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Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
If you have played NHL 2001 on Playstation, or FaceOff, or the PowerPlay series on N64, you will notice that most console hockey games take a very kinetic, chaotic, speed-ridden approach to the game. Skaters slash & dash all over the ice, turning on a dime, and basically doing everything that you shouldn't be able to do on real ice with real skates. This game takes a complete 180 degree turn and slows down the gameplay, forcing you to really control your players well to win. It is absolutely refreshing, but might put off gamers who are used to the "mad hummingbird" approach to hockey games. If you remember back to this series on Genesis/SNES you will actually get a good idea of how this one works. The perspective is side-to-side rather than top-to-bottom, while the camera will zoom a little closer to replicate the television camera angles used on ESPN. The graphics are hands down better than EA's NHL 2001, and even those professional reviewers that dislike this game will agree with that. The AI is adequate, no glaring missteps, though I have seen isolated cases of my players standing there as the puck lies motionless 3 feet in front of them. The game features all the real players, all audibly name-checked in the game by the above-average announce team of Gary Thorne and Steve Levy. One interesting error: I played a game with the Pens & Mario Lemieux was incorrectly referred to as Hans Jonsson throughout the entire game (kinda humorous actually.) Scoring is far from automatic, and chances are you will be racking up 20+ shots per period but only scoring maybe once out of those 20 times, depending on the skill of your players of course. The previous reviewer that noted the accuracy of the one-timers is correct, they are among the best ways to score but need to be used correctly to work, otherwise you will witness many embarrassing whiffs. Passing is adequate, with both a straight pass and an off-ice flip pass (for those hard to reach places) which is one better than most hockey games. There is no separate wrist-shot / slap-shot button, it all depends on how long you press the button. Checks are actually realistic, especially along the boards, which is a far cry from EA's triangle "mug-shot" button that causes opponents to get dropped as if by gunshot. Changing players is accomplished by the R1 button and turbo is the X button. This setup is fairly counter-intuitive to every other hockey game in existence, but you will get used to it. The sounds is fine, the crowd reactions are accurate, the use of many ESPN-style trademarks and visual cues (after the whistle, the camera might pan to 2 players talking on the bench, like an actual hockey broadcast) serve to heighten the realistic atmosphere. I can see why people would be initially turned off by the game. It is not your average console hockey game. I enjoy the slower pace, and still find myself hurting my thumbs as I try in vain to press the directional buttons harder to get the guys to respond quicker. But you need to work with it, because the overall pace does work, and does hold its own as a realistic hockey game. It isn't perfect: because of the controls defense is harder than it should be, faceoffs are a mystery to win, there are entirely too many shots taken, the loading times to get to game-stats are ridiculously lengthy, there is no franchise mode. So the game does under-achieve a bit, but on the whole ends up being a great game for those that don't require the overly quick approach of other console hockey titles. It's one you need to think about and really pay attention to excel at. It's a nice change. Comment | Permalink | function showYesNoCommunityResponse(uId,result,value) { var msgLayer = getElement("thanks" + uId); if ( result == "SUCCESS" ) { msgLayer.innerHTML = "Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.com readers and reviewers. Your vote will be counted and will appear on the product page within 24 hours."; } else { showVoteErrorResponse(msgLayer,result,value); } } (Report this)

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