NHL 2K3 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.