Full Review

Remember the good old days when you used to play hockey games on your SNES? Remember the hours of entertainment? Well, I don’t because I never had a SNES. But now the newer generation of gaming can experience the power of hockey on a GameBoy Advance.

I love hockey. It’s my favorite sport to watch and to play. I am also a proud owner of a GameBoy Advance. So, don’t be shocked that I went out and purchased NHL 2002 by EA Sports for GameBoy Advance. I was expecting decent graphics, decent gameplay, well, not much. Boy was I surprised when I popped the little cartridge into my system…

Controls: The controls for this game are very simple to learn and understand. You skate with the control pad (obvious). To take the draw in a face-off, you press the B-button.
When on offense, to pass you press the B-button plus a direction so that the pass isn’t random. To take a wrist shot (quick shot), just tap on the A-button but if you want to take a slap shot (hard shot), hold down the A-button. You can do one-timers (pass and immediate shot) by pressing the B-button and then immediately on the A-button. The rarely used shoulder buttons on the GBA have a purpose but I rarely use them. The L button is a Quick Stop and the R button is called a Spin-o-Rama (if you want to avoid a defender).
When on defense, to Hold or Hook a player press the L button and if you want your player to fall on the ice to block a shot press the R button. To speed up (turbo) or to body check (the favorite part of the hockey game- crashing into people) press on the A button. The B-button has two functions, poke check/trip up a player with the puck or to switch defenders and become the closest defender to the puck.
You can control you goalie just like an offensive player with the A and B buttons. And you can randomly get into fights (don’t you just love to fight). To punch someone just press the A or B button. These are two different varieties of punches.
Wow, that was a mouthful… But it’s easy to get used to. Really.

Gameplay: The gameplay in NHL 2002 is simply astonishing. There are four different modes of play! How do they fit so much on such a small cartridge?

The first mode of play is Exhibition, where you just play one game. They are three levels of difficulty, so as you get better you should upgrade yourself. The period length can be 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes. Exhibition mode is great if you have fifteen free minutes to waste.

The second mode is Season mode. You pick a team and have to play 82 games until you get to the playoffs and then contend for the Stanley Cup. You can skip the season and go right to the playoffs if you wish. In season mode, you can track every players stats (goals, assists and points), look at the standings (which every teams wins, losses, times and even overtime losses) and you can every trade players. This feature is pretty cool. And the trades are decent because each player is assigned a rating and the players that you trade have to have an equal or better rating that the player you are trading for. The game does reject trades, so cheaters beware! You can also create players or sign players who are waived. The only downside in Season mode is that even I like seasons, playing 82 games takes way too much time. You can’t choose a 20 or 40 game season, only 82! That’s a minimum of 5 minutes per period times 3 periods times 82 games, which equals 1230 minutes, which is equal to 20.5 hours. That means to complete a season, you have to play for atleast 20 hours! That crazy! And you haven’t even reached the playoffs.

Then there is Practice mode where you can brush up your skills and practice or played 1-1, 2-2 or 3-3 with your teammates.

There is also a Link Mode, where you can have up to 4 players linked together. I don’t know much about this feature since noone that I know has this game.

Overall, the gameplay is great and engine isn’t choppy, the game runs smoothly. Every player on the ice has their number and position under them when you have the puck, so you know whom you’re controlling. This game features fights, penalties (you can switch them off if you get tired of them) and all official rules (2-line pass, icing, etc.). Also, you can save your season before or after any game onto the cartridge, but there is only 1 slot.

Graphics: Well, the graphics aren’t amazing because this is a GBA, not an X-BOX or PS2, but for a GBA, the graphics are pleasant and very detailed.
The players and goalies are pretty detailed. The players all have helmets, sticks, and jerseys, which are exact copies of the real jerseys in the NHL. They even switch jerseys when they’re away or home. The goalies are very detailed: there’s a blocker, a glove, kneepads, and even a goalie mask, which is reminiscent of the 70’s. The crowd is much more appealing than the NHL ? PC version, where the where just multi-colored dots. The crowd is actually small people. As the period wears on, the icing becomes etched with marks from the players’ skates, but during the intermission a zamboni comes and the marks disappear. The puck is a small black circle, but it is very easy to see. The team logos appear on the center of the ice and when you’re selecting teams to play against, the little symbols are exactly the same symbols of the teams in real life. On the ice, there are ten players, two goalies and a couple of refs. You can clearly see the players’ benches with players sitting on them. As you can see, the graphics are nice and very detailed!

Sound: The sound is very advanced for a GBA. When you’re on the menus, there is a little tune. The tune is pretty cool and not annoying at all. When a player scores a goal, the siren goes off, thus creating a red flashing light and a somewhat loud noise, which is close to real life. When a penalty is called, the referee actually says the number of the player who committed the ‘crime’ and the extension of the penalty. Fans boo when a referee doesn’t call a penalty, and scream “defense” and stomp their feet when the opposite them is attacking. You can hear the punches in fights, you can hear a screech when a players suddenly stops and when someone gets checked, there is a little sound, which I think is a yell of pain.

Overall, I think this is a great game. This is one of the best games for the GBA, possibly the best sports game. I strongly suggest GBA owners to go buy this game. There is a lot of replay value, and this value increases if you can get a friend you also buy this game and play against you. Good job, EA sports! I can’t wait for NHL 2003 to be released.

Until next time,
Vadimio – the GBA reviewer