NHL 2002 is an explosive, undieingly fun game that anyone who can spare 3 dollars should buy immediatly.

User Rating: 9.3 | NHL 2002 PS2
By SolidTommyPayne | Review Date:
Let me get this out of the way right away, I'm not a hockey fan. I don't like to watch hockey. I think hockey is boring to watch. Now then, you ask, how can someone who doesn't like hockey give a hockey game such a great score? I don't like WATCHING hockey. Playing it in a video game is very different. I love the concept and rules of hockey, I just think watching it is boring. Hockey can be a greatly fun, explosive, amazing game if it were put into a video game the right way. And that's what we've got with NHL 2002. $3 used, that's right, $3, used. That's all it costs. NHL 2002 may have been released 3 years ago, but that only means it doesn't have the fancy graphics of newer games, the gameplay is perfectly intact. If you haven't played a hockey game yet and you want to, stop by gamestop or EB and pick up and old copy of 2002, you won't be disappointed. there are 4 classifications of a player during a game, a big hitter, a big shooter, a sniper or a hero. Note that not all players have one of these classifications. A big hitter has a hammer icon next to his name and he hits people very hard when you press triangle while skating near an opponent. A big shooter has a hockey stick next to his name and he shoots the puck very hard. A sniper has a target icon next to his name and he is a very accurate shooter. Finally, a hero has a blue shield with the letter H in the middle and he is like a combonation of the other 3, meaning he is a star player that is very, very good. The system is great and vital for picking which players you put in a line. Also, some players will be on a hot streak or a cold streak. A hot streaked player is playing very well lately. While a cold player is playing badly. Sometimes being on a hot or cold streak will effect what classifications you have. For example, a player might be a big hitter and a big shooter when he's on a hot streak, but on a cold streak he could be just a sniper. In the main menu, you'll see 5 options. They are play now, game modes, NHL cards, options and inside EA sports. Options is self-explanatory. The inside EA sports option lets you view the credits for NHL 2002 or a compiled video of footage of all of EA's 2001-released sports games. Play now lets you jump into a game real quick and do exactly what it says, play now. The NHL cards option is available in several different menu screens including the season menu. The game modes option is where you'll find the bulk of the gameplay, which has season, playoffs. tournament and shootout. Season lets you take a team through 10 NHL seasons, dealing with injured players, trading players and compensating for players that retire. Season mode is very fun, especially when you have to edit your lines when a player is injured or otherwise can't play, but the season could've used more features. Playoff lets you skip the season and get right to the stanley cup playoffs. Tournament lets you make a tournament of 4 to 16 teams, pick a host nation, and customise other options. Shootout is a minigame which also happens as an overtime game if you choose the shootout option where it says overtime in the option menu. Each team picks 5 of their best players for a 1 on 1 with the goalie. 1 player at a time tries to get the puck past the goalie. The team which scores the most after all 5 players have went, wins. Shootout is pretty fun but it's also very difficult. there are 30 NHL teams in the game, as well as 20 nation teams from countries like Canada, U.S.A, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia (great for a classic matchup team Czech Republic VS team Slovakia.) Japan and others. Also you can create teams. You can pick all of the skaters and goalies for the team, but you can't pick the name. You can only choose between EA Blades and EA Storm. That's because of the announcers. They can say those 2 names but that's it. It would've been nice to have had the announcers record more names so that there could be a wider selection of names for created teams. Also you can't use any of the nation teams or created teams in season, which is a shame, but being able to create teams is still a good option. The NHL card system is directly linked to the challenge system, in which there is a list of all of the challenges that you must complete. There are 4 lists of challenges, levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each are of increasing difficulty so a level 4 challenge is worth more points then a level 1 challenge. Level 1 challenges include such simple tasks as scoring a goal or getting a big hit, and the higher levels get up to things like getting a shutout, scoring on a great play, winning a stanley cup, or beating the mighty team Canada with the mediocre team Japan. You can do all of the challenges on each of the 4 difficulty settings for even more points. For example, you can win a stanley cup on beginner difficulty, then you can win another on normal difficulty and get more points. You spend these points on NHL cards. Most of them are player cards that let you turn that player into a hero for a specific amount of time during a game. Others are cheat cards that let you do cheats like have an extra player on the ice or make all of your player be big hitters and big shooters, have a player on your team be on a hot streak, or have one of your opponents be on a cold streak for a certain amount of time. That time is determined by whether the card is a bronze, silver or gold card. All time based cards are on of these 3. A bronze card, for example, usually lasts one period. While a gold card will last 3 periods. This adds strategy to the game where you should play a specific card at the right time to shift momentum to you. There are also celebration and easter egg cards. Celebration cards are activated from the celebration menu and they let you map specific animations to a specific face button on the PS2 controller. Press that button immediatly after you score, and your player will do that animation. Easter egg cards are activated from the easter egg menu. Easter eggs change the actual game. Most of the time it's just audio/visual stuff like darkening the room and putting the spotlight on players, making players grow as they score and shrink as they get hit, and making the commentators' voices either very high like chipmonk or very low. There are only a few easter eggs that actually change the gameplay, one is called last man standing, in which if a player is knocked down, he stays down until after the whistle is blown once. Except there is always at least one player standing, if the 5th player is knocked down, one of them gets up. NHL 2002 looked fine in 2001, but it doesn't now. The graphics aren't bad, the game plays very fast and the visuals are more then serviceable. There aren't too many big complaints about the graphics, they're fine they just don't have as much polish or detail as newer games. But it looks great for a $3 game. There are some weird effects like a breakaway camera and hit/save cameras, and those are best shut off. The sound in NHL 2002 is great. All of the normal hockey sounds are very realistic. Hitting sounds appropriatly painful and hard shots whistle through the air. The licenced music is catchy and it features such bands as the barenaked ladies and sum 41. The commentary is provided by Don Taylor and Jim Hughson. Don Taylor cracks many jokes and Jim makes fun of Taylors, low IQ. The commertary is varied and it seems like every game I play I hear a new joke by Don. The interactions between Don and Jim are very funny and it gives the game a good lighthearted feel. Stop by your local game retailer, take 3 bucks out of your wallet, and buy this game. It's so great in every respect. It's so fast paced, explosive, and so impressive. If you are even remotely into hockey or just like fast paced sports games and/or you are on a tight budget, NHL 2002 is definetly for you.

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