Gaming Season: NHL Hitz Pro Preview

September for hockey fans means a few things: training camps, preseason – and
video games. Every year, early fall marks the time when game makers release
the latest titles of their hockey line. This season looks to have some of the
best competition hockey gamers have ever seen. A revamped NHL Hitz from Midway,
big improvements to EA’s NHL 2004, Sega’s renamed ESPN NHL Hockey and a new
comer to the field, Microsoft, with NHL Rivals.

We’ll start our preview and interview series with NHL Hitz Pro from Midway.
A big change to the NHL Hitz franchise this season with 5 on 5 play (former
years were 3 on 3). A stricter rules set and higher level of customization also
have come to the game. Still billed as the fastest and hardest hitting series,
is it trying to make the jump into realism? I was able to get some answers from
Nigel Franks at Next Level Games. He is the Executive Producer of NHL Hitz Pro.

David Singer: The basics: what systems will the game
be released for?

Nigel Franks: Hitz Pro will be released for
the Sony
PlayStation 2, Microsoft
Xbox and Nintendo
GameCube. We are happily adding to the ongoing debate of which is the better
platform by releasing a great game for all three.

DS: How many have online play and are there any special
online features?

NF: This year’s Hitz Pro features online play
for the Sony PlayStation 2. Online is more than just head-to-head, as we’ve
added built-in bragging rights to the online experience by ranking every player
in both online and tournament mode. Coming down the line will be some great
giveaway plans for online tournament winers. I think we’ll have some fun finding
out if there are any Hitz players out there that can beat us at our own game.
Bring it on!

DS: Were any NHL players used as consultants (or former
players, coaches, etc.)?

NF: For 2004, we had the honor of working with many world-class NHL athletes
to enhance our gameplay experience, with Detroit’s star defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom
heading up the roster as our cover athlete. Nick Lidstrom played a huge role
in defining our hockey school feature, coached by the NHL’s winningest coach,
Scotty Bowman. Scotty came by the sound studio as we were recording play-by-play
and color commentary. In addition to being the voice of Hitz Pro’s hockey school
tutorial, Scotty went out of his way to take time going over plays with a bunch
of us hockey nuts in Chicago. It’s easy to see why he’s got so many Cup rings
based on his drive – he woudn’t even let us take a break from recording.

Rounding out our hockey school mode are game tips and FMV from Eric Brewer
of The Oilers, Stephen Weiss from Florida, Henrik Tallinder of The Sabres, and
The Bruins’ Glen Murray. Each athlete owns one or more tutorial lessons, and
gives their own personal insight into how they’ve used the lesson’s moves to
beat their opponent. This is followed up by how to beat your opponent with the
equivalent in Hitz Pro’s gameplay.

Note: No NHL players were harmed in the making of this game. I don’t think
I can say the same for game designers, though. Watch the extras content and
you’ll see what I mean.

DS: Something the members are very curious about: who
determines the rankings?

NF: That depends on what rankings you’re referring to. For in-game player attributes,
our Lead Designer Mike Inglehart gathers this data manually, based on player
performance during the previous season. After entering them into the game database
by hand, each player’s attributes are reviewed by one to two more of our in-house
crew to make sure that Mike hasn’t spiked the numbers for his favourite team.

Now, if you’re talking online rankings, that’s determined by how bad you put
the smack-down on everyone else.

DS: Why the move towards a more realistic game? Obviously,
Midway is still focused on arcade-style play.

NF: We get that question a lot, and the answer is simple: give the fans what
they want. Hockey video games came at us with a rush of feedback when the project
was initiated, with the resounding requirement to make Hitz five-on-five so
that it can be taken seriously. While Hitz 20-03 is an extremely fun game, we
labored for a very long time over how to keep the fast and furious edge while
adding four more players to the ice. A great deal of effort went into tuning
the AI to max out the fun factor while still providing a more true-to-life hockey
experience. A few fans on the message boards have lamented about three-on-three
being the only good thing that differentiated Hitz in the past. When we hear
that, you can see the evil grins come out from our dev team – as going five-on-five
means you’ve got four more players on the ice to check through glass.

