vietizboi's Full Review: NHL Hitz 2002 for PlayStation 2
The gameplay in Hitz is of the high octane, ultra adrenalin pumping variety. Right from the start you can tell this is not a sim game. Only 3 players grace each team in addition to a goalie. Also the fact that referees are completely absent should be an obvious tip off…anything goes.
Control of the players is extremely tight and right on the money. The onscreen characters respond perfectly to your button presses and you will have to make the necessary allowances for inertia as you try to redirect a skater that is traveling in one direction at high velocity. All of the standard moves are present; passing, intercepting passes, scoring, dekes and puck guarding. The single best shot though is the 1-timer. This occurs when you pass the puck to a teammate that is closing on the net. Being that this is an arcade game, there is also the turbo button and the ability to control the crowds booing or cheering. Oh, body checks…especially illegal ones, are highly encouraged here. Nothing more satisfying than denying a goal and then having the goalie flatten the player as they try to skate away.
There are three main gameplay categories in Hitz. Exhibition games where you can select your favorite team to go head-2head with another team. The Franchise Mode is a cool feature that you can use team that you create to play. You will face a combination of 50 teams from both the NHL and fantasy teams in an effort to win Midway cup. Your victory in these game can reward attribute points that can be used on the players of your created team.
There also the Championship Mode that has players facing off against other teams in the NHL for Stanley Cup. Your victory will result in you attaining credits to use in store.
When you think you got enough credits, you can head on to the stores.Here you can apply your credits to purchase stuff like Jerseys, different characters (aliens, various animals, etc.) and some crazy stadiums.
Graphically the game really benefits from the omission of the extra players. The character models are of a rather high poly count and look mighty impressive with nice texturing and ultra smooth animation. What really sets things apart though is the fact that the crowd is completely 3-D modeled and animated and will do all sorts of things like heckling the players, to throwing hats and other objects onto the rink.
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