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Your chance to get the Penn Quakers in your pocket! On consoles, the biggest difference between the NCAA and the NFL is the level of enthusiasm found in college games. The crowd really goes wild for the big plays and is fully behind their home school. Although NCAA Football 07 for PSP doesn’t quite match the atmosphere found in the consoles, it plays a solid game of college football.
NCAA Football 07 includes many single-player modes. The biggest mode is Dynasty Mode, as it lacks the console versions’ Campus Legend mode. The Dynasty mode is similar to that of previous versions. This means that during the season you need to make sure your team performs well and off-season you need to actively recruit players to keep your team on the winning end. You’ll still find all of the expected features like team-needs and scouting reports and the ability to see which players are interested in your team, and so forth.
The game also includes quick play, practice, mascot games, rivalry and scrimmage mode. Many of these features are lacking in the Xbox 360 version and it’s nice to have them here. Quick play, practice, and mascot games are what you would expect them to be. Rivalry games are particularly heated games with two rivals like Florida and Florida State. In scrimmage mode, you’re given five minutes on the offense to get as many touchdowns and first-downs as you can before the other team gets the change to do the same. The spring minigames found in the current-gen console versions are not found in the PSP version, though.
The PSP version of the game will feel familiar if you played a console version. Options mapped to the right analog stick on the consoles are instead mapped to a combination of L and one of the face buttons, which emulate the second stick. Even the new updates are included in the game, such as the new kicking meter. Similar to the Tiger Woods games, you’ll have to pull back on the analog stick then push back up to kick the ball. In addition, the game lets you jump-the-snap, meaning that you’ll get to take on the quarterback or kicker if you have the right time; this is very helpful in blocking field goals. The artificial intelligence in the game is sound, with the A.I. doing their best to get you riled up in hopes of getting a penalty called against you. Playcalling is still easy since you can organize plays by key player, play type, formation or get Corso’s recommendation. The PSP version includes the new, enormous playbook with innumerable plays to pick from.
New to 07 is a momentum bar that tracks the momentum of both of the teams playing. Did you just get a game-winning interception? Well, your momentum will reflect that as you now go for the two-point conversion. For smaller but positive plays, the momentum meter will also increase and it will decrease with negative plays. For the most part, the game does a good job of modeling the momentum.
The game includes online and offline multiplayer. If you’re playing an offline, local wireless game the game performs swimmingly with no lag to mention. When playing online, performance is sometimes spotty although by and large you’ll experience fine games with just a bit of additional slowdown.
Visually, the game looks good—very close to the PS2 version—although obviously not as amazing as the Xbox 360 version of the game. These stadiums look fine, most of which have the same level of detail found in previous iterations. For the most part, you’ll still be able to pick them out but it doesn’t quite recreate the feeling of being there. Unfortunately, some of the stadiums don’t look anything like they should, which is a bit disappointing if you’re a fan of those teams. The player models—though not as detailed as the PS2 models— are nonetheless well done and the animations are as brutal as always.
The audio is impressive. The background music is comprised of fight songs from the different football teams which certainly help set the mood. The sound effects are top-notch and crisp, especially the crowd which roars like crazy—that is, a real college football game. Commentary is provided by Corso, Nesseler, and Herbstreit, who do a fairly good job and manage to avoid repeating the same lines too often.
NCAA Football 07 for PSP may not look as good as the console versions but it is very full-featured, almost matching the PSP version feature for feature. Even though the spring minigames and Campus Legend modes are gone, there are still tons of modes in the game promising countless of gameplay. The atmosphere and enthusiasm that the game portrays are remarkable, especially for a portable title.
-- Jose Liz & -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Jul 25, 2006
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