Summary

The other day, a very friendly Canadian guy way trying to explain the principles behind hockey to me. He was really shocked to hear that I’ve only ever played field hockey and am an ice hockey novice, and he felt it was his duty to illuminate me. While I still haven’t had a chance to play or watch a game, my interest was piqued, thanks to the enthusiastic Canuck. :) Furthermore, the ice hockey world championship is on at the moment; all the more reason to try out Hockey Nations: Shoot-out. I think the Canadian dude would appreciate this app—the question is, will you?

First off, you can decide whether you want to play a fast game (Shoot-Out) or a whole Tournament. You can choose your team as well as your opponents when playing a Shoot-Out. You can select from the following teams:

• Great Britain
• Germany
• Latvia
• Switzerland
• Czech Republic
• Finland
• Canada
• USA
• Russia
• Sweden
• Slovakia
• Belarus
• Norway
• France

You can then choose which level of difficult you want to attempt:

• Easy
• Medium
• Hard

as well as how many rounds you want to play.

If you decide to play a Tournament you go from the round of sixteen all the way to the finale. You can again choose from all of the teams mentioned above, only now you can also see the individual teams’ skills, divided into defense, offense, and goalie qualities.

The goal of the game is too obtain as many penalty shots against your opponents as possible, and to simultaneously prevent the other team from winning penalty shots. You do this by starting your run midfield and trying to get by the goalie in order to slam the puck into the goal.

You can see how many medals you’ve won in the according levels of difficulty by clicking on the Achievements button.

You can also regulate detail settings as well as color choice and vibration feedbacks under Options.
 

Bottom line:
Hockey Nations: Shoot-out is just the ticket for any real hockey fan. I’m really liking the gameplay, and even when I thought I’d gotten wise to it I still encountered enough of a challenge to keep things interesting (especially in the Hard level of difficulty).
 

The graphics and gameplay come across as very realistic. You control the players via the trackpads shown on your screen; I found this to work out really well. In order to make a shot or sprint you have to press on the touch buttons located in the right margin of your screen. If you’re playing the role of the goalie and are trying to ward off an oncoming shot, you’ll see a virtual goal in which a puck will appear for a limited amount of time. You have to tap the puck with your finger before it disappears. This is the only way you can prevent your opponent from making a shot that gets past you.

The only thing I found a bit annoying is the back button, because if you happen to click on it you actually quit the game, like it or not. Developers: take note! This could do with some improvements.
 

I had no problems with Hockey Nations: Shoot-out on my HTC Desire. There were no bumps and no crashes. In case your ride isn’t quite as smooth you can try toning down the details settings a bit.

The app can be downloaded for free from the Market.