ESPN College Hoops brings to life each risky steal, well-timed block and buzzer-beating shot of the best college basketball games. All the tradition, pageantry, pride that defines college ball is here! Exciting Rivalry Mode lets you settle the biggest rivalries in college ball -- play Duke vs. North Carolina, Arizona vs. UCLA, Kansas vs. Missouri and many more

ESRB Rating: Rated E for Everyone

3/4Hx5-1/2Wx5L"; 0.4 lb.

Average Customer Review: ( 18 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

To start off, there are plenty of modes available for play and you'll find yourself playing every one of them. Head to Head mode is great when you want to show off your moves against a friend or perhaps an enemy for that matter. There are slame dunk competitions where the player and pick a player from either team and play against a friend or the computer in a horse type format. There is even an Air Hockey game located in the "Campus Union of the select game screen. Many wonder what that is doing in a college basketball game but trust me it is a fun and nice break from atempting to capture a national title. I myself have played it many times simply for the enjoyment and uniqueness of it.

There are also many things available when you earn profile points. You can unlock many things such as classic teams, mascots, and pro courts. While these are not major things to get excited about, it is nice too remember the little things to play for.

While all of the little things make the game good, the dynasty mode makes the game great. You will start off as a coach at a small school like Maine or High point all the while winning games in hope to get noticed by a big school. However, Before you start your coaching career, you must first hire assistant coaches. Chances are that you will not get the best ones because you are coaching for a small school with an unestablished program. Your AD will provide you with goals to reach by the end of the season such as win half of your games or to win the conference tournament. As you advance to better schools your goals will get higher like win the national championship. Failure to reach these goals could result in you sitting at the unemployment office by seasons end. All in all, very realistic. However if you do achieve these goals, more prestigious schools may take notice and offer you a job leaving you with the decision to leave or stick with the school that gave you your chance and try to when them a national championship.

Recruiting is also a very deep feature to this game the e-mail controls allow you to send your assistant coaches to a high schoolers game if you like their numbers you may attempt to invite them to a home game if their interest level is high then they'll accept, id it is low then they will not come. Keep in mind you are trying to build a winning program and that doesn't happen overnight so try and get players to attend who are interested not necessarily the best. While recruiting you can take time to check out the trophy room to see your achievements or past achievements. As yoou can see it's this freedom and number of things to do that make this the best dynasty in basketball.

The arenas look detailed no matter what school you go to. Not just the floor either. It looks as if you are in the arena from the seating arrangement to the ceiling it's all here you'll feel right at "home" it whatever arena you choose.

Game play is great with great AI. For example, if you're playing Duke and you're a team like High Point you'll most likely get beat. This makes upsets all the more special because how well a team plays usually depends on how good the team is. Many people complain about your post players not always dunking it while you're under the hoop but realistically how many post players in college basketball dunk the ball when they're directly under the hoop? My point exactly.

Announcing is pretty solid with lots of situational talk which is good. Like all announcing it tends to get a little repetitive after a while but that's normal. The ESPN license gives the game a "Big Monday" type feeling.

In conclusion this game makes every other college basketball game on the market look like child's play. With all the things listed above and the great depth in this game, this title will keep true college basketball fans playing well into March and beyond.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

College Hoops at it's BestFeb 29, 2004
By Charles S. Allen Jr.
This game has the potential of being the best college basketball game ever. Years before college hoop games have been mediocre at best. This is a fresh change in what will hopefully be a better future for college basketball fans.

Graphically this game is beautiful. The players move fluidly and the action is fast paced. You can adjust the speed of the game in the options. Cut scenes of the audience, band, cheerleaders, and the players when they do something spectactular are a nice touch but get annoying after halftime. Cut scenes could have been restricted to the players to keep pace with the game. Also from the floor the crowd is nothing more than a blurb, with no real individual movements. The benches however are active and react to the game.

The gameplay is dead on. Player reaction to controller movements are precise. Almost to good at times. Posting never really allows you to back down but does give you a quick spin or reverse spin to throw your opponent off. The iso motion works ok. Only your better ballhandlers will use it sucessfully though. Defenders also play smart, switching on picks going for steals in between passes and accomodating for the type of offense you play makes for good realism. Still sadly, scoring is not too hard in the right players hands. A couple of well placed passes and a quick drive or shot will usually result in a bucket.
Legacy allows recruiting year round, if thats to much let your assistant coaches handle it. One option that is interesting is the gym rat mode. 2 on 2 up to 5 on 5 with a point spread of 1 or 2 playing up to 21. A good way to get a feel of the game mechanics. The dunk contest are a cool idea but executing a dunk can be a fight between your hand and your brain. Button combos are frustrating for the hard dunks. Most will find level four dunks easier than level three. Also the game of horse could been
used for shooting instead of dunking.

This game shines at the ridiculous amount options it has. So many ways to customize this game it can become overwhelming. Having a player profile and meeting specific challenges gets players to unlock different courts, legend teams, and other goodies. Create a player and team are very detailed down to the color of the trim of the jerseys. One could get bored with so much to do.

College basketball fans should be happy with Sega's 2K4 entry of College Hoops. This game was a long time coming and should not dissapoint.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

It's not as good as you thinkJan 04, 2004

This game is okay. It has a lot of problems though,let's start with the announcers. They are good,but they say the dumbest things that a real announcer wouldn't say and the way the players shoot the ball, c'mon it's a two handed shot! Nobody shoots it with two hands. The players look pretty good,but they look a little blocky at times. Also after you make a big basket sometimes the coach will high five the mascot, that never happens, c'mon sega. That is pretty much it with the negative stuff now with the good stuff. The arenas are perfect, they are beautiful, great job! The game modes are pretty cool to like season, and legacy mode. The slam session may be one of the best things on the game. The school store is pretty neat to you can get stadiums, jerseys, and can even play air hockey! I recommend this game if you want a college basketball game, it is better than ncaa march madness 2004, but if you want a really good basketball game this year get ESPN NBA Basketball.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Some of these guys are clowns!Dec 24, 2003
By K. Loegel "Fuhtass"
First of all, don't sit here and rate a game as crap if it freezes. That has nothing to do with the gameplay and could simply be a bad PS2 or a corrupted disc. As for the gameplay part, this game is a much better version than the competitor March Madness 2004. The Legacy mode in this game is far and away better than EA Sports Dynasty Mode. I swear by this. Head to Head it's much better. Now that we have that taken care of, the actual graphics are better than March Madness 2004 as well. The arenas incredibly model to what they should be. They have even the smaller schools like Maine down nearly perfectly. The gameplay is smooth with no choppiness like March Madness. The only thing that is a negative is like what the other guy said about the players not dunking it when they are directly under the hoop. The good ones will though and if you are going towards the hoop with turbo they will dunk it or make an impressive lay in. And for all you people that think this game sucks, your all idiots and go waste your money on EA Sports overrated version.

See all 18 customer reviews on Amazon.com