Metacritic Games

NHL 2K2 (Dreamcast)

Improved player and team AI gives you control over whether to use your finesse skater to avoid the crushing checks of the defense or whether to bring in your own intimidating checking line to loosen up the opposition. Shadow the other team's best player with your defensive specialist and protect your star with your enforcer. Use Franchise Mode to take a struggling team to the Stanley Cup® finals by building up slowly through the draft or choose to win right away through crafty trades and free agent signings. [Sega]

Sega
Sports
Players: 4
E (Everyone)
Developer: Visual Concepts
Released February 11, 2002

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

80 / 100

Critic Reviews

92	Sports Gaming Network If you can get past some of the sloppy control and strong defensive qualities of the game (including a too-effective poke check), you'll find a game completely opposite all other arcade based titles on the market.
92	IGN The gameplay and features are the slickest out there, and in terms of simulating the experience of hockey, NHL 2K2 delivers the most authentic representation I've seen yet.
91	Gaming Age A fast, fun, deep, and graphically impressive game and it’s been well worth the two year wait since Sega released the original.
90	Hot Games The controls in NHL 2K2 get the nod for being the most intuitive in the genre.
82	Electronic Gaming Monthly Its top game speed, Lightning (yes, that's what they call it), keeps the action firing at an intense clip without sacrificing skater physics. In other words, it's slippery fast, but not in a cheesy, pretend way. [May 2002, p.114]
81	GameSpot A great game of hockey... It may not have all the features that we would have liked, but it's certainly a lot of fun to play.
80	Electric Playground In the good, but not great category, NHL 2K2's artificial intelligence provides moments of excellence, tempered with moments of sheer stupidity.
80	Play Magazine It's all here, with looks that kill and gameplay to support it. [April 2002, p.63]
70	Planet Dreamcast While it has all the makings of a great game, its ho-hum presentation, standard graphics and gameplay, missing online play and overall lack of innovation make this a game to pass on if you can.
60	GamePro The controls, while exhaustive in their scope, suffer from too much complexity, and skating and checking never quite feel right.
58	XenGamers The sound of skates on ice is particularly grating here, sounding more like nails on a blackboard than thin knives of steel dragging across a slab of frozen water.