.
Features
The game lets you play quick play, season mode, or multiplayer over bluetooth. NCAA football has a similar feature set and control system to Madden 10 for the iPhone. This means you have a similar playbook, stop action timing for special moves, draw hot routes, and more.
The Good
You can now play NCAA Football on the go. Now you can play with your favorite school or even create your own team. Once you start playing you’ll see that it’s similar to Madden 10 so if you liked that then you may consider this one.
The game offers quite a number of plays in a smooth playbook, and lets you call audibles and flip the play at the line of scrimmage. The same action buttons are included to quickly do a special running or defensive move. The same visuals, and sound qualities are included just with NCAA teams.
The Bad
There are tons of problems with NCAA Football beginning with the fact that it’s the same exact engine as Madden 10 with absolutely no improvements. Madden came out last September, and it was good, but had many problems. EA hasn’t fixed any of the problems, and has simply skinned the game with a NCAA football theme, and the game feels to have regressed in terms of quality.
It’s quite sad that after nine months with EA’s resources they could make no improvements. The graphics in Madden 10 aren’t the best on the iPhone, and there is definitely a ton of room to improve, but EA just gives you NCAA skins. The gameplay and sound show no improvements, and are actually worse this time around which is just mind boggling.
At the snap of every play in the game there is a slight stutter with all the action commencing. There never is any fast movement throughout a play, and it’s as you’re going frame by frame. With the action going so slow there isn’t really challenge as you can see every play progress so easily, but your movements are so slow it doesn’t result in any advantage.
The game lacks the gameplay mode the franchise is known for which is dynasty mode. In college football it’s all about recruiting, and maintaining dominance from season to season, and not simply one season. Even if you do play one season you’ll be disappointed as the schedule isn’t authentic, and just randomly generated. To make matters worse only 55 teams are included of the over 120 Division I schools, so hopefully you like one of the most popular schools.
The passing mechanic is just as simplistic, and frustrating where you simply tap when it’s green. Most of the time a pass play never has green, and despite a receiver being wide open the pass is usually way off target. Pass completions are few and far between, and the QB can never get rid of the ball in a hurry so if you even start to see a defender coming you’ll most likely be sacked.
That leaves a heavy emphasis on the running game which doesn’t fare much better. If you run up the middle chances are you’ll be tackled by an interior lineman who’s engaged in a block. If you run to the outside even with the accelerate button you’ll only make the corner a few times, and even if you do linemen will run you down.
When you’re on defense you don’t really need to do anything as the other 10 computer players can handle it, and they’ll even control your highlighted player if you don’t do anything. Of the four difficulty levels if you’re on the medium side or less the opponent’s offense is terrible, and if you’re any higher they won’t miss a pass. If you’re on medium or lower on offense even with the bad gameplay mechanics it’s too easy to score, but any higher difficulty, and you will be stopped.
The virtual stick isn’t as free flowing as it was in Madden, but that may because you’re changing direction, but the video is stuttering along so your input is too quick for the on screen action. Like Madden 10 the game still lacks instant replays though we’ve seen them in Fifa 10, so EA is plenty capable. A play clock still isn’t included so you can take as long as you want to chose a play.
The included commentators are from College Gameday meaning you get Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit though at most they have three to five quotes each. The quotes aren’t even played correctly with completed passes called incomplete, and sayings of needing a big play to pick up third down after the play is already completed.
The Verdict
NCAA Football on the iPhone is an embarrassment to the franchise in every respect. It is one game that is way more frustrating than fun, and this isn’t worth wasting your time no matter the price. There really is no smooth aspect of this game, and it’s sure to disappoint even the most diehard college football fan.
For $6.99 on the 3GS or 3G or $7.99 on the iPhone 4 this is one of the biggest rip offs in the App Store that every idevice owner should stay away from.
