NHL Hitz 20-02 Review
Anyone who's played Midway's Wayne Gretzky games will be right at home playing NHL Hitz 2002 but will find it to be little more than a nostalgic walk down memory lane.
Hockey fans planning to purchase an Xbox have a lot to look forward to. EA Sports' definitive pucks simulation, NHL 2002, will be released shortly after the console's launch, and the first installment in Midway's new arcade hockey franchise, NHL Hitz 2002, will be available at the console's introduction to the market. The perfect antithesis of feature-heavy simulations, NHL Hitz 2002 is a mile-a-minute type of game that eschews the muck-and-grind play of the real NHL in favor of over-the-top checks and exaggerated speed. Newcomers to video games will find NHL Hitz 2002 to be a refreshing change of pace, but anyone who's spent adequate time with Midway's older hockey games will find little to reinvigorate interest.
Anyone who has played Midway's other arcade sports games such as NFL Blitz or NBA Jam should know what to expect from NHL Hitz 2002. If you're looking to set up your power play and generate some shots or like to play the defensive trap to limit the other team's chances, NHL Hitz is not the game for you. Games of NHL Hitz are three-on-three affairs where the checking totals outweigh the shots on goal. Players will catch on fire after scoring three goals in a row, and the entire team will catch fire if three straight goals are scored on one-timers. Just because a player is on fire doesn't necessarily translate into a string of goals, as it still requires a nice shot to find the back of the net. Player ratings are fairly accurate--smaller players like Martin Straka won't knock thugs like Scott Stevens off the puck, and sharpshooters like Mario Lemieux have the uncanny ability to score when the chips are down.
Traditional hockey strategy has been thrown out the window, and a simple rock-paper-scissors scheme is used to govern the game. For every offensive move, there's a defensive move to thwart it. If you're getting checked to the ice by the opposition, simply perform a spin move and you'll avoid checks. If your opponent starts trying to poke check the puck free, then it's time to use the puck protecting move. It's a simple system, to be sure. But in a game that plays this quickly, there's not a lot of time to make decisions, and this gameplay system is a perfect fit. The fighting in NHL Hitz is the best yet seen in a hockey game. The punch and block mechanics are sound, and you can even finish a player off with a combo or special moves like head butts and chokeholds. If your player loses a fight, he will be lost for the remainder of the game. This adds incentive to learn the fighting in the game and can turn the tide of the game rather quickly when a big scorer is relegated to the bench. For a game that's easy to pick up and play, there's a lot of hidden depth in NHL Hitz 2002.
Anyone who's ever played NFL Blitz or NBA Jam should be familiar with rubber-band AI. This allows the computer to adjust to your abilities on the fly and guarantees that each game is never over, now matter how big the lead. It helps keep the games close and exciting, but the result is that it never seems to matter how good you play. If you're up by a few goals, your goalie will suddenly become Swiss cheese and allow slap shots from center ice to find their way into the net. Yet, the opposing goalie will become a veritable brick wall, not allowing a single goal, no matter how good the shot. This same AI carries over into the multiplayer modes as well, and it can be frustrating to lose to someone in the final seconds on a shot that has no business stretching the twine.
NHL Hitz 20-02 Quick Links
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- GameSpot Scoregood
Player Reviews
Critic Scores
- TeamXbox 4 / 5
- IGN 8 / 10
- Eurogamer 6 / 10
- Game Rankings 91 / 100
- Game Chronicles 8.3 / 10
- GameZone 9.1 / 10
- Kombo 7.6 / 10
- GD Xbox 4 / 5
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