When we released the teaser videos back in August of 2003 (played by our Lead
Designer against the AI), all the three-on-three versus five-on-five critics
were instantly silent (busy picking their jaws up from the floor). Here was
Hitz taken to a whole new level that no one had ever thought possible. It was
great to see people respond to the gameplay by messaging that their personal
game-buying budget has now been re-allocated away from competitor titles, with
Hitz being their priority one purchase.

Straight out of the box, Hitz is tuned for balanced, arcade-style play. In
addition to the uncountable combinations of slider settings to customize the
game, we added two simple settings in the game style selection that should take
care of most gamers’ needs. The Pro setting provides a slower-paced, more realistic
game where scoring chances aren’t quite as prolific, but when they come, they’re
big. The Hitz setting pumps up the game speed and adrenaline level for those
players that want to send their opponents flying from the first face off.

DS: Does your game take rivalries into account? For example:
a Rangers-Islanders game is harder hitting or more intense and close in score
(no matter what the team ratings). Along the same lines – as the season progresses,
can rivalry build?

NF: Well, we kinda heard that someone else was doing that this year…wouldn’t
want us to be copycats, now would you? Although I heard that two other developers
tried to add the wraparound after seeing ours in a video…

DS: How are injuries handled (and are there any career-enders)?

NF: Injuries in Hitz Pro are unavoidable. There are the usual repetitive stress
injuries from playing the game too much, which usually require some time away
from your console once you’ve pried your gnarled fingers off the controller.
I recommend ice to keep the swelling down. With online play, there will surely
be someone to injure your pride once in a while, so I advise standing in front
of a mirror, flexing your one-pack/six-pack, and psyching yourself up for the
next round uttering nasty things about your opponent. While that’s the likely
extent of most injuries, being schooled so bad in online play that you launch
your controller at your console causing sparks to fly out of it will definitely
shorten your online gaming career.

DS: How has the GM/Owner interaction been upgraded?

NF: We wanted to steer clear of managing concession stands and selling jerseys,
focusing instead on the gameplay. We put together a franchise mode that has
the player building their team of modifiable players, over time, into something
good enough to play in the NHL. Franchise mode also allows you the satisfaction
of customizing your players with one of 37 very handsome faces. It’s where I
spend most of my gameplay time.

DS: Is there a minor league feature (with kept statistics)?

NF: Wait and see. I can’t give away every secret, you know.

DS: Let’s hit some fight-related questions: can fights
(winning or losing) swing momentum in a game?

NF: Can they ever. One of the signature features of Midway titles is the on-fire
effect, boosting your team stats to something insane for a short period of time.
Hitz is no different, and winning a fight against the AI or an online player
does more than make you smug. Although both teams are short a player, the fight-winning
team goes into on-fire mode, highlighted by a quick burst of flame at the next
face-off. Seeing this makes your opponent grumble at you, as your team will
be mopping up the ice with your opponents for a finite duration in gameplay.

DS: Are there goalie fights?

NF: That’s a secret. See, we did it last year, and everyone copied us THIS
year…

DS: Is there a fight max for the game (for the team)?
Has the NHL rule of 3 fights and a player is ejected (via game misconduct) been
added?

NF: Uh, I guess the NHL may be reading this, huh? Um…yeah. There’s a maximum
of…<flip, flip>…uh, one point six fights per game. Yeah. That’s it.

Uh, there’s an NHL rule about ejecting a player after three fights? <flip,
flip>

DS: Can a player be injured in a fight? (one member
specifically requested a fractured orbital bone, gotta love my audience)

NF: Your audience needs to chill out! Dudes, as soon as rules beyond our control
allow blood and gore, the red circles on the ice won’t just be for face-offs.
Until that time, that is, let me see…ah yes, never, it’s pretty unlikely that
anyone’ll release a licensed hockey game that shows a fractured orbital bone.
Man, even thinking about that hurts.

Special thanks to Nigel Franks, Tim Cummins and the rest of the Midway crew.

You can read more about NHL Hitz and see some screenshots in our Entertainment
Forum.

NHL Hitz Pro is scheduled to be released September 25, 2003. You can pre-order
from Amazon.com: for the Sony
PlayStation 2, Microsoft
Xbox and Nintendo
GameCube. We will have a review here on hockeyfights.com of NHL Hitz Pro
at that time.

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