‘Hockey Nations 2010’ Review
Hockey Nations 2010 by Distinctive Developments Ltd, has officially iced its way into the App Store for just $3.99 (although there’s no iPad optimized version just yet). Aside from being the first true 3D ice-hockey game on the platform, and as of the time of this review, still the only one available. Is Hockey Nations 2010 worth the price of admission? Find out by reading my full in-depth review, after the break.
Noteworthy Features:
- Detailed 3D graphics
- World-League
- Various modes of play
Hockey Nations 2010 does well to set a major milestone for being the first 3D ice-hockey game to make its way to the App Store, not to mention the only one available at the moment. If nothing else, for $3.99 this game will most likely tease out cheerful thoughts of “what could have been”, or come off as a shining example of what the iDevices are capable of, but as is, the game feels amateurish at best.
Gameplay 6/10
Hockey Nations 2010 comes packed with five unique modes of play.
The modes are as follows:
- Exhibition – basically a quick match between any teams you desire.
- Practice – its your whole team against one computer controlled goalie.
- Shoot-Out – a mini-game where it’s essentially one team member vs a goalie and you take turns with the AI
- Tournaments – Two variations of tournaments that matches up teams as if it was a NHL hockey season.
In terms of gameplay, Hockey Nations 2010 has the makings of a promising 3D ice-hockey game including realistic penalties, over-time shoot-outs and more. It’s just a little slower paced then what we’re used too but the sense of scale when skating around the ice-rink (there’s only one) is dialed in flawlessly to make up for it. Overall the gameplay is technically sound, and comes correct with most of the features (minus fighting) we have all grown accustom too in virtual ice hockey games. The only down-side is that the gameplay is not well-balanced at all, which is to say, that the odds seem almost triple-stacked against you (even on easy).
Hockey Nations 2010 doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. It’s more or less the same interactions that have been around since the Sega Genesis, circa NHL 93, albeit augmented with virtual controls instead of physical buttons. It’s also lacking a key feature, namely the ability to manually switch players when on defense. The auto-change does an adequate job for the most part, but its just not enough to deal with a competing AI team, that seems intent on quickly defeating you each and every time.
The AI is really one of the major issues that prevents the gameplay from being completely enjoyable for long game sessions. This is because, you will have to deal with a goalie who consistently spaces-out on you, and a team that is not able to automatically adapt from offense to defense on the fly, therefore not being of much assistance to you either. Not to mention having to face an opposing team programmed to box you in, check you out, and steal the puck from you without any mercy. In other words it’s like a double-wammy of AI issues, in that your team is somewhat unreliable, while the opposing team’s AI is spot on and focused.
In the games defense, Distinctive Developments Ltd, was thoughful enough to add an easy way to manually command your AI team members to act differently depending on what the situation demands. As in tapping an on-screen button to queue up different commands for your team, such as take an offensive, defensive or balanced formation. This is a welcome addition to say the least, but real dynamic AI would have been much more prefered.
Another issue with the gameplay is that its not well balanced. In that its far to easy to check and/or steal the puck from an opponent and likewise have the puck stolen from you. As a result the puck changes possession much to fast, to even try and set up any meaningful strategy. So much that it isn’t even worth taking the time to pause the game and switch your teams formation, especially when possession changes happen every 8 or so seconds.
Presentation 6/10
Hockey Nations 2010 has impressive 3D graphics, some decent animations, and overall the ice-rink looks great and is practically scaled to perfection for the size of the screen and the scope of gameplay.
This isn’t a fully-licensed NHL hockey game. So don’t expect any real teams and you will have to make due with all nameless players. For me personally I can easily excuse this, since the cost of licensing NHL franchise IP is probably un-affordable for most, if not all indie developers. I can’t say the same for everyone else who buys the game though.
Overall the presentation really lacks personality. It gets the job done, but thats about it. The game has background audience noise of course, and half-backed sound effects, but a lack of any commentary or announcer, grunts from getting checked, as well as real-time audience reactions (oohs, ahhs, and boos) aside from the generic cheering that occurs when a goal is scored, really comes across as dull and unambitious.
Controls 7/10
The controls are well done and work great for the most part. On the bottom-left side of the screen there is a virtual joystick. While on the bottom-right there is three on-screen buttons. Across the top of the screen there is another on-screen button/icon to be aware of, which represents the in-game line commands menu, allowing you to switch up your team’s formation.
The virtual joystick is used to move a highlighted player in a desired direction as well as aim a corresponding pass and/or shot. The aiming of passes and quick-shots worked well for me. The only issue I had was when trying to aim the charged up slap-shots or passes. I really couldn’t line a charged-up slapshot at all. It’s hard to tell which way the puck will fly, and you can’t really adjust the aim once the charge begins.
Two of the three on-screen buttons on the bottom-right change depending on weather you’re on offense or defense. The only consistent button is the one in the bottom-right corner, used to do a limited power boost on both offense and defense. If your in possession of the puck (offense) there will be a button that will be used to do quick-shots/slapshots and another to pass the puck. Just tap on the shoot button to do a quick shot or tap and hold to charge up a slapshot, same goes for the pass button as well. If your not in possession of the puck (defense) the two buttons will change into a steal button (just tap repeatedly to attempt to steal the puck) and a check button (tap to charge and knock an opponent off their feet)
Re-playability 4/10
As far as re-playability goes there really isn’t much to brag about here. Thankfully the developers were nice enough to include 13 in-game achievements to grab, but thats about it. There’s no local or online multi-player, and no use of social gaming features from services like OpenFeint, Plus+ and others.
Menus 10/10
Hockey Nations 2010’s menus look great and are very intuitive, even the loading screens have style. It all came across as well polished and fitting for an ice-hockey game, aside from the generic and somewhat lame rock music that plays while navigating the games menus.
Price 6/10
For $3.99 the price is excusable, if it had multiplayer, and irons out some of the gameplay issues and beefs up the dull presentation I would have no problem at all buying this game for $4 bucks, and I’m not much of an ice-hockey fan to be honest. However as is without any lite version to try out first, the steep price of admission is yet another issue that will cause customers grief.
Final Score 39/60 — 3.5/6
All in all, Hockey Nations 2010 sets a milestone for being the first 3D ice-hockey game on the platform and has the makings of a great mobile ice-hockey experience. It’s an honest effort, but it’s unfortunately plagued with AI and balance issues that prevent the experience from being a truly “must have”. The presentation also comes off as dull and unambitious too. However, if you’re hard up for some “3D ice-hockey on the go,” so much so, that you can excuse all the aforementioned issues, since this is your only option at the moment, then by all means take the plunge. If not, you might want to wait this one out, at least until these issues are resolved or until EA drops a fully-licensed NHL game on the App Store (although I wouldn’t hold my breathe for that either).
