''NHL 2002'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

released by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

in 2001. It is the predecessor to ''

NHL 2003 ''NHL 2003'' is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It was released in 2002 as the successor to '' NHL 2002''. Jarome Iginla appears as the cover athlete and spokesperson of the game. Iginla appears in the ...

''. The game's cover man is

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...

superstar and owner

Mario Lemieux Mario Lemieux (; ; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played parts of 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984 and 2006, and he assumed ownership of the f ...

, who had just made a comeback after being retired for three and a half years. It was the first installment of the

NHL series ''NHL'' (colloquially referred to as Chel) is a series of professional ice hockey simulation video games developed by EA Vancouver and published yearly by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports brand. The game is developed under license from the Nat ...

to be released on

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

Features

Bill Clement is replaced by Don Taylor for ''NHL 2002''. Taylor's quirky and often

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

commentary style drew mixed reception from fans of the game.

GBA version

NHL 2002 was the only game in the series to be released on the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

. This version is an updated port of ''

NHL 96 ''NHL 96'' is a 1995 sports video game developed by EA Tiburon for the SNES, High Score Productions for the Sega Genesis, EA Canada for DOS, and Probe Entertainment for the Game Boy. EA Sports published all versions of the game except the Game Bo ...

'' for the

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Euro ...

, and contains many features from that past title.

Reception

The PlayStation 2 version received "universal acclaim", while the rest of the console versions received "generally favorable reviews", according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Jim Preston of '' NextGen''s December 2001 issue said of the PS2 version, "Only frustrating defensive controls mar another brilliant effort from EA Sports." The magazine later said of the Xbox version in its final issue, "the only real issue we have is that the game's defensive AI is rather flawed, somewhat marring an otherwise incredible experience." In Japan, where the former console version was ported for release on February 7, 2002, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of 29 out of 40. Kevin Krause of ''GameZone'' gave the PS2 version 9.1 out of 10, calling it "A landmark release in that it is the first PS2 game to support Dolby™ Pro Logic and DTS™ sound. These surround sound technologies allow for realistic environmental surround sound like you've never heard it before." Kevin "Biff" Giacobbi gave the PC version 9 out of 10, calling it "A great game, but true hockey fans that buy the latest and greatest that EA gives us each year will not see a whole lot of changes." Christopher Allen of ''

AllGame RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went publ ...

'' gave the same PC version three-and-a-half stars out of five, however, saying, "Despite the unwise decision to hire Don Taylor, ''NHL 2002'' will appeal more to the arcade action camp than the purist. While most of the new additions don't work as well as planned, it is encouraging to see fresh ideas implemented. ''NHL 2002'' is fun to play, but isn't particularly true to the sport, which may disturb true hockey fans with its slip away from realism." The staff of ''

Computer Games Magazine ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' nominated the game as the best sports game of 2001, but ultimately gave the award to ''

High Heat Baseball 2002 ''High Heat Major League Baseball 2002'', also known as ''High Heat Baseball 2002'', is a video game released in 2001, and is the fourth game in the '' High Heat Major League Baseball'' video game series. Then-Montreal Expos right fielder Vladimir ...

''. It was also a runner-up in ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''s annual award category for the best traditional sports

console game A console game is a type of video game consisting of images and often sounds generated by a video game console, which are displayed on a television or similar audio-video system, and that can be manipulated by a player. This manipulation usually ...

, which went to ''

NBA 2K2 ''NBA 2K2'' is a 2001 sports video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega for Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. ''NBA 2K2'' featured more street courts such as Mosswood, Fonde Rec Center, Venice Beach, etc. The cover ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2001 video games Electronic Arts games Game Boy Advance games PlayStation 2 games Xbox games Windows games NHL (video game series) EA Sports games Video games scored by Rom Di Prisco Video games scored by Saki Kaskas Video games scored by Stuart Chatwood Video games set in 2001 Video games set in 2002 Video games set in the United States Video games set in Canada Video games developed in Canada Budcat Creations games Multiplayer and single-player video games