When I review a game, I generally like to start off with praise before I criticize certain features I'm not fond of. I feel I'm always respectful to the creators with my comments, because they took the time to make something for we, the gamers, to play. This is nowhere near the case for NCAA March Madness 2002 for PS2, because I don't think they took any time at all creating the Worst EA Sports Game I've Ever Played! But like always, I'll start with the good.

The graphics are very well done. Player models are realistic and smooth looking, and the animations remind you of actual games played in arenas around the country. Even the crowd will get into it as the game goes along, including the applause, cheering, and chants. Sound wise, you'll feel like you're listening to an actual game. Now the bad.

Every coach looks the same, and EA never bothered to try and replicate the actual coaches of the game. The announcer (that's right, no color commentary) is awful. He doesn't follow the game at all, sounds repetitive, and is completely boring to listen to. I once was down by two with ten seconds to go in the game, and he said there's no point in fouling, they're down too much. What the hell??? Does he know the game at all???

We'll stay with the bad theme since there is nothing good in this category. And believe me, I tried to find something. Here's the selection you have to play with in March Madness: Play Now, Tournament, and Create-a-Team. That's it! No Season, no Franchise... just two game modes and a useless feature. With Play Now, it's like an Exhibition, where you play against a friend or the computer for just one game, using the time to hone your skills with any of the 130 plus teams given. With the Tournament, become one of 64 teams to try and go to the big dance and win it all. The modes are fine, but what happened to the fun of playing through an entire season to try and make it to the tournament itself? And what's the point of a Create-a-Team option if you can't recruit players for the seasons to come? Not a lot of thought went into making this game, and it shows!

MM 2002 plays about as well as I've described the game so far... crappy. Don't even bother going in to the low post, because your man will throw up a crappy hook shot every time, and it will miss. Plus, be prepared to have no one on your team play defense or rebound. Unless the ball falls into their freaking lap, your team will stand around scratching the butt. Another thing I got tired of was that player control wasn't as crisp as it has been in the past. Players now have to take a final step in their first direction before lunging in a different direction, which isn't good if you're headed out of bounds. All in all, I was constantly ready to throw my controller through the TV on a number of occasions because of the horrific gameplay.

There are four difficulty levels for NCAA March Madness 2002: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior, although they don't ever get that hard. I started off playing at the Senior level against Duke, and I was in every game down to the last seconds. By the way, Duke can basically do what they want, any time they want to, so the true challenge is to stop them. But sadly, you're teammates never get smarter as the game gets harder. In fact, I think it's the exact opposite.

I finally have some praise for March Madness again: the loading time doesn't take long and the memory card will only have a slight chunk used. That is the best I could come up with. The controller configuration is ok, it's just that the game doesn't play like previous versions. I'm mainly speaking about the low post moves, which constantly result in missed hook shots, but I'm also referring to the player controlling as well.

Like I said earlier, it really didn't look like EA Sports put much time into NCAA March Madness 2002. This came as a huge surprise to me following the successful NCAA College Football created last year. Hopefully this does not become a theme for EA, because they have been too good for too long. I will say that the only Madness I can think of from this game would be the madness that someone would actually enjoy this trash!