NHL 2K3 GameCube Review

Sega's NHL 2K series began on their very own first party console system the Dreamcast with NHL 2K and has been in development ever since. Such games as ESPN NHL Hockey, NHL 2K2 and NHL 2K3 have arisen since then, and the series has continued to evolve to this day. Unfortunately the series will be ending with ESPN NHL 2K6 because EA bought the license to ESPN for 15 years starting in 2006 and Sega will no longer be allowed to create hockey games with the ESPN license. Nevertheless, while this remains to be true and unfortunate, that doesn't take away the fact that NHL 2K3 is one heck of an awesome hockey simulation, and one that should've sold many more copies than it originally has!

For those of you who are fans of ESPN and ESPN2, you are most obviously familiar with the theme song that goes along with it as well? Anytime a hockey game is being shown on television utilizing either station, the trademark ESPN theme plays in the background, and it's been catchy ever since it was created!

Well it is absolutely no different when you eventually get to the start screen of this game, the ESPN theme plays in the background, and continues to do so as you navigate the game's menus! This is a great way to set the tone and overall feel of the game, making it seem like you really are going to be interacting with a real ESPN hockey tv presentation, and it comes very close to doing so!

Just like most hockey games this generation, it does take a while to get used to the control scheme in this game. It is strongly recommended that you play several exhibition games on the easier difficulty levels so that you can get used to how the game feels. There are actually beginner, intermediate and advanced control schemes that you can choose from, and each one truly IS different. Beginner just allows you to do the basic movements that NHL players execute while advanced allows you to do pretty much everything from passing and shooting to the most insanely looking dekes and one timer combinations! Depending on how experienced you are with hockey games of the past, you should either use beginner if you're a newcomer to this genre or you can really start with advanced if you know you'll be comfortable eventually and are a hockey gaming veteran! After a good couple days or so, you should be able to control the game effectively enough to start a season, and that's pretty much a given with all hockey games nowadays.

One of the biggest things that sets Sega apart from EA when it comes to making hockey games is pretty much this category right here. Sega is most definitely more orientated to creating a good enough graphical atmosphere that won't disappoint and bring along a finely tuned gameplay engine for hockey simulation while EA tends to focus more on making their titles more graphically beautiful while sacrificing one too many aspects that the computer AI SHOULD and NEEDS to have in order to make the experience a "true" simulation.

But nevertheless, even though the graphics in this game aren't quite as good as the ones you might see in NHL 2004 or NHL 2005, they are definitely good enough to make the experience very enjoyable!

Just like in other sports game reviews I've done, I will break this next part down into the subcategories that deal the most with the graphical presentation in this game. The players, the rinks, the fans and the animation!

The Players: What Sega had to offer with regards to this was rather unique. They really didn't take the time to make everyone look like their real life counterparts, and they should be applauded for that. When you play a hockey videogame, you should NOT be worried with how the players look most of the time, you should be focusing on the action taking place. But nevertheless, even though not everyone looks like who they do in real life, Sega at least went as far as making the more famous and well-known players such as Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux, Philadelphia Flyer's Jeremy Roenick (cover boy) and Colorado Avalanche's Joe Sakic look very close to how they do in real life. This sort of gives you a better opportunity of identifying with your team rather than not being able to point ANYONE out that would be considered more famous. So while it's mostly just famous hockey players that look more like their real life counterparts, Sega definitely pulled the smart move in this regard with not focusing on everyone, because that's not where your focus should be in playing a hockey game.

Most if not all sports titles nowadays do a great job of replicating what the actual teams' arenas or stadiums may look like if you saw them in person. That concept is no different in NHL 2K3. All the team emblems, the name of their hockey rink and even all the advertisements along the boards look very much authentic! It would be rather shocking to see otherwise, so Sega brought what was needed to be brought to the table. Some of the best features of the actual rinks though? When the players skate on the ice, you can actually see the cuts in the ice that they make with their skates. If you pull a quick stop with a player you're controlling, you will see a small "ice shower" effect which is very realistic! Also, depending on which areas of the ice are skated across more, the lighting effects in the game will allow you to see which have been used more and which haven't. This can have a definite effect on the traction for your players, especially on breakaways or power play opportunities! The ice rinks look simply superb in this game, and Sega did what was needed to be done with them.

