Alkaiser's Full Review: NHL Hitz 2002 for PlayStation 2
A long, long time ago, the best hockey game out there was Konami's Blades of Steel. It was awesome in the same way Tecmo Bowl was the greatest football game ever made. It had been a long, long time coming before any game was able to make me play computerized hockey again.
Last year's Rock the Rink was pretty good, but there a lot missing from the game. Stuff didn't really make sense, and the over the top announcer was far too over the top.
Midway's latest hockey offering is NHL Hitz 2002. This goes along with Midway's "Z = Extreme" mentality. (Blitz, Hitz, Hoopz)
Also along for the ride is that same announcer guy they've had since the original NBA Jam. Depending on what you think of him, he's either at his usual level of brilliance, or an annoying pain in the butt. It usually goes back and forth for me.
In order to speed up the game, Midway has thrown 2 guys per side off the ice. So, what you're left with is a 3 on 3 fast break style of hockey. The controls are pretty simple.
The ubiquitous Midway turbos are there on the L1 and R1 keys. O will check on defense, Square steals, and X Changes players. L2 causes the fans to cheer, and R2 causes them to boo.
On offense, X passes, and Square shoots.
To execute a 1-timer, hit the X and Square buttons in rapid succession. This will cause one player to pass to the other, who is winding up for a shot. Turbo + Shoot and Turbo + Check will cause you to put a bit of pep in your shots and checks.
Each team has a "Hot Spot" somewhere on the ice. If you're on it, and you shoot, the puck will have a flaming trail behind it.
Speaking of flaming, Midway's also ubiquitous "on fire" power-ups also appear in Hitz. Score 3 goals with a player, and he'll catch fire. This gives him a greater chance to score, makes him hit harder, etc. Basically, you don't want this guy on the other team. A guy on fire will cool off if the other team scores.
Team fire will happen once you score on 3 1-timers. This causes your whole team to burn blue (now you're cooking with gas!) and all of them are powered up. Team fire will shut down once the other team scores on a 1-timer, or one of their players catches fire.
The game moves very quickly. The rink seems a bit smaller, and the players move pretty quickly, even when they're at speed 5. This makes the game enjoyable for people who normally don't like the slow pace of hockey, and how long it takes to score despite the fact that you've got teams zooming up and down the ice. (If you haven't noticed, hockey is not one of my favorite sports.)
Goalkeeping is sort of random. I have had my goalie stick to one side of the next for extended periods of time (15 seconds) just inviting the other team to please score on him. I've also seen him skate out of the crease...just because.
In addition, there seems to be nearly no rhyme or reason to determining whether or not a goal goes in. Sometimes you shoot it directly at the guy, and he just misses. Other times, you're on a breakaway, and the goalie just shuts you down. In fact, most of the breakaways I'm on end with my players getting stonewalled.
Fighting is fun, and in my opinion, is necessary for a good hockey game. I mean, even the old school Nintendo hockey game had fighting. (The one where you got to choose between fat, medium sized, and skinny players.) In Hitz, you have 4 moves, heavy punch, light punch, grab, and block. If you tap sequences of light and heavy punches, you'll get combos. Win the fight, and the opponent loses that player for the game. This can have grave consequences if he's using a custom team, as one of the players he had spent points on goes out and is replaced by one with the baseline stats.
You can earn points to buy little bonuses like new ice rinks, jerseys, and other teams to play against. There's a pretty good helping of secrets in this game for the devoted player to get a hold of.
The game does have its flaws, most of them graphical. For instance, the textures for the "fire" will lose their transparency and show up as black blotches on the screen quite often.
Another interesting one has to deal with the players. My goalie's black, but my of my starting trio, 2 of the guys are Asian, and the other guy's white. When they skate out onto the ice, the first guy out is black...and he's not the goalie.
I would also like the ability to edit my team's color/logo. You can't create your own scheme, you just have to go with what they've created for you. Their logos kinda suck, and the only one I thought that looked decent gave me the most painful color scheme of the bunch. Ick.
Overall, this game's a pretty good pickup. I got my copy for $29.99 on Ebay, which is a pretty good deal, but it'd be a good pickup at $40, as well.
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