Reviewed: October 31, 2002
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Midway

Developer
Midway

Released: September 16, 2002
Genre: Sports
Players: 4
ESRB: Everyone

9
9
7
8
8.9

Supported Features:

Most sports franchises see a new version every year that offer roster updates and some slight improvements in AI or graphics, but seldom are they worth purchasing a whole new game. While EA and SEGA are probably the biggest offenders in this growing trend, Midway has also been known to release a minor update as a full product – NFL Blitz anyone?

NHL Hitz 20-03 is the sequel to last year’s arcade-style NHL hockey game, and not only does it break this annoying trend, it rises to new heights of features and quality exceeding that of the original and most every other Midway sports title currently available.

NHL Hitz 20-03 Key Features :

• Officially Licensed by the NHL and the NHLPA to bring you all the teams and players
• New Franchise Mode – Pick teams and equipment to battle for the number one ranking in the world
• New Hockey School Mode – A tutorial to familiarize players with controls and gameplay mechanics
• New Multi-Player Tournament Mode – A 'party' mode where up to 16 players battle over several matches
• New Enhanced Season Mode – In-depth stat tracking, player trades, full NHL calendar and playoff tree
• New Team Play Styles – NHL teams take on the playing style as their real-life counterparts
• New Motion Capture Animations – Two-man motion capture animations for more realistic checking
• More Mini-Games – Includes six games with skill competitions for one or two players
• New Fully 3D Modeled Crowd – Now over 10 times larger
• New Color Commentary – A second sportscaster joins the game to describe all of the outrageous action
• New Referee – Officials tough enough to handle face-offs, fights and escorting players off the ice
• Improved Goalie Logic, Behavior, Animations and Control
• Bigger and Better Animations – More outrageous checking, fighting, shooting, and passing with more aggressive hits that break the glass and knock helmets off
• Enhanced Arenas – Choose from 30 rinks that are now bigger with benches, coaches and score clocks
• New Fantasy Stadiums, Hidden Teams and Players – Secret arenas presented in a unique fantasy setting as well as hidden teams and special players to unlock along the way
• Create-a-Player – Design the ultimate ice warrior
• Multi-Player Hockey – One to four players

Thankfully, Midway has realized that not everyone knows hockey as well as others and has included an excellent tutorial; the Hockey School with Scotty Bowman. This tutorial is a series of tasks to get you up to speed on the sport, its rules, and how it plays on your PS2. Veterans will scoff at its simplicity since it covers hockey basics like skating, passing, shooting, checking and the deke, but everyone else will be sending “thank you” cards to Midway. Once you are comfortable with the controls you can dig into the rest of this feature-rich game.

Everything you liked about 20-02 is back and improved, and everything you disliked has been removed or replaced with something much better. There is now an incredible statistics system in place that keeps track of every player in the league, both in Season and Franchise play, including player trades using trade logic, a playoff tree, and official NHL awards.

The RPG-style points system has been streamlined and is easier to work with when creating those custom players. It is all designed around a locker room setting with official NHL licensed gear that you can unlock and assign to players giving them bonuses on their various abilities. It’s incredibly deep and complex yet totally intuitive, even for someone with little knowledge of the sport.

All of those mini-games from last year have been replaced with six new and improved games for one or two players like Tic-Tac-Toe, Control, King of the Ring, Keep Away, Shootout, and Shooting Gallery. There is so much fun in just the mini-games that Hitz can easily fall into the “party game” category. These games are really original too. My favorite has to be the Shooting Gallery that puts you on a rooftop with three other players and you must get control of the puck then skate near the edge of the roof and shoot out windows in the next building.

After the tutorial and a few quick games I fired up the Season mode, which includes the complete 2003 schedule of games and all 30 NHL teams and players with ratings based on the 2001-2002 season. Pick your favorite and see if you can take them to the championship.

If you don’t like any of the existing teams then head over to the hot new Franchise mode and create your own team using an amazing library of options. Pick your team name, logo, and even player nicknames, which are then spoken by the commentator during the play-by-play. Then you can challenge other unknowns from all over the world until you get invited to face off in the actual NHL. This is a huge undertaking that will occupy much of your life to the exclusion of family and friends.

NHL Hitz 20-03 features stronger, faster, and more intelligent players with improved goalie logic, team AI, behavior, animations and control that make Hitz more challenging that ever, while a visual aggression meter informs you of impending fights. The fight system remains the same, but now when you loose a fight you choose the player to replace the ejected player and you play 2-on-2 for the duration of the penalty. Other penalties can result in an ejection and create some imbalanced gameplay such as running into the goalie, resulting in some 2-on-3 scenarios.

Playing hockey on your PS2 has never been easier with some of the most responsive controls I have ever seen in a sports title. Anyone of any skill level will become almost instantly comfortable with the controls, which means you can compete based on your skills of hockey rather than your skills of manipulating the Dual Shock. All of your regular moves can be turbo-charged complete with those famous Midway flaming players.

For those of you who thought last year’s Hitz was a skate in the park, you will be shocked at the increase in AI and subsequent difficulty in this latest installment. The goalies are masters of the net and you are going to have to work for every last point. This means strategy and passing and no one-man shows, because you can be sure the other team will be working together to defeat you.

Players are much more detailed, with more fluid animations and individual faces that you can only really appreciate in the replays. To add even more realism, NHL teams take on the same playing style as their real-life counterparts, and the two-man motion-captured animations provide gamers a more realistic view of the action and interaction on the ice.

But just like last year’s game the true testament to Hitz graphical goodness is the quality special effects. Of course there is the excellent ice reflections, and ice that actually shows wear as the game progresses, and then there is the beautiful lighting, fire and particle effects that add substantially to the overall hockey experience.

NHL Hitz 20-03 features an impressive soundtrack including:

• Beauty Queen: Racing Tunes
• Bombshell: Powerman 5000
• Breakawy: OddManRush
• Breath of Giants: Fighting Mix
• Circles: Incubus
• Feel So Numb: Rob Zombie
• Ham: Racing Tunes
• Heavy Hitter: Zhu Zhu Petal
• Hockey Monkey: The Zambonis
• Journey: Fighting Mix
• Lead Head: Racing Tunes
• Pieces: Hoobastank
• Shot Score: The Zambonis
• Sinner: Drowning Pool
• Slapshot Man: The Zambonis
• Take Care of the Lonely: Racing Tunes
• The Breakaway: The Zambonis
• Thumping Groove: Zhu Zhu Petal
• We Are All Made of Stars: Moby
• Wilderness: Fighting Mix

Every part of this game seems to unlock some other part, and with all sorts of hidden stadiums, teams, and alternate player models to discover, Hitz 20-03 can easily become a game of exploration, as you try to uncover the hidden treasures buried deep below the surface of the ice.