Hockey Nations 2010

Summary

Let me start off by saying that despite being a big hockey fan, I will never be as knowledgeable about the sport as my Canadian neighbours up north. Following the NHL playoffs is one thing, but the Hockey World Championship has never been very popular with TV viewers in North America. In Europe, however, the World Championships have always had a loyal and large following. Now with Hockey Nations 2010 Android users around the world can enjoy the raw and gripping action of international hockey on their phones. Although the shootout version of this game is fun enough, only the full version of this game allows you to experience the excitement of a Russia-Canada championship final. Find out more about being a hockey world champ in today's test.

You should be familiar with the shoot-out mode from our test on the demo version of Hockey Nations. In the full-version, you are not just playing in penalty shoot-out mode, but taking part in real 6 on 6 games against other hockey teams just like in regular hockey games.

For those of you pressed for time, Hockey Nations 2010 has a PLAY NOW mode. Without any special configurations, you can get started playing right away.

• Start an Exhibition Match between two teams of your choice.
• In Practice-Mode helps get a feeling for the game by practising your skating, shooting and defending skills in training mode.
• The Shoot-out Mode (available in the free demo version) can also be played in Hockey Nations 2010.

In all playing modes, you can select between easy, medium and hard difficulty levels. You can also adjust the match length to 5, 9 or 12 minutes.

The following national teams are available:

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

The strength and weaknesses of each team are shown to you.

The biggest part of Hockey Nations is the tournament mode. Go for Gold is the name of the World Championship playing mode. You start off in the group phase playing a game against all of your group opponents. If you've got the stuff to become a champ you move on to the knockout round.

In the World League, you play in a league against all of your opponents. In this mode, you have to play against each one of your rivals once. The team at the top of the table at the end of the season becomes the World League Champion!

Are you into tactics? No problem! Just select between Balanced, Offensive, Defensive or All Defensive by pressing the red-blue arrow button on your screen while playing.
In Achievement you'll find all your successes whether these are gold, silver or bronze medals.

You can adjust the following in the options:

• Effects level
• Puck Highlight
• Touch Feedback
• Icing
• Offside

Unhappy with the camera angle? Just pause the game and go to Change View to adjust the way the game looks.

Bottom Line:

A great 3D game with amazing controls.

Hockey Nations 2010 is one of the best Android 3D games out there. This game is right up my alley! If the game graphics are a bit lagging, try lowering the detail level in your options.

It takes a little getting used to in order for you to really master the game's controls. On my HTC Desire, the virtual trackpad is located at the top of the screen. Although it didn't really disturb me, I would have preferred to see it placed at the bottom.

During the game you control your players with virtual buttons. You can make a player sprint, pass or shoot. In order to tackle the opponents you can either Poke Check or Body Check.

I am curious to hear from people about their experiences playing this game on different Android devices.

The loading times in Hockey Nations 2010 are hardly noticeable. It doesn't take long for the game to actually start up. I didn't experience any crashed during my tests.

Hockey Nations 2010 can be downloaded from the Android Market for $4.99

The demo version is available for free from the Android Market.