Now you can ask me what I feel is the most important part of a hockey game and I will say its fans. If there are no fans, there is no excitement. If there is no excitement, there is no motivation to play, because they are the exact people you are aiming to please. Now even though Sega didn't go quite as far with the crowd's overall design like other developers like EA and Midway have done, it certainly isn't shoddy in the least. They are still more or less presented in a 2D format than anything else, even though they can appear to be 3D at times. Nevertheless, even though you can't always distinguish the physical features among different crowd members, their effect is still very much there. You can see happiness or disgust in them, you will know how they feel towards certain things that happen during a game, so they are still very much an integral part of the game. They definitely do look the best if you are given a view of a team's bench during a break in play when you can see the benched players and coach standing behind them. They aren't perfect, absolutely not, but they do serve their purpose.

The Animation: This is most definitely where Sega outshined their competition in this hockey videogame, just how fluid the game actually plays out. If you're looking for a realistically animated and fluid hockey game to play for the GameCube, this is most certainly it. Now obviously it depends on how you have the game's speed and whatnot cranked up to, but even keeping that in mind, Sega did the best overall job in making this seem like what a hockey game could and should feel like. The players skate with purely fluid motion, with smooth strides in their skating, and everything else that they would normally do looks just as great! The wind up you see a player execute when getting ready to hit a slapper is beautifully done. If you are prepping the player you're controlling to lay the "smackdown" on another on the opposing team, you will most definitely see an extension of your arm or shoulder when you go to finally do it. The only motion that can tend to be choppy at times is the deking motions that the players can do. They don't always tend to look like something you would see a real NHL player do, but they serve their purpose just like the crowd does. Sega did a beautiful job making this seem like a hockey game you could just as easily see during a real NHL hockey season, and for that they deserve much kudos!

Where Sega differs from both EA and Midway in this category is the simple fact that NHL 2K3 features absolutely NO licensed music! Well I suppose you could consider the actual NHL/ESPN theme song as a licensed song, but technically it really isn't.

When you eventually get to the start menu, and the option to open the game up finally shows up, the ESPN theme will begin playing in the background, and it continues to do so as you navigate the various menus until you actually get into something.

Now you might think that could get much too repetitive at times. Well, you're right, it can. But if you're an avid hockey videogame player and love watching it on tv, you really shouldn't find yourself getting too annoyed most of the time. It is a pretty cool sounding theme isn't it? Plus even though it's played probably the most in the game, it's what most definitely brings the whole NHL/ESPN experience to the GameCube!

Pretty much the only other music you will end up hearing in the game are the national anthems of the various countries that are featured in the game, and then the generic themes that were composed by Sega to maintain the flow of the game during breaks in play. The themes you might hear during such times are various techno and pop themes with small hints of rock, but not much. They certainly aren't bad, but when it comes to this game overall in music, there just isn't much there. However, instead of that being a truly turning off feature, it keeps you from becoming flustered with repetitive soundtracks you might hear in other games. It all depends on what you like when it comes to sports titles.

Now where the music may have lacked in the game at all, the sound effects definitely make up for it in GREAT detail!

So if you imagine yourself at a hockey game, and imagine the kinds of sounds that you might hear during such an event, you will most likely hear those very sounds while playing this game!

Whether you might realize or not as well, when you play this game, even the "little" things you would probably hear are sounds that are featured in this game!

The "clicking" and "banging" sounds you might hear when a player passes the puck to another teammate and the puck hits his stick, you hear it! When the puck at any time comes into contact with the boards, you hear it with extreme realism! If you see the puck come into contact with the glass, it will sound like something hitting a window!

