Gretzky NHL Preview

A lot of UK gamers already have their hands on Gretzky NHL, but most of them didn’t want it, and chances are they resent having had to pay for it. Sony’s bizarre decision to forcibly bundle Gretzky with the overwhelming majority of Canadian PSPs has meant that anybody importing from the land of moose and Mounties has run the risk of getting an unwanted copy of Gretzky and being charged for the privilege. So, blame Sony if you will, or maybe blame Canada’s curious obsession with ice hockey: the fact remains that there are going to be a lot of people whose first impressions of the PSP are going to include a game or two of Gretzky.

It’s likely to be a confusing and frustrating experience, at least for those who don’t follow ice hockey. The game assumes that you’re completely familiar with the sport, which is probably fair enough if you’re Canadian, but is going to leave a lot of UK gamers completely baffled. Technical terms abound. Do you know the difference between a body check and a stick check? A dump and a deke? Could you tell a slap shot from a snap shot, and know when to use each? Gretzky throws all of this at you from the very start, as well as more complicated things such as team strategies, and doesn’t explain any of it. In a way it’s fair enough, given the game’s target audience – you wouldn’t expect Pro Evolution Soccer, for instance, to explain the rules of football before letting you onto the pitch – but this really isn’t the place for the novice to start developing an interest in ice hockey. The problems aren’t helped by the game’s abysmal manual, which devotes plenty of space to explaining how to use the entirely self-obvious options menu but doesn’t explain absolutely fundamental game concepts like how to win face-offs or even how to tackle your opponents.

The game itself is no less baffling. Ice hockey, and Gretzky, moves at a blistering pace, and the game makes few concessions to the novice. Even on the easiest and slowest settings, the computer-controlled opposition will run rings around you as you squint at the screen trying to work out what’s happening. With both teams wearing similar colours, and the default camera angle zoomed in so far that you can’t see any of your team members unless they’re within a few feet of your player, it’s easy to get frustrated as the other team deftly bats the puck backwards and forwards before hammering it into your goal time and again. Zooming out helps a little, but makes the puck almost impossible to see; and the game insists on representing the playfield with the goals at the top and bottom in a manner which seems determined to use the PSP’s wide screen in the very worst possible way.

With practice, thankfully, it’s possible to get to grips with Gretzky. With variable speed controls and a range of auto-aim options, the game isn’t entirely inaccessible. It’s hard to get used to the way in which players have to be manually selected at all times – there’s no auto-select for the player closest to the puck – and the game does have a habit of sending your team members casually drifting in the wrong direction as soon as you relinquish control, but once you work out who’s who, what’s what and how to play, it can be a fun game. There’s a reasonable amount of depth here, too: players and tactics can be changed on the fly, the game’s season mode is simplistic but offers longevity, and there’s plenty of extra kits and other goodies to unlock.

It is, however, emphatically not the game with which to show off a new PSP. Graphically it’s uninspired, with simplistic character models and a poor frame rate leaving it closer in style to the PS1 era than the PS2. Sound is basic and the lack of commentary is striking. The whole thing is wrapped up with interminably long loading times and insufferable shouty menu music. Gretzky has “launch title” written all over it, and future sports titles are certain to improve on this early effort. Only the wireless and internet multiplayer is truly impressive, and this is hopefully something we’ll see in more PSP titles as developers start to get to grips with the machine.

Gretzky is unlikely to inspire UK gamers. Of all the titles that could have been bundled with the PSP, this is probably one of the worst choices. It’s aimed uncompromisingly at ice hockey fans, is going to leave a lot of people frustrated and confused, and even taken on its own terms is little better than mediocre. When Sony finally get around to releasing the PSP over here, Gretzky is unlikely to receive a UK release, but given the number of bundles that have been sold, anyone who really wants to get their hands on Gretzky should be able to pick up a second-hand copy extremely cheaply. By that time, however, there’ll probably be better available.