Latest Reviews
Guitar Hero: On TourSecret Agent ClankWe Love Golf!Ferrari Challenge Buzz! Quiz TVUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for NHL Championship 2000Write your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
NHL Championship 2000 Review
Noel Brady
00/12/0000
Aiming to succeed where NHL Face Off '99 and NHL Powerplay failed, Activision's NHL Championship 2000 is the latest pretender to EA's ice hockey throne.
It's a tall order- NHL '99 was a high scorer in most magazines at it's launch, while it's inevitable sequel, NHL 2000, seems to be slciker and quicker than ever before. So what, you may ask, does this latest puck-fest have to offer?
Does it have all the officially-licensed logo-happy glitz of real ice hockey? Are all 28 teams represented in such incredible detail that you can see their ugly mugs as they play? The answer to both is 'yes'. Activision have created a game that deserves to rival EA's NHL games, in the same way that Konami's ISS franchise keeps tripping up the FIFA series when the ref isn't looking.
NHL Championship 2000 looks so similar to NHL '99 that it's difficult to tell them apart. Enhanced with FMV snippets of body-checking, pck-skimming rink action, Activision's ice sim structures it's gameplay around some excellent TV-style presentation. So authentic are the multiple camera angles, the pop-up stats and the real-time commentary, it's like being able to control your own live TV coverage.
The superbly textured, motion-captured players glide realistically across the ice, complete with accurate 3D strips. However, the basic game remains simple. It's a Destruction Derby of skidding flesh and padding, with the sole aim to strike a tiny toilet cleaner-like object into a midget goal. What impresses me most is the quality of instant replays. Slower framerates used in replays often distort the overall image, but donāt tell that to the developers of NHL Champ2000. Throw in color from the great John Davidson, and you get two classic replays from two different angles with Fox attitude.
Learning the basics can be tricky. Iām accustomed to turning on my PSX, sitting down and playing a game immediately. Some prefer to read the instruction manual hours in advance, but Iām too impatient for that. I learn on the run. It usually takes seconds for gamers like myself to get a feel for sports games, but this one was a little different. Figuring out how to shoot effectively was a major hurdle. Press the square button for a wrist shot, the circle for slap-shots.
Most ice hockey games don't have a problem getting the actual mechanics right. The way to really impress the punters comes down to the graphics and truthfullness of the statistics. Activision score highly here too. Having creating a high and enjoyable amount of in-game combat, they have backed itup with slow-motion replays, realistic rosters, coaching tactics and a variety of modes that allow you to play one-off games or fully-fledged championship seasons.
I must also give props to the 3D engine. It falls inches short of EA Sportsā established benchmark, but NHL Championship 2000 is good enough to hold its own. You have complete control of players, who in turn follow the laws of physics. For instance, guys must accelerate before reaching max speed. Sure, thatās a given, but many games fail to address such basic issues. Itās physically impossible to go from 0 to 60 in less than two seconds, and Iām glad the people at Fox Interactive Sports know their limits. We need our sports games to be as realistic as possible, so we can live out our dreams in the form of polygons.
Changeable rules and three difficulty levels mean that hockey-lovers old and new, skilled and crap, can get to grips with NHL Championship 2000's basics. Great presentation that's instantly accessible but puts up a decent fight, mean that Activision's game will still be standing it's ground when NHL 2000 tries to shoulder-barge it into the cheering crowd.
