Midway for PS2

Extreme Hockey

1-6 Players

If NBA Jam were a hockey game instead of a basketball game.

Hooray! The only video sports franchise I’ve ever loved, Midway’s extreme NBA Jam style games, has been expanded to include ice hockey! My wife now feels threatened because there are now video games based on basketball (NBA Street), Football (NFL Blitz) and hockey (NHL Hitz) that I enjoy tremendously. NHL Hitz is a 3-on-3, fast-paced hockey game that keeps the action fast and frantic by eliminating almost all of the rules and regulations normally found in NHL games. Body checks and high sticking aren’t just allowed, they’re encouraged – every game becomes a battle for control of the puck, with constant checking sending players head over heels, and often even through the glass and into the seats! In fact, the only way to earn a penalty in Hitz is to lose a fight, and the option to have fights can be turned off at your discretion. Hitz is fast-paced, like the actual sport, with constant passing a necessity in order to keep control of the puck. Scoring is simplified with the inclusion of the "one-timer," a combo move involving one player passing to an open teammate, who immediately shoots the puck toward the goal. If the pass crosses sides in front of the goalie, the shot is usually good, since the goalie is caught flatfooted on the wrong side of the net. This move makes Hitz an unusually high-scoring game of ice hockey, and the AI keeps the pressure on throughout the game to ensure a close match every time you play… which is not always a good thing, but more about that later. Keeping with the great Midway sports game tradition, you’ll be able to get a player to catch fire if he scores three goals, and your whole team can get "on fire" if you’re good enough to score three unanswered goals, the fabled hat trick, during your game. An "on fire" player benefits from heightened stats until the flames are put out when the other team scores.

Gameplay is pick-up-and-go simple, yet there are plenty of moves, like slap shots, fake shots, one-timers, spins, puck guards, body and stick checks, and the ever-present Turbo button for a burst of speed. The sounds of body checking and sticks slapping the puck across the ice are great, and the announcers have some wickedly funny lines, and enough of them that they won’t get repetitive in any single match. For an arcade sports game, there are also plenty of options – a robust player and team editor, exhibition, franchise, and championship modes. There’s a Skills mode to help you learn the fundamentals, and the Hockey Shop where you can spend credits earned by winning games for things like fantasy rinks, legacy jerseys for most of the teams, new teams and player heads for create-a-player. The game also has the infamous Midway load screen code input, and there are dozens of possible codes that have different effects on the game like big heads, giant pucks, infinite turbo and (my favorite) always big hits. The multiplayer options are also great – up to six players can participate in any combination, and up to three players can attempt the franchise mode co-operatively, working their way through all 50 teams to claim the Midway Cup. I should also mention the fighting engine, which is much better than any other hockey game I’ve seen. You get two different punches, a grab attack, a block and the ability to dodge in four directions. Fights have heavy consequences in Hitz, too – the loser sits out the rest of the game.

Although it’s a sports game first, the fully-polygonal crowd works more against the game than for it. Because the best camera angle for playing the game is a standard top-down, zoomed out view, you barely see the crowd during play. I can’t help but think that going with a more generic crowd, and using the extra polygon count to beef up the player models, which are good, but could be better. Although the soundtrack features big name bands like Limp Bizkit, Fuel and Korn, there’s no in-game music, so their tunes are limited to the various menus. My biggest gripe with the game, though, is the sliding AI difficulty. Midway must have thought that forcing nearly every match to come down to the last goal would be more exciting, so they programmed the AI to become a brick wall whenever you pull into the lead, even on the easier settings. No matter how good you are at the game, if you pull ahead of the computer by 3 goals or more, you’ll notice that the other team will instantly become much more aggressive, their goalie will become an impenetrable wall, and they’ll score on you much easier. This is incredibly frustrating, although it’s obviously not as noticeable in versus matches.

Gotta go with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Any team added into a sporting league because of a movie gets my vote.

Graphics – 8 (Players look good, animation is superb)

Sound – 8 (In-game sounds are great – especially the hard hits and the announcer comments)

Replay – 9 (The credit system to unlock new stuff will keep you playing for a long time, and there are plenty of teams and options to make the game feel fresh and exciting for a long time)

Overall: 8.5