NHL 07 (PSP)

Reviewed by

Alex Navarro

on 09/15/2006

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Page 2

Unfortunately, the annoying owner-goals system has also transferred onto the PSP. Depending on what type of team you are (read: a good team with some prestige or a garbage team that couldn't win to save their lives), your owner will task you with specific goals at the beginning of each season. Good teams typically want to win playoff games or even the Stanley Cup, and not-so-good teams generally just care about keeping finances up and drafting top young talent. This shifts around as teams improve and decline, but the system remains annoying and restrictive, since if you continually fail owner goals, you're hosed when it comes to upgrades. One new addition to this system is the owner-trust factor. Depending on what type of GM you choose to be at the beginning of the mode (penny-pincher, boastful, average, and so on), you'll earn a certain level of owner trust from the get-go, and as you fulfill goals and win games, you'll earn more trust you can use to put toward team upgrades. This system replaces the cash system you used to buy upgrades previously, and ultimately makes getting upgrades more complex, rather than more fun.

One nice feature to the PSP dynasty mode is that if you connect up your PSP and PS2, you can trade dynasty-mode save files between the two, letting you take your PS2 dynasty on the go, or vice versa. Of course, this would also involve investing in two versions of the game, which might not necessarily be the best way to spend your money. But if you're a severe hockey nut, the option's there for you.

Beyond dynasty, you've got world tournament, season, free-for-all, shoot-out, and multiplayer modes. World tournament puts you into a world-league tournament with other international teams. Season is a single-season version of the dynasty mode. Free-for-all is a simple minigame where up to four players can go at it on a single rink, all vying for the same puck and trying to outscore the other players. Shoot-out is exactly what it sounds like: a shoot-out, and nothing more. All these modes are decent in their own right, though they've all been around in the series for a while (with the exception of the shoot-out, though that's not very exciting for other reasons). The multiplayer at least is both ad hoc and infrastructure based, so you can play other players in the room or go online. The online play has the usual functionalities, with head-to-head play, leaderboards, and the like. However, we noticed a significant amount of lag in most every online match we played. The connection would frequently stutter for seconds at a time, and actions would frequently get behind by a second or longer after button presses. Suffice it to say, your mileage may vary.

For some reason the camera defaults to the side view, even though all the usual angles are available prior to a game.

Graphically, NHL 07 definitely looks like a scaled-down version of its PS2 counterpart, but it moves at a nice clip and doesn't slow down much, though it'd be hard for it to with the ice and animations toned down as much as they are. Player models still look good, if a bit blocky, but the movements of the players are quite stiff, and texture seams regularly make appearances on the ice. It also bears mention that loading times are rather unpleasant when loading up a game (around 30 to 40 seconds, regularly), but once you're in a game, no more load times crop up. Recycled commentary from Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson makes up the bulk of the audio presentation, as there's no in-arena music while you're playing. And this commentary is most definitely recycled, probably from around the NHL 2005 era, if the references they make are any evidence. Hearing them talk about Pavol Demitra finding success with the St. Louis Blues, when he's traveled from not one but two other teams in the past couple of years, is just one example of how out of touch the commentary tends to be. On-ice effects sound good, provided you're not listening through the PSP speakers and have a nice set of headphones, and there's a prototypically emo-infused soundtrack to listen to while scrolling through menus.

Calling NHL 07 the best hockey game on the PSP is sort of a backhanded compliment, considering that the competition thus far has been middling at best. But despite what flaws it has, NHL 07 provides a fast and fun portable game of hockey that has enough depth to the package to make it worthwhile. There's certainly room for improvement, but it's a good, solid debut.