Throwback Thursday: NHL Hitz 20-03

[CoolestGameEver]

Most people I knew swore by NHL Hitz 2002, but I preferred the more realistic scorelines and better goaltending system from Hitz 2003 (shot rebound physics) even though the on-fire system from 2002 was admittedly better and more rewarding.

I absolutely loved the Franchise mode, where you had your own created team and you went up against every other team in the game, and built your team up from a 30 OVR team to the best in the NHL. The only exception to the teams you played in Franchise included the national teams and the Midway teams with the funny heads (Big Babies, Undead, Clowns, Templers, Scourge, and Sea Dogs come to mind among others) . There were no limitations at all in creating your team, you could make everyone as large or as small as you wanted, and could always change the playstyles of players to your liking.

I always liked pretending that the Franchise mode was a "career mode" in that I would player lock onto "myself" and have my teammates be computer controlled for an added challenge. If only Goalie lock was possible, it would have been the ultimate hockey experience.

The one thing that I felt that 2002 did better than 2003 was the inclusion of the "Balance" attribute. Essentially, a player with higher balance would have to be hit harder (via an equal or higher relative body checking attribute than the balance attribute) or with more speed in order to be knocked down. I didn't like how they removed "Balance" from Hitz 2003, because it seemed all players were thus huge hitters as a result....Pavel Bure absolutely obliterating Zdeno Chara for instance LOL

Last but not least, the one thing I was always most impressed with was the fact that the collision detection system was spot on and almost never glitched out. The puck would react to bodies, boards, sticks, goalies, and would never ghost through them, *ahem* EA *ahem* . It was truly a spectacular game to say the least.