A History Of College Basketball Video Games

Image via Complex Original

Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 1992
Console: Super NES
Cover Athlete: Fictional players

For being the first NCAA video game to come out, NCAA Basketball was remarkably well done. In addition to being the first college b-ball game, it was also the first basketball video game to use a three dimensional perspective opposed to a flat side-to-side view. NCAA Basketball contained college teams from five major NCAA Division I-A conferences in the North American version while overseas, the game used fictional teams.

Publisher: 2K Sports
Year: 1997-2004
Console: PlayStation, PC, PlayStation 2
Cover Athlete: Fictional players (1997), Paul Pierce (1999), Trajan Langdon (2000), Marteen Cleaves (2001), Joseph Forte (2002), Juan Dixon (2003), Nick Collison (2004)

With its first release being back in 1997, the NCAA Final Four series was without a doubt the weakest of the big three college basketball franchises. Just like with the NCAA March Madness and College Hoops series, it eventually came to an end but even with all of it's design and control flaws, we'd kill to have it back as we haven't seen any amateur hoops offerings in the past four years.

Publisher: EA Sports
Year: 1998
Console: Sony PlayStation
Cover Athlete: Tim Duncan

The game gets a new name and instead of a generic image, a cover athlete. For the this brand new move into the future of NCAA games, former Wake Forest player Tim Duncan graced the front of the box cover

Publisher: EA Sports
Year: 2002
Console: PlayStation 2
Cover Athlete: Drew Gooden

Former Kansas Jayhawks player Drew Gooden made the cover of EA Sports' 2002 release but what most drew the curiosity of fans was the deformed artwork. If you take a good look, you can see that Drew's arms are ill proportioned to the rest of his body.

Publisher: EA Sports
Year: 2003
Console: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Cover Athlete: Carmelo Anthony

This would mark the first time players were able to pick their favorite school and the start menu would take on that school's theme. The menu colors would change along with the cheerleaders, mascot and fight song. Commentary was done by Brad Nessler and Dick Vitale. Other features included rowdy fans, custom school creation and a Frat Party mode where you could play as your school's mascot. Team coaches also played a part by offering strategies and the iconic phrase, "EA Sports, it's in the game."

Publisher: EA Sports
Year: 2004
Console: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Cover Athlete: Emeka Okafor

Licensed music was added into the mix although it was played by the school's bands. Songs included "Hey Mama" by the Black Eyed Peas, "Hanging on a Moment" by Lifehouse, "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World, and "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley.

Publisher: EA Sports
Year: 2007
Console: PlayStation 2, Xbox 360
Cover Athlete: Adam Morrison

Crowd authenticity was a major focus in this release. Reactions were dependent on the school, team performance and popularity. Players were also able to upgrade their school's gym, student sections and cheerleading squads to improve the team's in-game performance.

Publisher: EA Sports
Year: 2007
Console: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360
Cover Athlete: Kevin Durant

Tons of new features were added to NCAA March Madness 08 such as applying pressure to the other team to force turnovers. Arenas became more realistic and more form fitting uniforms were implemented. Borrowing from it's NCAA Football cousin, player recruitment was added allowing you to search for by position, type and size. The best feature though was the ablility to break the rim. Something frowned on by officials but fun to do anyway.

Publisher: 2K Sports
Year: 2007
Console: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360
Cover Athlete: Greg Oden

Before 2K Sports focused solely on NBA basketball they once had a college b-ball entry. If the March Madness series was Marquette then College Hoops was Duke. A solid competitor with a perennial title shot. The game featured career modes, a legacy mode, and solid visuals. 2K Sports and Visual Concepts definitely went all out. Alas after six years they, like EA, realized either college kids spend all their money on booze (and ridiculous tuition) or that nobody really cared enough about college sports simulations.

Publisher: EA Sports
Year: 2009
Console: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Cover Athlete: Blake Griffin

NCAA Basketball 10 was the final NCAA game released by EA Sports. The developers had dropped the title from the PS2 and only made it available for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Features included realistic and more robust commentary by Dick Vitale, Brad Nessler, Erin Andrews of ESPN and Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery from CBS Sports. Gameplay introduced a 20 Toughest Places To Play feature that was selected by fans and improvements to player movement, rebounding, off-ball collisions, alley-oops and size-ups.