When I was a kid, I didn't play hockey. In my town, hockey was a "rich kids" sport, since the equipment and fees were too much for my family to afford. Well, if hockey is a "rich kids" sport to you, Kidz Sports Ice Hockey should be more in your budget, being a $20 game. But is it worth the price of admission?

Bold Games makes a point of giving their games continuity, so if you've played other games in the Kidz Sports series, you'll find these to be somewhat similar and overall intuitive, although my 6-year-old had trouble mastering them. The controls are also plagued by the same misfires as others, making passing difficult, and shooting for the goal often doesn't register.

The game features the same 8 teams as other Kidz Sports games, 4 available and 4 unlockable, with the same teams available, but this time, they're wearing hockey gear. Because of the colored uniforms and helmets, unlike Kidz Sports Basketball, you can easily tell which characters are on your team, but in Hockey, they eschewed the solid circle under your character's feet, so while you can tell who's on your team, you have to look closer to see whom you're actually controlling. To further complicate this, a tiny circle surrounds the puck, so it's hard to keep track of who has the puck. As I was playing, I found myself sitting at the edge of my seat. I paused to question whether I was that excited, but I then realized I'd instinctively moved forward to be able to see the puck better. A camera that only shows part of the rink further complicates this, often leaving your character (even the character with the puck) off-screen. At one point, the teams happened to have half of the characters on each half of the rink, and the camera focused on the center of the rink, which had no occupants at all.

 

The game also features the Skill Points system, allowing players to automatically execute moves like goals and steals, as well as protection from steals ("Shield"). When you use the Charge Shot for an automatic goal, the goalie gets flipped by the puck like Charlie Brown getting hit by a line drive, except the equipment stays on. One special move that requires no skill points is the Chain Shot, which involves passing and shooting in one fluid motion.

Kidz Sports Hockey features the same Kidz Sports Game Modes, including Exhibition Match (1 match for 1-2 players with options for period duration, rink, and opponent difficulty, although I don't understand why opponent difficulty shows as an option for a 2-player game.), Knockout Cup (single elimination tournament--win 3 in a row to win), and Tournament Cup (Play 7 games, 1 against each team, and minigames. Minigames offer challenges like slalom around cones by tilting the Wiimote (very difficult), shooting a puck at a moving target (with moving obstacles in higher difficulties), or Penalty Game, where you play goalie and block incoming shots by twitching the proper direction.

The game uses the same announcer (and the same announcements) as other Kidz Sports titles, and the total different announcements include about a half-dozen like "[Team Name] are in the lead!" that get monotonous quickly.

Like other games in the series, once you get used to the game, the challenge drops considerably, and no difficulty levels are available except in the Exhibition area, so the lack of challenge makes playing multiple games in a row tedious. While playing Knockout Cup, my wrist was getting sore by the 3rd match, so with 2 minutes left and being ahead by 25 points, I set down my controller, left it running, and went to grab a snack. When I came back for the final seconds of the game, I found that my opponents had scored 4 points total in my absence.

While this game can provide a diversion for a few minutes between other games, like its Basketball sibling, even a $20 pricetag is too high. Yes, finally hockey you can afford without being a "rich kid," and it's not worth 3 hours of minimum wage work.