NHL Hitz Pro

The Good
HITZ Pro marks Midway's third pilgrimage into the realm of high-octane, physically impossible arcade hockey. The exact formula has been tweaked from previous entries in the series, but the good news is that HITZ Pro is still as explosive as ever.

Immediately noticeable to gamers who logged time on HITZ 2002 or 2003 will be the presence of more skaters on the ice. That's right, kids, HITZ Pro takes the series from three-on-three hockey to a standard five-on-five format (such as you would see at an actual hockey game). While you may think that this would make the game more realistic, in actuality, it simply gives you more players to pass to and more victims to unleash thundering body checks on. In terms of the core gameplay, the presence of 5 players per side hasn't affected the overall feel of the game that much -- which is a good thing, because the previous HITZ titles were a tremendous amount of fun to play.

The 5-a-side format does open up some options for you, however, You can actually set up plays that closely resemble actual hockey strategies. You can charge in with your power forwards, dig the puck out of the corner, feed it back out to your defenseman for a point shot and a deflection into the net...just as an example.

Line changes are also included in this year's title, which means that every NHL team's roster is fully represented (unlike previous years in which only the best five or six players from each team were available). While having access to your third or fourth line -- which admittedly, won't get used a whole lot -- may seem like a minor addition to casual hockey fans, the hardcore among us will appreciate being able to control the unsung heroes of today's NHL.

HITZ Pro offers a pretty wide spread of modes and options to keep you busy. Like any hockey game, you can engage in a one-off exhibition match with up to four other players (or the CPU, if all your buddies ditched you). There's also a season mode, in which you can take any team through an 82-game campaign and (if you play well enough) on to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Probably most notable of the game modes is a Dynasty mode, in which you make your own squad from scratch, choose a name, logo, and jersey design for them, and then take them through a ladder of teams to earn the right to play with them in any other game mode. What makes this mode interesting is the challenges that are dispersed throughout it, and if you complete these specific tasks during your games, you'll earn special pieces of equipment that can enhance the stats of the player who wears them.

HITZ Pro also features an impressive array of options to help you tweak your game experience to exactly the kind of hockey game you want to play. Are you a hockey purist who doesn't want to see players doing back flips every time they get hit? You can tone down the hitting power. Game not running fast enough for you? Turn up the game speed. Feel like playing your friend at a round of "first to 100"? Make the goalies ridiculously easy to beat. While most of this stuff is available in your standard simulation hockey game, the fact that an arcade hockey title has so many options is really surprising, and adds to the replay value.

The Bad
One game mode that I failed to mention above is pond hockey. I didn't mention it because the mode is pointless. As you may of guessed, this a mode where you play hockey on a pond. You have three or four completely made-up teams at your disposal, each toting their own color scheme of winter scarfs and hats. They all have generic names like "Steve" and "Andy". And they play hockey. That's it. I honestly can't picture anyone putting down their controller after a session of HITZ and saying "Gee, I'm glad that pond hockey mode was in there. Frank is my favorite player!" It's nice to see Midway trying different things with the brand, but how this idea made it to production is beyond me. Put this one back on the drawing board, fellas -- it needs more work.

You can also access a tutorial mode, which gives you an interactive overview of all the control functions and game play elements. The fact that the tutorials are voiced by the legendary Scottie Bowman is a nice touch, but the whole idea of including a tutorial for a game anyone can pick up and learn on their own in ten minutes seems pretty pointless. Instead, the memory taken up by this mode could have gone to make more fun mini-games like HITZ 2003 had...which are sadly absent from this title.

The "On Fire" mechanic has been modified this year, and I'm not convinced the change is an improvement. Before, any player that scored three goals (a "hat trick", one might say) caught fire and had improved stats until the other team scored or beat him in a fight. The new mechanic simply makes your whole team on fire for a set amount of time whenever you go on a power play or win a fight. It doesn't feel as pivotal or exciting as it used to be. I remember getting railed by single "on fire" player in past games, but now it's just a matter of holding out until the team's "on fire" status wears off.

One more small niggling complaint: In spite of the fact that the game now features line changes, there's absolutely noway to change lines during play. You have to wait and do it between whistles. While this doesn't seem like too huge a deal to most folks, HITZ can go a minute or two (real time) without a whistle, and by that point, your players are sucking serious wind. I fail to see why Midway omitted this option, especially considering every hockey game since 1994 has had an option to change lines during play.

The Bottom Line
Overall, HITZ Pro makes an excellent addition to the library of any hockey fanatic, as well as anyone who likes multi-player games. In spite of the changes, HITZ Pro manages to keep up the energy and pace of previous titles in the series. Even though there's still a few kinks to work out, NHL HITZ Pro is still one of the better arcade sports titles on the market.