NHL 2003

"An acquired taste...."

I love hockey. I love hockey games. And when a hockey game is advertised as the real thing, I get hype unless of course it is EA Sports. It's common knowledge these days that the glory days of EA's NHL franchise are over. When you first plop in this disc, get ready to be annoyed beyond belief. EA Sports Trax are overly used, and the music isn't good at all. Whenever a new Trax begins, a little box appears telling you the who and what about the current song you hear. It's annoying. It was extremely frustrating in Madden, and it doesn't get any better here. Oh yeah, even while your playing, these stupid little boxes pop up. They gotta go.

Then there are the default settings, which are absolutely, incredibly ridiculous. So bad they are, that the game is almost unplayable. It took me about 30 minutes to fix the settings to my preference which is a no-no. Me, as well as anyone, want to play the game when they first open it, not fiddle with the settings. Moving right along, I think the gameplay is slightly sluggish too, and unresponsive in some cases. I won't get into the new manual control deke, but I found it a useless feature unless you like playing the game on the slowest game speed setting.

Another unsurprising minus is the lack of historical teams, but they have been lacking in this department since the beginning. Madden has them, why not NHL? Fighting is a complete joke. You want a realistic hockey game with reasonable scores/injuries/AI?
Then walk away my friend, because you will not find it here. Talk about shoot outs, every other game the combined score is somewhere around 20-25 goals. Dumb. Injuries. LOL. Sometimes, I think it would be a good idea to bench my starters until the playoffs in fear of themm getting season ending injuries by the weakest of hits.

As for the AI, I wouldn't say the computer is dumb but, it certainly isn't the smartest. While chasing the computer's player with the puck ,I feel as though I'm playing freeze-tag around the net sometimes. The goalie animations are SWEET. The best looking save I've seen is the goalie diving on his side and makes a save, then while still on his side, the guy wrists in the rebound only to have the goalie kick it out of the air. Very nice. By the way. EVERY camera angle stinks.

Overall, it is an extremely addictive game. I'm not a big fan at all of this game but, I find myself playing it all the time. Then again, I'm desperate for a hockey game. The biggest problem is EA Sports caters to the idiot button mashing kiddies who don't know nothing about simulation and adore and enjoy the entertainment and the pointless features such as the NHL cards (which in my opinion are a total waste of space) that EA feeds us every year. I would rather enjoy a hockey game, for the skill and strategy over stupid add-ins such as the gameplay-hindering breakaway camera, big head mode, etc... This game is too arcadey and is obviously built for the younger player with no experience. That said, right now NHL 2003 is the only hockey title available, that is why I have it. Best bet is to wait until NHL2k3 hits stores shelves and pick that up.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/02, Updated 10/09/02