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NHL Hitz Pro - Best Hockey Video Game Ever!

Written by Sean Payton | 11 March 2009

My favorite hockey video game of all time isn't the latest, greatest game for the latest, greatest system. Nor is it something super vintage like NHL '94 (Genesis, SNES) or Blades of Steel (NES). Nope - its NHL Hitz Pro (Xbox, PS2, Gamecube) - the third and final game in the short lived NHL Hitz series.
Yes, that's Nick “Hollywood" Lindstrom on the cover looking as uncomfortable as ever.

The series advertised itself as "Adrenaline Style Hockey". It was created by Midway and was essentially the hockey version of NBA Jam or NFL Blitz. The original game NHL Hitz 20-02 debuted in 2001. (Get it? Hitz with a “z” because it’s sooo crazzzy!) It was 3 on 3 hockey and each team only had a roster of 6 players. It was very over the top, even by Midway’s standards. For example: if a player lost a fight, he was kicked out of the game.

The game went through a large makeover for its third year. Changes were aimed at making the game a little more realistic - the largest change being going from 3 on 3 with no line changes to 5 on 5 and including complete rosters (as of July 2003) and 4 lines / 3 D pairs. This means all of your favorite Avalanche players from the 2003 – 04 season are there including superstars Chris McAllister and Peter Worrell!

The reason why this game is my favorite is gameplay. The game is very fast, very fluid and very fun. It’s also very short (if you want it to be, of course) – it takes only 15min to play a 3 min / period game. I just don’t have hours in my day to play video games anymore. One timers, tipped shots, wrap arounds, wrist shots, poke checks, all there. Hits? Sorry, I mean Hitz? You'd better believe it.

Goal scoring is varied – the game is so chaotic that goals often develop in different ways.
Another big plus for this game is it very configurable. And changing AI settings actually make a noticeable difference. Once you’ve got a handle on the the game, I recommend turning computer AI way up and goalie intelligence halfway up and playing on “Legend” difficulty. If you tweak the settings right, quality goaltenders will occasionally (and not always) can stand on their heads and steal games, especially in the playoffs.

Even though it a great game, a few gripes:

  • Franchise mode is really weird / lame.
  • No numbers on jersey sleeves.
  • You can’t designate “C”s or “A”s.
  • You can only create up to 5 players.
  • You can’t turn off 2 line passes unless you turn off offsides as well.

Well, nothing can be perfect right?

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