For many sports fans, March and April mark one of the most exciting times of the year: The men's NCAA basketball tournament. Each year also brings another video game installation trying to emulate the passion and uncertainty of the 65-team field. This year’s College Hoops 2K7 is a good game, but is it enough of an improvement to warrant its price?

Back this year are the season, tournament, and legacy modes. The legacy mode is what keeps the 2K series regarded above EA Sports' March Madness games. Starting with a small college, you must win and improve your skills by completing tasks. Every year brings new job opportunities, so you can jump ship to a larger program once they offer you the chance. You must recruit during and after each season to keep your lineup fresh with new talent, especially once you reach the upper echelons of the league - because by that point your sophomores will be good enough to be drafted into the NBA. The legacy mode is a great time-sink and offers plenty of chances to play the actual basketball games.

Speaking of the games, College Hoops uses the same engine as the NBA 2K series. The gameplay leans towards simulation and further away from high-scoring arcade play. You won't be able to run down the court and jack up a shot with an opponent in your face and hope to sink it. Instead, precision passing and set plays will get your players open for a shot. The 2K engine continues to be the choice for basketball games, and 2K7 adds a few more animations to spruce things up. Still, you won't notice any difference between the 2K6 title and this one. Since this is a college game, the players won't have the real players - so unless you need to be on the cutting edge of college basketball games, 2K7 really isn't worth a full price tag. Luckily, current generation owners only need to pay $20 for the game. Unfortunately, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners will have to pony up $60 for just the upgraded graphics.

Also new this year is an expanded soundtrack. Previous years only had school songs to fill the audio void, and frankly I prefer the school songs to the light smattering of popular music offered by 2K Sports. There's only a handful of songs, guaranteeing that you will hear the same ones over and over again ad nausea. It doesn't help that the bands aren't the most skilled sort, either. The rap tracks have ludicrous rhymes like "cage" with "game," and the rock tracks feature grating vocals.

Other than the few new animations, the visuals don't offer much more than last year. During closeups the player models looks somewhat detailed and are way too shiny on the PlayStation 2 version - like the programmers were trying to emulate the next-generation look. Unfortunately it fails. The PlayStation 2 game also suffers from the worst loading and saving times out of all of the consoles.

Overall, 2K7 doesn't cost all that much for a current generation gamer, and you should certainly pick it up if you are a basketball fan. However, Xbox 360 players can get a similar experience with 2K6 and for a fraction of the price, and it would be wise to wait until the first price drop before thinking about purchasing College Hoops 2K7.

Overall Score: 7 out of 10