NHL 2002

"A great game for a hardcore hockey adict or a casual fan."

Many hot games came out this year. Max Payne, Diablo II, Baldur's Gate II, Star Wars:Rouge Leader for the Game Cube...but all of them pail in comparison to NHL 2002.

To see the advancements made by EA in the sports game field in the past 4 years is stunning. From having crap for graphics, everyone looking the same, no distinctive actions and boring repetitive commentary to NHL 2002 is a great advancement to say the least. But EA's biggest flaw still lies in it's inability to muster up a game with a good defensive AI.

Graphics 10/10
One word comes to mind when thinking of the graphics on this game: Wow! Maybe it's each skater having his own skating style, the celebrations after scoring a goal, the fact that you can look at a player and 9 times out of 10 tell who they are, or maybe it's the opening intros before the game but the graphics on this game have not been surpassed by any game I've ever played.

Music/ Sound 9/10
The default music can get old pretty quickly and that's the only reason for the 9 but after downloading the ditty importer from EA.com you can import your own music into the game. It's rather sweet to hear POD's ''School of Hard Knocks'' after pummeling Eric Lindross into a bloody pulp with Simon Gagne. The commentators are awesome too. I have to give praise to EA for bringing in Don Taylor for this game. He adds a real aspect of humor to the game that hasn't been there before.

Control 9/10
Damn near perfect control. Easy to switch between players quickly. Easy to wind your way through the offensive zone and crash the net. You can change your attack and defense patterns in the coaching options. The forwards dont allways respond though...stupid Jeremy Roenick. Thank God for the trade option. The only problem is that you cant change the controls at all. You get adjusted to this quickly though and then you're off to hockey stardom.

Gameplay 10/10
Great control over your players. Very detailed. Very realistic. I can allmost feel the pain when I drive Eric Lindross's sorry ass into the glass. You can carry your franchise through 10 seasons and create a dynasty. Each season new free agents become available and a rookie draft is available. Players retire too...which sucks but just adds to the fun. The ability to create a custom team is great even though you cant use them in season mode. One of best features in my opinion is that during season mode the computer can reject trades. This feature keeps people from trading the guy who cant skate for the other teams hero. One example is trading that jerk off Eric Lindross for someone great like Jaromir Jagr. Yes sir, with a little tweaking this game can make it seem like you're right there in the action.

Difficulty: The difficulty is adjustable and actually does adjust this time instead of hard meaning fast and all star meaning hella fast.

Replay Value: You'll be playing this game for a long time. With the online game mode, the 10 season franchise mode, shoot out, tournament and playoff mode and of course just playing plain exhibition games...you wont get tired of this one for a long time sports fans. And who can forget the never ending quest for all the NHL Cards???

Is it worth playing? Hell Yes it's worth playing. Go buy the game now!

Overall: 9/10
Sluggish defense, repetitive music and players not allways responding to your commands take away from the overall value but still a great buy.

Game Highs:
Great Graphics
Great Sound
Great Commentary
Being able to end Eric Lindross's sorry career with a devastating board check from behind.

Game Lows:
Bad D
Flawed Control at times
Music gets old fast

Buy it or rent it? Since you cant rent it buy it. It's $40 but well worth every penny.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/02, Updated 01/02/02