GENRE
	Extreme-Sports
	DEVELOPER
	Midway
	PUBLISHER
	Midway
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

So the hockey season is here and fans are going to be getting wasted and acting like hooligans on the streets, especially yours truly. So you’ve played EA’s NHL 2004 and Sega’s ESPN NHL Hockey and you’re completely burned out. There’s nothing else left for you to live for until next year. You’d check out the next installment of Midway’s Hitz series if only it weren’t so unrealistic and arcade-like. Fortunately, your life doesn’t have to end until the next season of hockey or until the Sharks take the cup. That’s because Midway has released the first in it’s Pro series, NHL Hitz Pro, which takes the delicious taste of chaotic, arcade hockey with the beautifully captured control of ESPN NHL Hockey and mixes them all together to create a fun title that will keep you busy for even more hours than you’re used to. Just like the other titles out there, Hitz Pro isn’t without its faults, but since the game is so fun, it’s easy to recommend this game to even the most casual hockey fans.

visuals

Sports titles are all about the realism, not only on the field (or rink), but in the players as well. NHL Hitz Pro has completely changed, visually, since its last incarnation, NHL Hitz 20-03. Every single player looks and moves just like a regular hockey player. The animations are absolutely brilliant with transitions from checking to shooting to passing moving in and out with amazing precision. The goalies are especially interesting to watch since they’ll watch the puck zip past their faces and into the net, turn their head or flail in order to stop the puck, even if they have absolutely no chance. The rinks look amazing as well and resemble a more realistic take on a professional rink than was found in 20-03. Unfortunately, graphical power has still not grown to the point of audience detail. The fans still look like little cardboard cutout animatronics. You’ll sometimes see four to five of the same person sitting or standing next to each other. It’s rather comical, but they aren’t necessarily important to the game. There are also some major clipping issues, especially once you check someone through the glass barriers. Half of their body will slip through the rink-side as they try and climb out and back into the rink. This is a minor issue, to be sure, seeing as it’s fun as all hell checking someone through the glass.

audio

Some of the finer points of any hockey title are the sound effects and commentary. Whereas some may ignore the commentary, it’s an essential feature to compete in the market, like it or not. The two who perform the commentary, Tim Kutzrow and Harry Tienowitz, always do an amazing job and offer up some amusing anecdotes in between cut scenes. The sound effects are all brilliantly produced and always makes it even more painful when someone is checked and a helmet flies off. Everything from the skating to shooting to the painful grunts during a fight sounds great and really increases the production value. While nothing sounds as great as it does in EA’s NHL 2004, Midway does wonderful work with their own title.

gameplay

The meat of NHL Hitz Pro is in its expansive set-up of gameplay modes. There’s plenty here to keep anyone entertained for quite some time. Let’s move down the list. First, there’s exhibition, which is just what it says; it’s a quick pick up and play game of hockey. Choose your team and opponent and go at it. Franchise is one of the greatest modes in the game. You can create your own team from the ground up including how tall they are, how big their heads are, how they wear their jerseys, what their names are, and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, there are very few logos to choose from as opposed to the dozens of logos in NHL Hitz 20-03. Another downside is that you can’t challenge actual NHL teams with your created team. That’s a crying shame. The Season mode will get the most play time from you as you can choose your favorite team and go through up to 82 games in order to challenge at the playoffs to win the Stanley Cup. Heck, there’s even a draft option for the hardcore. Pick-up hockey is a cute little side-attraction, but unfortunately it doesn’t offer anything like the mini-games found in previous entries in the series. You can play either as kids at the local pond, high school students inside a parking lot, or (my favorite) college-level tree hugging hippies playing at the city park. It doesn’t add a whole lot, but it’s an excellent option for multiplayer. Then, of course, there’s Hockey School that teaches you how to play in a very brief tutorial.

Obviously there’s enough here to keep your attention span up to snuff and every single mode available is a lot of fun. Usually people don’t like to crunch numbers in order to find their perfect player in a franchise mode. However, Hitz Pro modifies their stats by how big or tall they are. It’s a great way to maximize your team’s stats without having to learn college-level calculus. The controls in this game are amazingly smooth since it’s more arcade-like than an actual simulation. Don’t expect to move like a real hockey player, but then again, don’t expect to check like a real hockey player either. The greatest part of this title is that it keeps a decent level of realism, but it doesn’t forget that it is an arcade title at heart. Your team’s stats will boost once “on fire” for a brief period of time where the players will flash with an aura of flames during the face-off, then only the puck will be the torch that’s passed across the ice. There are some problems with hit detection, but nothing too noticeable or frustrating. What’s the most rewarding thing about this title? Checking over 300 people within one 9-minute game. If that isn’t satisfaction, I don’t know what is.

multiplayer

No sports game is complete without a multiplayer mode. NHL Hitz Pro is obviously no exception since up to four players can work cooperatively or against each other in order to beat the living crap out of their respective opposing team win. Every single mode in this game (besides Hockey School) has multiplayer. The greatest is going through an entire season with your hooligan friends and take the cup for your favorite team. There’s nothing to complain about here.

overall

During my time here at the Dojo, some may have noticed that I don’t really care for sports titles that much. However, the Hitz series has always struck my interest and with the release of NHL Hitz Pro, I actually have a sports game that I just can’t put down, even after the release of games like Viewtiful Joe and Freedom Fighters. While this game isn’t necessarily better than the aforementioned action titles, it definitely has plenty of lasting value and anyone who is vaguely interested in a game like this should quickly check this game out. No pun intended.

8.8/10