NCAA Football 06 Review

Features

NCAA Football 2006 features all of the teams from Division 1-A and 1-AA so you’ll have a pretty hard time not finding your favorite team in here. The stadiums for each school have also been recreated and it really adds to the experience when you can play on the blue turf at Boise State (yes, it is blue in the game) or hear the deafening roar of the crowd at Michigan or Penn State. They thought of everything for this game and the attention to detail really makes a big difference.

In addition to the Race for the Heisman and dynasty modes, you can also play single games as well as practice with a handful of minigames. The real attraction outside of dynasty or Race for the Heisman, of course, is the online play. You can take your alma mater online and you’ll be treated to the usual lineup of matchmaking options, tournaments, news, and more. The game performs pretty well online and we really have no complaints as far as this aspect is concerned.

Graphics and Sound

Visually, NCAA Football 06 looks great but it doesn’t quite have the same level of polish as Madden. A nice touch is that the players are a little skinnier than those found in Madden which reflects the fact that they are younger and not yet fully developed. The game also has a ton of different animations and you can literally play through a complete season and not see the same tackle twice. The game looks really nice overall, but like I said, it just doesn’t have the same polish as the NFL games.

The sound in NCAA 06 is also really good. The game uses EA Trax music, so it is pretty much horrible, but you don’t have to listen to it during games so it isn’t too bad. The sounds of football have never been clearer or more varied, and the game makes great use of both sound and the rumble function of your controller when you are playing in a particularly loud stadium. Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso are the announcers for the game and they do a good job of covering the action. Something annoying about it, however, is that Corso likes to jabber on and then whistle when he is describing certain plays and that sudden loud noise will probably make you jump offsides a time or two when you first get the game.

Bottom Line

NCAA Football 06 is easily the best game in the series thanks to some new gameplay tweaks and the fact that you can now compete for the Heisman trophy, so it is pretty easy to recommend. The college game is different enough from the NFL that even if you are planning on getting Madden you’ll still be playing NCAA 06 for months to come. The best part is that you can upload your Heisman winning player into Madden 06 and use them for your pro team. This is simply a really fun, really well put together college football game and I highly recommend it.