NCAA Football 2006 Review

Publisher: EA Sports

Reviewer: Gregorythompson

Let me just clear the air right now: I have never been a fan of EA sports games. I found the controls heavy and production rushed, giving the game an amateur look. But after renting NCAA Football 2006 for the PS2, I decided that I would buy it. And I bought the game the same day I returned the rental.

New Feature: Heisman Mode

New to NCAA Football 2006 is the Heisman Mode. When you start the game, you create a player who’s fresh out of high school, give him a position, run some drills to give him some initial stats and subject him to four years of college football in hopes that he becomes the next Heisman winner at the end of each year. This mode plays out like an RPG. You’ll get trophies (as long as you win games), fan-mail, and even a girlfriend. Of course, much like it is in college football, the better you do, the better looking girlfriend you get. Just look at Brett Favre and Tom Brady. This mode is fun to play, but the numbers can get a little skewed because most people will have a tendency to focus on their players, like making your QB pad a game with more points if you’re way ahead or making more passes to your wide receiver candidate.

Dynasty Mode

Of course, the meat of any sports game is Dynasty Mode. NCAA Football 2006 pretty much has your standard mode with a couple additions. Mid-season recruiting allows you to get some good high school players before the actual process begins. This gives you more options while you play, but you have to target any player you want at the beginning of the season. For example, I was watching a couple of rising stars and suddenly they fell off my list and I wasn’t able to add any more.

Gameplay

The best part of this year’s version of NCAA Football is the gameplay. I’ve always been critical of the passing game in EA’s football games. You either had to run the ball or throw short 3-yard outs. That gets boring after a while, like watching John Madden eat a hundred hot dogs. I’m glad to say that while the passing game isn’t superb, it is more balanced. The defensive backs act more realistically when covering a pass and receivers perform to their true catching stats and don’t drop the ball 9 times out of 10.

If you don’t have the skills, you can play one of the mini-games to improve. There are four “Spring Drills” you can play: a passing drill, a running drill, a defense drill, and an options practice. The best thing I found to improve my skill is the passing drill. You get to throw against coverage, but no defensive line. Peyton Manning plays like this every game.

One cool, but mostly useless addition, in my opinion, is the Impact Player. At certain times during the game a player develops a white circle under them. This is your “go-to” guy or your “money player”. He wants the ball and if you give it to him, he'll play that down much better then he would have normally. For example, he will go for a 1st down when it’s 3rd and long, or catch the hail mary. You never know when a player will get that white circle; it happened to me at weird times when I didn’t need a critical down or play. When it’s 1st and 9 and I’m ahead by 14, do I really need my running back hauling butt 70 yards for a touchdown? This little feature just wasn’t practical, but it was fun to see what my guys could do.

Graphics

The graphics have only slightly improved. If you’ve played last year’s version, then you’ll recognize the look of this year. There are more animations and a cheesy pre-game show, so don’t think this game will visually impress you. I expected twitchy graphics and the “player-on-greenscreen” effect (where it looks like they were filmed on a stadium background) and that’s what I got.

Audio

The sound is typical of any football game. Grunts, pain, and trash-talking all sound like, well, grunts, pain, and trash-talking. It’s in sync with gameplay so no complaints there. The music is stadium hip-hop and rock, though sometimes the two are meshed together, which makes no sense. Who plays a game for the echoing music anyway?

NCAA Football 2006 Summary

I recommend this game for any football fan, especially college football. The passing and running games are finally balanced and the Heisman mode is a great, fun addition to the series. Get going on the Spring Drills because if you play me, you might be playing a Heisman winner.