''NHL Hitz Pro'' is an ice hockey video game developed by

Next Level Games Next Level Games, Inc. is a Canadian video game developer owned by Nintendo based in Vancouver. Founded in October 2002 by former members of EA Black Box who've worked on games such as ''Sega Soccer Slam'' and ''NHL Hitz (disambiguation), NHL ...

and published by Midway Sports, in the '' NHL Hitz'' series. It was released in 2003 for the

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, and

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. Unlike the previous titles in the series, it has 5-on-5 gameplay instead of the usual 3-on-3 gameplay with the earlier titles. The game does not include penalty shots, and it is still an arcade-type hockey game like its predecessors. It also has a lot of hard hitting. The cover athlete of the game is

Nicklas Lidström Erik Nicklas Lidström (; born 28 April 1970) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey defenceman and current vice president of hockey operations for the Detroit Red Wings. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detr ...

, and features commentary from Tim Kitzrow and Harry Teinowitz. ''NHL Hitz Pro'' had the

IIHF The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey tourn ...

license, enabling it to use the jerseys of the Olympic hockey teams. The game also has many game modes, one of the most popular being the "Pick-Up Hockey" game mode, where the game would turn into either a roller, street, or pond hockey match-up between two amateur teams.

Features

''NHL Hitz Pro'' features NHL-style gameplay for the first time, and although arcade-like features pop up from time to time, the game is far more realistic than the previous titles in the series. Among the changes to Hitz Pro are 5-on-5 gameplay, as opposed to the 3-on-3 action seen in '' NHL Hitz 2002'' and ''

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

'', less exaggerated player appearances and wrap arounds.

Reception

''NHL Hitz Pro'' received "favorable" reviews on all platforms according to the

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website

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. ''

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'' said of the game, "It's a tight three-way race on the hockey front this season, and the only real downside to ''Hitz'' is what its fans will actually appreciate: its heavily arcade-style approach. If you like your hockey more serious, EA's game falls halfway between ''Hitz'' and the technical, highly realistic ESPN game. If 'serious' is the last thing you associate with hockey games, you'll have a blast hammering out checks on ''Hitz'' rink—especially since Midway's rolled back the price a notch." The game was nominated for the " Console Action Sports Game of the Year" award at the

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7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards The ''7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards'' was the 7th edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2003. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Int ...

, which went to ''

SSX 3 ''SSX 3'' (standing for "Snowboard Supercross 3") is a 2003 Sports video game, snowboarding video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. It is the third installment in the ''SSX'' series. The g ...

''.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nhl Hitz Pro 2003 video games GameCube games Midway video games Multiplayer and single-player video games National Hockey League video games Next Level Games games PlayStation 2 games Video games developed in Canada Xbox games