AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
NCAA March Madness 08 is the video game-ification of the annual college basketball season. Facing competition from 2K Sport's College Hoops, the college games are just heating up.

What's Hot
This college season, March Madness 08 looks hot. The graphics are visually superior to that found in College Hoops 2k8. There are more details on the players and the mascots are just as goofy looking in HD as they are in real life. The presentation of the menus is clean and easy to navigate.

March Madness 08 has a different style than its direct competition. You'll get the sensation that March Madness 08 is more of an "arcade" basketball game. It is not outrageous like NBA Jam, but is not as simulation heavy like College Hoops. Impact moments fall under this category as you have more interaction with the crowd, which is part of the college basketball experience.

Online modes and the ESPN integration gives March Madness 08 a lot of value added. Starting your own season then catching up on on-demand ESPN casts is an awesome feature to have. It gives you a 360 degree experience in the world of college sports. Setting up your own tournaments is a blast as you clamor for the top spot. With all this info at your finger tips, you might be a juggernaut come office pool time.

What's Not
When you play your first match, you'll notice that the gameplay isn't tight and agile like a basketball game should be. The 360 version feels like a tighter game but passing is clumsy as is man-to-man coverage. After a year of being in the weeds, the basketball franchises EA has are getting better.

While the graphics are better than College Hoops, the animation are not. The crowd's movements are canned and repeat often. The announcers will make similar comments and sometimes won't capture the moment like they should (it only happened once or twice).

At this point, it feels like they are playing catch up with the developers at 2K Sports. While they are getting there, March Madness just doesn't feel like a college all-star.


Final Word
This is a classic example of graphics look better but the gameplay isn't as compelling as the competition. March Madness 08 is much better than its NBA cousin and the ESPN and online integration is more than enough reason to keep playing. In a shoot out between College Hoops and March Madness, College Hoops edges out March Madness with more refined gameplay and between the versions, the Xbox 360 version is superior to the PS3 version.