March into your video game dealer and return this Playstation folly

To those who do not happen to play for the Wildcat men's basketball team but have always wanted to, now you can - or at least, that's what Electronic Arts would have you believe.

March Madness 2002 is the latest offering in EA's line of sport games for the Playstation 2. As the name would imply, it is all about college basketball. There are 138 teams to choose from in 11 conferences, plus players have the ability to create school teams of your own choosing. So, if you would like to create, say, the Green Valley University Fogies, complete with pink and beige uniforms, you can do so.

Beyond that, however, the options are sorely lacking.

You can choose the "Play Now" option, which is a quick, one-shot game, best for multiplayer skirmishes, or the "Tournament" option, in which you or a friend select teams and play through an NCAA tournament. There's no option to play a team through the season leading up to the tournament, or a kind of "dynasty" mode where you can play the same team throughout several seasons.

The graphics are nothing to write home about. The players look nicely rendered, but there is some jerkiness to their movement. Plus, in some of the close-up shots, they look "shiny," as if someone ran them over with a floor buffer.

Also, I'm not quite sure, but Lute Olson doesn't strike me as being a short, balding Hispanic man as he is shown to be in this game. The McKale Center in the game kind of looks like the real thing, if you squint through a plate of warm Jell-O. Arizona is not the only college to lack an attention to detail - every team and stadium feels like they were rushed to be included in the game.

The audio does its job without being intrusive. The crowd gets excited if the home team does well, disappointed if the team doesn't. The announcer's voice is under-stimulating, but he is not someone who makes you want to kick your television after listening to him throughout a whole game. Plus, each team has its own fight song. Wow.

It seems the only real highlight of this game is the small learning curve. Within half an hour, anyone can be doing assists, alley-oops and fade-aways with the rest of the jocular elite. There's also a "Momentum Meter" which keeps track of how much of a roll your team is on. When the meter reaches a certain point, all the players' stats on the team go up.

Overall, March Madness 2002 is a game that is much like ordering milk and cookies and only getting half a cookie with some milk, leaving you asking "Is that it?"