Even the incredibly difficult to compose sound of a player hitting another player on the ice sounds oddly realistic, but not perfect either. It's virtually impossible to simulate a "hitting sound" in anything, especially videogames, so there's no need for a pointing finger in this regard. Even another difficult sound of a puck coming into contact with a goalie's mask and producing a loud "tap" is in this game!

Finally, with every sport come announcers and color commentators, and this game is no different. Now unfortunately with this game, the one liners and comments used by the presenters get old REALLY quick. Now they don't necessarily annoy you because you'll often find yourself simply ignoring what they have to say after you hear their scripted lines a few times in a row, but fortunately you do have the option of turning off both of their voices so that you don't have to listen to them if you can't take stuff like that. They do bring a very nice, positive hockey atmosphere at times, but the script the two were given just wasn't comprehensive enough to warrant what you would more likely hear during an actual NHL broadcast. The worst part of the whole presentation is during intermissions when the one guy talks about each team in "detail." Normally he doesn't end up saying much, and quite frankly it could've been done away with because he pretty much states nothing but the obvious in a very immature fashion.

Nevertheless, the music is good and can definitely help the whole experience come alive as you play it. The sound effects are just superb and really bring the NHL game experience to your tv. While the announcing might not be impressive, it can be played without, so that's always a good thing.

As you can see from the subheading of this review, I wrote "the true hockey simulation," and that's just what this game is. None of that needless and frustrating arcade style of hockey like NHL 2004 & 2005 have is featured in this game. It's pure hockey, and not a thing more or less. The gameplay engine Sega implemented in this game is a shining example and reflection of just that. When it comes to the GameCube, this is as close as you will get with regards to what an actual NHL hockey game might be play out as. How you execute your offense and defense are most definitely retrospect of what you might see in real life, and that is exactly why this game is so great.

Now it definitely does depend on how hardcore of a hockey videogame player you are, because there are numerous ways to tweak this game. There's rookie, pro and all-star difficulties, each of which obviously dictate how tough it is for you on your end. There are actual in-game mechanics that you can shuffle through and adjust to your liking such as the speed of the game, how good the opposing offense and defense is, how good the goalies are, right down to how the puck is actually affected with the physics of the play!

With regards to the actual controls, there are actually 3 different design templates for those as well. There is the beginner, intermediate and advanced options of play, and obviously the one you choose will dictate how you play the game. There are some things you do in advanced that you can't do in intermediate and beginner play, so that is obviously the better choice to go with if you want the widest variety of executable maneuvers with your team. The two biggest features of advanced are deking and protecting the puck yourself that you won't find with the other two modes, so it's strongly suggested to just stick with advanced and get used to it as quickly as possible.

Now it definitely will take a while for newcomers to this game to get used to how if feels with overall play, but it certainly isn't entirely difficult because the consistency with what you use on the controller is actually quite balanced. There are multiple button combinations to perform some of the more advanced maneuvers such as the deking and such, but nothing too confusing that you'll find yourself always asking a friend for help or consulting the instruction manual for help that way.

Really the only downsides to the gameplay in this game are the facts that there really are no "interference" penalties so if you're that kind of hockey videogame player that loves hovering around your opponents' net, you will often find yourself getting "laid out" more often than you should by the computer, even if you don't necessarily have the puck. Frustrating? It can be, but there are always ways around it if you're good enough. Also, the fighting engine in this game is TOTALLY uninspired. It almost doesn't surprise me that it is that way since Sega did so much to make everything else as realistic as possible. It's just another "button mashing" event to go through, and the simulation of an actual fight in hockey is just not there at all. Bad? Not really, but if you like that kind of thing in hockey games and like to nitpick, it could be.

