Gameplay has a similar generic feel. This is jet-powered arcade hockey played by big guys on a small ice surface, which leaves little room for you to do anything fancy. Playing solo is particularly wearying. Teammate AI lacks creativity on offense and doesn't bother with defense aside from coming back and standing in the slot like bobbleheaded pylons. Still, you can't complain too much about poor AI, because the cramped rink makes it impossible to do anything anyway. Teammates may not try to get open for passes, but it doesn't usually matter because there isn't any room to get the puck past defenders. Passes are constantly picked off, and those that aren't outright stolen tend to ricochet off skates and sticks like a pinball. Goaltending can be frustrating, too. While your keeper is too often a sieve, your opponent routinely makes crazy acrobatic stops, even while shrunk to the size of Verne Troyer's big toe. The one positive to giving up goals so readily is that games don't often last long. If you play on the default five-goal victory setting, you rarely get deep into the second period.
The presentation is a bit obnoxious, as you might expect from a game with such an extreme-sports attitude. Instead of the bleep-bloop sound effects that usually accompany flipping through menu lists, some guy mimics these noises and makes various swooshing sounds. It's funny for about a minute. Ditto for the arena announcer, who sounds like he's gargling while channeling Darth Vader and Mean Gene Okerlund when he calls out power-up effects and taunts you after losses. Some of the wrestling-style commentary is amusing, but there just isn't enough variety in the quips to keep them from grating on you.
If this were included as an unlockable bonus mode in a "proper" NHL game it might offer a welcome change of pace. Trying to pass off a single, stripped-down mode as a full game is nothing but an insult to hockey fans though. Don't fall for it.
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