ESPN NHL Hockey/Sega NHL 2K4 (X-Box)
Developed by: Kush Games
Published by: Sega

Back in the glorious days of 8 bit gaming there were a number of different hockey games available, each offering a unique take on the game. When EA introduced their NHL hockey series in 1991, however, there became only one. Other games may have existed, but they simply no longer mattered. The level of detail and play control in EA’s games blew everything else out of the water.

For a few years, EA coasted along and continued to dominate in the hockey game market.Unfortunately, when there’s no competition to constantly raise the bar, the innovation level can start to fizzle out. It’s not so much that EA stopped putting out good games, but they became reluctant to take risks and their hockey series began to stagnate. And so it came to pass that when Sega made their triumphant return to hockey last year with NHL 2K3, they were able to capitalize on some of EA’s mistakes and gain a sizeable following. Their take on electronic hockey was familiar enough to pick up and play easily, but added a more realistic simulation feel to the game that many hockey gamers had been sorely missing.

After years of buying EA’s hockey games for various systems, I finally realized that I too wanted a new perspective, so this year I invested in Sega’s ESPN NHL Hockey (NHL 2K4). Although some hardcore Sega fans are disappointed with 2K4, feeling that it is inferior to last year’s installment, I have to say that I am generally quite pleased with how this game turned out. It is the breath of fresh air that I had been looking for.

The most noticeable and most important difference for me is the play control. The last few years EA’s controls have seemed sluggish, and even after customizing settings it still seemed like goals were based more on behind the scenes probability calculations rather than skill. The stickhandling in ESPN NHL Hockey is smooth and responsive, and as a result it feels so much more rewarding when you pull off a great play to “light the lamp”. They’ve also added some cool new control features that I’ve never seen before in a hockey game. Things like board pinning, the ability to grab the puck out of the air, sidestepping, and a couple different ways of pulling off manual dekes all really add to the experience. Of course, with all these different maneuvers in mind, the control schemes take a little bit of time to learn. They have wisely provided 3 different control schemes based on a player’s skill level. Unfortunately mixing and matching these control schemes isn’t possible.

The ESPN branding turned out pretty well, although it may confuse some consumers who are shopping for the new Sega hockey game since Sega’s name isn’t very noticeable on the package. The incorporation of the ESPN theme song and transition graphics makes the game feel pretty authentic to a TV broadcast. The commentators are none other than ESPN’s Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, and their dialogue is very professional sounding and fluid while showing a surprising amount of variety. Particularly impressive are some of the specific comments regarding replays and the offhand trivia they impart regarding various players. Like all video game commentary however, some of the illusion wears off when you’ve played a few games and you start to hear the same phrases repeated over and over.

There are a lot of cool extra gimmicks that kind of got me excited about this game too. It has everything from a skills competition to an arcadey 2-on-2 pond hockey mode, to the ability to unlock old classic teams from different hockey eras, along with vintage jerseys from the current NHL teams. There is something called “The Skybox” in the game, which is where all your accumulated trophies and winnings are stored. It also has a playable air hockey table in it. BONUS!

The Franchise mode is a lot of fun, and it has most of the essential ingredients like trades, free agents, injuries, etc. Supposedly gamers subscribed to the X-Box Live service will even be able to download roster updates and things like that. Still, I kind of wish there was more of a feel of being involved in a real NHL season though. Stuff like highlights from other games, and more activity from the other CPU controlled teams would have added to the experience a bit. Did I also mention you can create your own players? And get this — you can even specify whether or not every single tooth in their mouth is missing or not. If that doesn’t make a game worth buying then I don’t know what does!

But despite all of the praise I have for this game, I have to admit that it does lack polish in many areas. You can tell that the product was rushed a bit (probably to get it on store shelves before EA’s NHL 2004) and as a result, there are some sloppy bugs and glitches in the game. I had the game freeze on me once while saving data from a season game I had just finished, and that is obviously unacceptable. An example of a more tolerable (though still questionable) bug is when a key player was knocked out of my season line-up for 2 to 4 months when he somehow bumped into a teammate after a stoppage in play. The commentators sometimes continue to comment on plays after a whistle, and frequently they describe plays inaccurately. While it’s nothing too major, an overall feeling of carelessness does seem to prevail after playing the game for a bit.

Although the graphics and animations have been improved from last year’s game, the visuals are still not up to par with EA’s standards. The face models in particular just aren’t nearly as detailed… many players are not distinguishable by their facial features at all. A lot of the new goalie animations are very cool, but the players themselves often look stiff and awkward… most of the time they don’t even appear to be gripping their sticks properly.

The music in the game is annoying (although arguably irrelevant since you can turn it off). With the exception of Queen’s We Will Rock You (the only licensed song occasionally heard in between plays), the soundtrack consists of repetitive instrumental nu-metal tunes written by a band called … . The guitar wanking and bad riffs got on my nerves pretty quickly. I thought that on the X-Box you could use your own music (as many X-Box games allow you to do), however the only option I could find to import a soundtrack was on the Jukebox located within the Skybox area. This was pretty much useless since it only allowed you to listen to music from a menu, not actually during a game.

The other complaint I have is related to some of the difficulty settings. This is a touchy issue and really tough to finetune in a game, but it can quickly lead to frustration. Passes seem to be picked off way too often, especially when coming from goalies. After trying a few passes from your goalie only to have it drop inexplicably into a corner or directly onto an opposing player’s stick, you’ll start to cover up and wait for a whistle instead of giving up a prime scoring chance. This is annoying and it slows the game down a lot. Then there’s the fact that at difficulty settings above Rookie the goalies become nigh inpenetrable. While some of these things can be amended using the various setting sliders, it still doesn’t seem like they play tested the balance of the game very thoroughly here.

I think that the ESPN NHL Hockey’s solid gameplay engine is what really makes me wish the developers had gone the extra mile and fixed some of these nagging issues. It could have been the ultimate hockey game. Still, when it comes to sports games most of the extra frills quickly fall by the wayside if a game isn’t fun to play… but this one is. Very fun. I haven’t played EA’s NHL 2004 enough to make a fair comparison, but I can definitely say that ESPN NHL Hockey is a strong competitor and absolutely worth checking out if you are a hockey fan. Casual gamers may not notice a big difference between the two, while hardcore gamers will probably choose a favourite based on previous biases. I just hope more people give ESPN NHL Hockey a chance because it really deserves the attention. If you’ve become disillusioned with EA’s hockey series, or even just a little bit curious about what else is out there, give it a whirl. You’ll be glad you did. — Sean