NHL HItz Pro 2004
Its NHL 2004, but where are the Hitz?
Tags: NHL Hitz Pro 2004 Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Andrew on Oct 30th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| NHL Hitz Pro 2004 (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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What the hell was Midway thinking? Did we really want or need another simulation series or a full recreation of the sport. We have EA, SEGA, Microsoft, and 989 studios to do recreations of the sport. WE WANT PEOPLE FLYING THROUGH GLASS, WE WANT FAST ACTION GAMEPLAY AND PUCKS GOING THROUGH PEOPLES HEADS! Well, maybe we went a little to far with that last request, but hey look at Grand Theft Auto.
Midway in its great wisdom decided that their Hitz and Blitz titles this year needed a revamp and to actually include the right number of players, and worst of all, RULES! Well, sometimes… Although, not a true simulation (there is still some arcade characteristics in there) it is not that much of a stretch from what EA has to offer.
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For those unfamiliar with the Hitz series, it is (was?) a fast paced, high scoring “hockey” simulation that was much closer to NBA JAM on ice then say SEGA’s 2K series. Well, now we have 5 on 5 with a wannabe turbo. There are still a lot of good body collisions, and you can still knock half of the opposing team through the same broken glass, but the pace of the game is dramatically slowed down, the arcade feel is limited, and the overall presentation is now just another hockey game with little to differentiate it from EA or SEGA’s offerings this year.
The game itself offers the basic Exhibition Mode, Franchise Mode, Pick Up Hockey and a Training Mode. The Franchise Mode is actual an interesting simulation with player trades with intelligent GM’s, different lines and a overall decent simulation for what was once a pure arcade game (For the record, NHL Hitz 2002 is still one of the best multiplayer sports games there is, as countless nights were spent bashing the crap out of each other).
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The controls for the game are little different from past Hitz games. There is a deke button, pass, shoot, and guard puck for offense. On defense there is body check, stick guard, select defender and blocking button. The actual physical hits in the game, are still very intense and come very quickly. Basically though, all you need to know for the game is, turbo, pass, and one timer. With a few body checks thrown in. When the computer is on any of the easier modes, a first-timer will score basically every time. There a few different goalie controls, which allows for far finer defense and is better than the old 2D left/right defensive options of past games in the series.
One more note on the controls, who the hell spins with the puck? We want to see a roundhouse elbow to the face instead of this pansy spinning. Think what you could do, animated nose bleeds, oh wait they have that in WWE RAW 2.
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Oh yes, the AI, well the good news is that the game is really fun when played against other people. The bad news is that I could get my cat to play me and have had a bigger challenge than facing the computer at most difficulty levels, especially for anyone that has played a previous version of the game (if you realize that every single one of the old tricks still work). Because there is now 5 defenders, instead of the old three, that just means that you need to make exactly zero more moves around people to ensure success.
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Graphically it’s a big improvement over previous versions, but still suffers from series frame rate problems on the PS2. On the Xbox, the game flows flawlessly and both versions have very detailed models and gives a very good overall feel to the environment. Goalies noticeably are far more animated then what they used to be, with use of the puck and kick saves. The commentary, which is isn’t too far different from the irrelevant nature of the past versions, also is enough to add to the atmosphere.
We were great fans of the past Hitz platform. Overall this is a good game with decent graphics and decent gameplay, but we miss the old arcade feel of the game. The action is noticeably slowed down and the added players just clog up the rink. We want a turbo button that actually makes the players go faster, and what the hell happened to team fire? Overall this is a very good offering from Midway, they just messed up a good game. Hopefully next year, we will see more of the old and not more of EA.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Goalie animations + Lots and lots of body checks |
6.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Turbo Button - Speed of game - Slowdown on PS2 - AI - Difficulty |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| WE ARE NOT HAPPY WITH MIDWAY - BRING BACK THE HITZ!! | |
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Tags: NHL Hitz Pro 2004
Posted by Andrew on Oct 30th, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
