Last night I flipped on my Xbox 360 and started perusing the Xbox Live Marketplace--a fairly common occurence, especially when I'm procrastinating homework that I'm supposed to be working on. While usually I'm just killing time, yesterday I came upon a genuine suprise that greatly excited me-- NCAA Basketball 09 March Madness Edition. At first I assumed it was this year's tournament bracket getting promoted for download after Selection Sunday; after all, EA had already done this the last (2?) year, and charging $10 for it. However, this time it was listed under "Xbox Live Arcade", and went for $15--and then I saw a separate panel promoting the addition of the brackets coming on Sunday. I started to think, "No way!", so I hopped on line.
No major gaming website had a single iota of information about this game, but there it was on EA Sports' page: NCAA Basketball 09 March Madness Edition. A standalone, downloadable college basketball game with only the tournament, and only $15. I jumped out of my seat and almost immediately threw down for it--what a brilliant idea! Selling a standalone game for solely the tournament, the only part of college basketball the vast majority of the nation actually cares about! Alas, my excitement was tempered when I realized that this was the one sport where the EA game was in fact very poor, and after a quick run with the demo, realized that it was not to be. If only 2K hadn't discontinued their own college basketball line, then maybe we could have hope for a good game in addition to this stroke of brilliance. Especially since I've been gaming up NBA 2K9's brilliance lately.
Still, while a failure because the game underneath is a failure, the concept itself is an absolute stroke of genius. I instantly found myself clamoring for a similar World Baseball Classic 09 download, especially if it used the MVP game engine that was so superior to the monstrosity that is the MLB 2K series. This concept could be applied to a lot of different instances, and even begs the question whether a full-priced retail college game should even exist from now on. While I will not buy it, that does not discount the fact that EA has brought a true innovation to the digital download arena.
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