Even though we’re only a quarter of the way into the NHL’s regular season, hockey fans have already been witness to numerous alterations in regards to the sport. Not only has the game itself changed thanks to the crackdown on obstruction, teams like the Lightning and Wild are perched at the top of their conference, while two of the Eastern conference’s supposed cup contenders, the Leafs and Islanders, have notched only eight wins in their first 21 games. With all of the changes the league has encountered thus far, it would have been fitting for Midway to release the best handheld hockey game available. Unfortunately, some things are not meant to be.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Hitz series, Midway created a hockey game for the PS2 (and subsequently the Xbox and GameCube) a few years back that borrowed from their (NFL) Blitz brand of gameplay. Instead of a realistic simulation, the Hitz titles presented a 3 on 3 game of hockey which featured over the top hits, fights, and players that would literally get struck by lightning and catch fire. While the console versions of Hitz carved themselves a nice little niche in the sports market by combining fast, arcade gameplay with clever game mechanics, it seems that the developers of the GBA incarnation were content with solely incorporating the arcade aspects of the series.

Graphically, the game is fairly clean. While the player sprites initially seem fairly rough around the edges, they are nicely animated. Unlike the players, the fans filling up the stadium don’t move an inch, but the pristine ice surface more than makes up for the lack of movement in the stands. However, the most impressive graphical feat in Hitz is definitely the variety of special effects featured in the title. Every player, even the goalies, will not only harbor full bodied reflections of themselves in the ice, but also leave detailed streaks behind them when skating fast, which presents a quasi-blurring effect. After a hard slap shot, streams of fire will trail sailing pucks, which eventually turn into puffs of smoke. Overall, there isn’t anything absolutely mind-boggling in terms of NHL Hitz’s graphics, but it is a nice package.

The aural traits of the game follow the same line as the visual experience, in that there are some neat details, but nothing that will amaze you. While the crowd is, once again, practically non-existent, the game features play-by-play commentary by the same announcer from the console versions. While his library of sentences is indeed a small one, having a commentator in a handheld sports game is fairly impressive. There are also numerous puck sounds, so players are able to easily distinguish the sound of a pass being accepted or intercepted.

One notable feature in Hitz is that the game is played from a mandatory side perspective. While this aspect is definitely an oddity, it surprisingly does not affect the game’s control. Players can weave between opponents, pull off spin moves, kick the puck to their skates, and one time the round piece of rubber without effort. Unfortunately, the side view does hurt a main area of Hitz’s core gameplay; strategy in scoring. Since the viewpoint restricts the player from getting a good look at what parts of the goal aren’t being angled off by the goalie, the developers decided to pretty much eliminate any possible strategy, and merely encourage you to either take a slap shot or one timer within the proximity of the net. This does not make the game fun.

Unfortunately, Hitz is plagued by a few other problems in the gameplay department, specifically the AI. Despite whatever strategic formation you set your defensemen to play, they will always act like idiots and not play the game of defence at all. While the opposing team’s players will often hound you for the puck no matter what zone you happen to be in, one will often find themselves chasing around the opposition by themselves, an event similar to a trio of bullies throwing a younger kid’s backpack amongst themselves. While the game’s aforementioned controls do retain the similar rock/paper/scissors mantra featured in the console versions (in relation to avoiding poke and body checks), the function of these mechanics did not make the same transfer over. After a few minutes of play time, it becomes overly apparent that poke checking is definitely the superior technique in terms of getting the puck, as the CPU never guards the puck. NHL Hitz 2003 is just a very shallow game.

The developers thankfully added in more than just a standard exhibition game to keep one entertained. The option to simulate a full 82 game season is present, or you could just jump straight to the playoffs and play a one to seven game series. Players can also adjust both strategies and handicaps, which is a noticeable accomplishment for a handheld game. Finally, the game does support four-player multiplay. While NHL Hitz 2003 would be a great mini game in a console game, maybe something one would see in a Midway adaptation of Animal Crossing, it’s not a deep or fun enough game worthy of a $40 purchase.