NCAA Football 07 for the PlayStation Portable is the first college football title to truly represent the sport on a handheld system. The established gameplay engine, despite one nearly crippling bug, replicates the on field action of the console games without making too many sacrifices. NCAA 07 also includes the eagerly awaited Dynasty mode complete with in-season recruiting and all of the fineries we've become accustomed to in the series. However, for as enjoyable as the game is, it seems that the developers lost sight of the fact that they were creating a game for a handheld system and almost none of the features in the game cater to players looking for short bursts of gridiron action.
As with Electronic Art's other recent sports titles released for the PSP, NCAA 07 packs a nearly identical feature set to that of the console versions of the game. There are options for basic Quick Games as well as Rivalry and Mascot game modes. Ad Hoc and Infrastructure multiplayer modes are also available for human competition. The game includes each and every team in Division I collegiate football, including Division I-AA teams, and allows for fully customizable rosters. The auto-name roster option has also made an appearance, allowing you the ability to give each of the players in the game a random name. This is especially helpful when you start getting tired of hearing “#7 back to return” or "#10 drops back to pass." The only thing missing from the roster options is the ability to adjust the appearance of your players. This is understandable since all of the players in the game have a similar generic appearance, but it would have been nice to be able to manage the usage accessories such as wristbands and gloves for your players.
NCAA 07’s largest draw is the Dynasty mode, which delivers everything you’d expect from the console versions of the game. When beginning a dynasty, it’s still possible to add Division I-AA teams into the mix so your dreams of taking William & Mary to the national championship can be realized. Once inside, you’ll have the ability to plan season scheduling, red-shirt players, search for new recruits, and most importantly, delve into the latest issue of ESPN the magazine in order to check the latest poll rankings. Dynasty mode also features full stat tracking and the various roster adjustment options found in the console versions of the game. The fully featured dynasty mode is just as engrossing as ever and will keep you wrapped up through each of its 10 seasons. However, the amount of work that obviously went into optimizing the Dynasty mode for NCAA 07 seems to have been a double-edged sword since there is little else to do in the game.
The most notable absence in the PSP version of NCAA 07 is the spring drills mode, not to mention the campus legend mode. The latter you can probably live without, but on a handheld platform not having any sort of short-burst minigames is almost inexcusable. When you fire up NCAA 07 in your PSP the only options available to you all consist of full-length football games. There is nothing to occupy you for quick 2-5 minutes gameplay sessions unless you’re either willing to play only part of a full game or shorten the quarter length. What makes this even worse is the fact that you cannot save in the middle of a game and continue it later. This was never an issue in console version of the game due to the fact that should an interruption arise, you could always just pause the game and come back to it later. On the PSP you’re probably not going to have the 45 or so minutes it takes to complete a full game and you'll have to worry about battery life when pausing and putting the system into sleep mode.
Thankfully, NCAA 07’s on-field gameplay is solid, a fact which makes losing the aforementioned features all the more painful. The controls in the game are intelligently mapped to the PSP’s button layout and while the analog nub isn’t quite as precise as you might like it still feels tight enough to allow for accurate running and passing. The basic control scheme gives you the functions needed to successfully play the game while an advanced control scheme uses the L button as a modifier for moves such as stutter steps and charges on offense and big hits on defense.
The impact players feature has carried over from last year’s version of the game and you’re still able to pump up your home crowd by tapping the select button to raise the stadium pulse meter. Hot routes, coverage and line shifts, including the new offensive line shift, as well as the Match-up Stick are all present and accounted for. Finally, all of the latest additions to the franchise this year are packed into NCAA 07 on the PSP. This includes the new kicking meter as well as the ability to “jump the snap,” by timing pressing the “X” button with the center’s snap of the ball, and the new third person camera for blocking punts and kicks on defense. The kicking meter works very well with the PSP’s analog nub although on the default difficulty level kicking seems a little too easy. Jumping the snap also works well although it does somewhat interfere with the defensive strafe option since both actions are mapped to the “X” button. Finally, the momentum feature has also been implemented into the PSP version and although it’s not necessarily new to the series, several NCAA games in previous years have included a similar feature; it’s nice to see that it wasn’t stripped from this version of the game.
All in all, NCAA 07 for the PSP plays very similarly to the console versions of the game, with the exception of one glaring difference. This version of the game does not know how to spot the ball on running plays. For example, in one particular instance, I had my running back hit with initial contact from a defender at about the line of scrimmage after which he carried the ball a good two yards forward before falling down. I expected it to be 2nd & 8, setting me up for a pass play or maybe another run, but lo and behold the game says that it’s 2nd & 12. I examined the replay fully and there is no way that my running back didn’t gain yardage on the play. This was not an isolated incident either and it’s almost impossible to play through an entire game without being robbed of yardage by the wacky system. This isn’t normally a huge deal, but when you clearly make it across the first down line on 4th & inches only to be marked short, there’s only the PSP’s $200 price point to keep you from hurling the system across the room. The bug is so problematic that it nearly ruins what is for the most part a solid gameplay engine and will completely frustrate fans of run-centric offenses.
While running the ball in NCAA 07 may have you pulling out your hair, at least the graphics are crisp and clean enough to make the game easy to look at. Framerate must have been on of the top issues on the minds of everyone who worked on the game because the action never misses a beat. NCAA is able to maintain a solid 30 fps throughout and there wasn’t too much of a sacrifice made in the way of stadium and player models. As I mentioned earlier, all of the players share a similar generic appearance so you won’t be able to tell Ted Ginn Jr. and Troy Smith apart, but this shouldn’t bother you too much due to the silky smooth frame rate. Replays also work very well and give you a great opportunity to go back and see just how poorly the ball was marked on the previous running play.
The audio in NCAA isn’t much to speak about. The same commentary crew returns from the previous games and for a most part they do a good job of keeping up with the action on the field. Stadium ambiance is also well done and fans will react to the on field action with the appropriate cheers and groans. The only issue that I have with the in game audio is that it’s too quiet for the PSP’s speakers. Only when the PSP’s volume level is at full blast and will the audio level sound adequate while having the volume only half way will reduce crowd chants to nothing more than a whisper. It seems strange that the in-game volume is low since the fight songs played on the menu screens sound loud enough even with the volume at about half way. Hopefully EA can address the volume inconsistencies for next year’s game.
NCAA Football 07 for the PSP would have made a great console game of college football. The core gameplay is enjoyable enough, and would be more so if it weren't for the run marking bug, but there is little about the game that makes it seem designed for a handheld platform. Dynasty mode might keep you occupied for 10 seasons, but the absence of both the spring drills minigames and an in-game save feature make NCAA 07 inadequate for short gaming sessions. Unless either the PSP is your primary game platform or you can’t live on the road without college football, NCAA Football 07 is difficult to recommend.
