The Chronic Consumer

I was cleaning out my desk drawers last month when I came across a brand-new, unopened package containing Gretzky NHL for PSP. This game was released in 2005, so I guess I must have bought it back then, stuffed it into a drawer, and completely forgotten about it! At any rate, I opened it up and started playing right away.

There aren’t too many sports games that I like, but hockey is one of them. Ever since NHL ’94 on PlayStation (the one with the unstoppable Jeremy Roenick, as featured in the movie Swingers), I’ve enjoyed this type of game. But I’d never played hockey on a handheld before, so I was wondering how Gretzky NHL would stack up.

In all honesty, the game isn’t that great — but it’s still fun for me. I’m not a serious gamer by any means, though, so I imagine that true hockey game enthusiasts would be put off by this title. In other reviews I’ve read, players bemoan the “atrocious framerate”, but I have no clue what that refers to. The game looks just fine to me, despite its flaws.

There are several options that allow you to tailor your gaming experience to your liking. For instance, you can jump right into Quick Mode for a one-off game against the computer, or you can spend an entire season playing as your favorite team as you vie for the Stanley Cup. There’s also an online mode, but I haven’t tried that at all.

Within each game you play, you can control things like period length (2, 4, 5, 10, or 20 minutes), whether infractions like icing, offsides, and two-line passes are whistled, shot aim (manual or auto), game speed, and the frequency of injuries, penalties, or fighting. I love this ability, because I was able to make the game very simple (no penalties, no offsides) when I was just starting out and learning the controls, then I could ratchet up the intensity the better I got.

Of course, you also have access to all teams and rosters (the 2005 versions, unfortunately) and have complete control over the rosters and individual lines. You can also make trades, sign players off waivers, and “unlock” additional players (namely, four different versions of Wayne Gretzky from various points in his career) by beating certain in-game challenges (winning x amount of face-offs, scoring x amount of goals, landing x number of big hits).

The complaints I have about this game mostly have to do with the AI. You can only control one of the five players on the ice at a time, which means the AI handles the rest. But what sucks is the AI players on your team simply follow your general direction. So if the player I’m controlling is going one way down the ice, all the other guys on my team head in the same direction. This is a problem when the puck takes an unexpected bounce, like on a rebound or something. Also, it’s sometimes downright impossible to get the puck away from the other AI-controlled team because my own AI players don’t do a damn thing about it. Seriously, it feels like 1-on-5 sometimes and really makes the game feel bogus.

Another complaint I have is that it’s hard to maneuver the players precisely. This results in skating right by pucks that are laying on the ice, which is frustrating as hell. In fact, it’s not uncommon to have the puck just sitting there while my player helplessly circles it… Ugh!!

But overall, I think Gretzky NHL for PSP is more fun than not. I’ve already won the Stanley Cup (with the Ottawa Senators) and am currently on an all-out assault with the Philadelphia Flyers (I’m averaging 9 goals per game through 13 games — thanks to the 3 Wayne Gretzkys on my team!). I know there are a couple of newer versions to this game… I wonder if any improvements have been made?