NCAA Football 09 All-Play
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NCAA Football 09 All-Play
Mascots are cool but...
NCAA and Wii fans can rejoice! EA has finally launched the NCAA Football Franchise on the Nintendo Wii. By introducing the brand new All-Play feature EA is attempting to reach the Wii market of casual gamers but is there enough to keep the serious players and fans interested? Here’s is our review for NCAA Football 09 All-Play!
EA has introduced the brand All-Play on the Wii for all their sports games in order to bring casual and newcomers a new and original way to experience sports games on Nintendo’s console and NCAA Football 09 is the first one to show what this new feature is all about. These All-Play controls are based on simple shakes of the Wii Remote. Moving the Wii Remote at the correct time performs all of your main actions, like snapping the ball, tackling, evading defenders, kicking and or course passing. If you disconnect the Nunchuk, the CPU controls your player’s movement for you, giving you the freedom to do the rest by flicking the Wii Remote. Of course, seasoned Wii football players who want additional controls of their players will have the option to use the Nunchuk in conjunction with the Wii Remote. All-Play settings are also available in the game. These set-ups are of course targeted for the beginner audience. With these settings activated, you won’t have to worry about penalties or play clocks which can really help beginners learn how to play the game. Turning on gameplay assists in NCAA Football 09 invokes a feature called “Even Teams.” So even if you play with an underachieving team, the game evens up the teams so the skill level won’t affect the game and you can beat an advanced team. Of course, you will understand that playing a football game solely with a Wii Remote isn’t going to bring you 100% accuracy. NCAA 09 All-Play controls on the Wii aren’t perfect but I strongly believe that it could continue to evolve especially if EA decides to fully support the MotionPlus add-on. It can make things very interesting. If it works for a frisbee (Wii Sports Resort), it could surely work for a pigskin! As you can see, everything in NCAA Football 09 can be simplified to the basics making the game a fun experience for everyone and we can expect a similar approach with Madden NFL 09 All-Play (we haven’t played it yet…d-oh!).
The Mii’s really scares the crap of out of us...thank god they didn’t showed up
You might think that the All-Play mode diminishes the game, but surprisingly – it doesn’t. Sadly, NCAA Football 09 All-Play does suffer a lot. Why? Because the game has several features missing that you’d expect in a football title…and I’m left wondering why. Options and modes like multiplayer mini-games (a Wii game without mini-games? Someone please pinch me!), online play, team/player creation and Campus Legend are nowhere to be found while the Dynasty Mode isn’t as complete as we would have wished for. Remember when Madden NFL 06 was first presented on next-gen consoles? People complained (and I was one of them) when EA took almost everything out of the game in order to re-incorporate each mode one by one gradually in the following versions of the game? Well, I have this feeling of déjà-vu. It seems like because they’re introducing the NCAA franchise to Wii, the game has to be kept to a bare minimum just to keep people waiting for more in the next versions. Personally, I think it’s a bit insulting. But if EA Tiburon can promise me that the next year’s NCAA football game on the Wii will be vastly improved with all the bells and whistles...I will forgive them and write an apology to them. If it’s not happening, I don’t see the point of bringing NCAA to the Wii no more.
At least the game has a cute Mascot Game mode, which is clever and fun, but it doesn’t vindicate the missing modes that makes it a real football game.
Don’t blame me...I’m just a mascot!
Graphics & Sounds
I’ve said in the past that Wii games need to be looked differently than its counterparts since it’s known that the console can’t render graphics built for next-gen. So yes, the Wii isn’t the best machine for breathtaking graphics - but I don’t understand why the visual quality of NCAA 09 is inferior to past EA football games on the Wii. Once again, it would be unfair to compare it to the PS3 or Xbox 360 version, it would be like comparing apples to oranges. However, it’s unexcusable to see this game looks inferior to Madden 08 Wii... Hence, NCAA Football 09 All-Play looks okay but not better from what we’ve seen before.
As for sounds, from the commentary to the stadium fans cheering, the whole sound experience of NCAA Football 09 is good but doesn’t call for huge celebrations. Cool thing though: the fact that you can hear some chatter coming out of the Wii controller telling you where to look or hearing a teammate telling you “I’m open”, adds something special to the game thanks to the new All-Play feature.
Value
It’s hard to determine how high the value of this game is. Of course, any football fan will tell you that if the game lacks various modes in the game, it’s not worth it. But let’s put it this way: you have a son or daughter who wants to play a football game because they see their daddy or mommy play but playing on a PS3 or XB360 is too overwhelming. Presenting this game to them might be a good thing. But if you have a teenager who needs more than mascots...well maybe this isn’t the game for them.
Conclusion
NCAA Football’s first entry on the Wii isn’t bad but it’s not a great either. Of course, the game has lots of missing aspects but since the target market of this game isn’t the same as the PS3 or XB360 versions, we can understand EA’s strategy. Since this is the first NCAA game on the console, I see NCAA Football 09 as a hors d’oeuvre to future iterations that the franchise will evolve into. I trust EA on this one…but I don’t wait too long.
Pros
- All Play mode is really fun, it’s anice way to introduce football to the younglins and newcomers.
- Commentary and sounds are okay
- Mascots! Weeee!
Cons
- All Play controls are a bit unresponsive at times
- Graphics are inferior from what we’ve seen with Madden 08 Wii
- No mini-games (a Wii game without mini-games?)
- More than half of the usual NCAA modes are missing
- Replay value is questionable
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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