Other than that there really isn't too much to complain about, just simply more to praise. There really is a much better chance of you setting up true NHL hockey plays such as one timers and firing slapshots from the blue line with your defensemen and scrambling for a possible rebound in front of the net with your forwards. The best thing about that is the goalies really aren't completely stupid, even if they do have their moments, and you won't find scoring to be an easy thing most of the time. Unlike what was claimed with NHL 2004 & 2005 by EA Sports, you REALLY do have to earn your way to the goals that you score. There are only so many ways that you can actually fool the goaltender, but even sometimes when you think you have it, the goalie WILL shock you and pull off an incredible save!

The only feature that will seem unbalanced at times, but really isn't a detriment to the game, is the number of breakaways that each team can possibly get during each game. Now the average I've seen while playing this game for the time I have is around 2 to 3 a game. But I have seen up to as many as 7, and that's just not normally possible. Thankfully that doesn't happen very often, but if you are playing a team that has incredibly fast skaters, it is strongly suggested that you keep on your toes on defense, poke-checking and checking at all possible times to keep them from getting behind you too easily!

Everything else about this game is simply excellent. Sega really pulled out everything they probably could've in making this game feel like a true NHL hockey game. The AI was surprisingly and impressively well-done, even though it's not 100% realistic ALL the time. The controls hardly ever feel choppy, and that coupled with great animation definitely makes this for one heck of an awesome hockey gaming experience!

Just like most other hockey games, there really is no concrete ending to this game, however the Stanley Cup presentation if you win the championship series as well as all the season player/team awards afterwards is actually quite nice! Sega definitely helps you feel satisfied with your accomplishments, and if you happened to have quite the dominating team during the regular season and playoffs, you will enjoy a plethora of awards for your various teammates. It's amazing how many you can actually get!

NHL 2K3 is replay value in of itself. Just playing the regular season itself is just so much fun that I'm actually on it through for my third straight time with my favorite team of all time in the Pittsburgh Penguins! Now there isn't only the regular season to get involved in, but just because of how much fun it is for me, I haven't even touched the other modes! There is a Franchise mode where you can form your own dynasty and take them through their own unique season. There is a Tournament mode where you pretty much dictate how things work, and can play to what your heart desires. There's also the Sega Sports Challenge which is basically what it says. Sega challenges you to do various things, and you have to complete them to progress! But nevertheless, the season mode truly is very engaging, and it's definitely one of the best in hockey gaming history. It will continue to grab a hold of you, constantly making you want to push your team further, and Sega couldn't have done a better job with it!

It is most unfortunate that this game sold very poorly when it was released, because Sega did so many things right in this game. The last time I heard, it sold less than 20,000 copies, so I'm one of less than that number of people who actually own this game, and I find that truly saddening. I think too many people are too willing to flock to what EA Sports has to bring to the table when it comes to hockey, because most of the people I know actually HATE EA's hockey games because they are just too frustrating and feature truly crappy AI programming. The graphics aren't perfect, but they are good enough to satisfy even the most hardcore hockey gamer. The music is pretty good, the sound effects are just awesome and even the announcing can have its entertaining moments even if it does just get too repetitive too quickly. But where NHL 2K3 most definitely shines and outdoes all other hockey games on the GameCube is the ease and fluidity of the controls. They just FEEL like you are playing a real hockey game, and the replay value is more than there to complement them. If you really do want a TRUE simulation of the NHL game, then look no further than NHL 2K3!

Recent Reviews

Deca Sports Wii (Nintendo Wii) » Featuring ten sports in one package, how does Deca Sports for Wii stack up?
Sin & Punishment (Virtual Console) (Nintendo Wii) » Treasure's Japan-only shooter makes it to the US, plus a few dollars.
Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo Wii) » Greater than the Gamecube's Mario Kart but less than the DS.
Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party (Nintendo Wii) » Not so hot. Hey, somebody had to say it.
Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys (Nintendo DS) » An interesting but slow puzzle platformer.
Bomberman Land (Nintendo Wii) » Bomberman heads to the Nintendo Wii for some multiplayer mayhem.
Super Mario World (Virtual Console) (Nintendo Wii) » Hail to the king.

Recent Reviews

Game Information

Screenshots

Latest Reviews

Partners

Cool Sites