A lot of Ice Hockey video games are altered to make it more playable. One very common change is the size of the rink itself, often made smaller in games to push players into making more tackles. As a result, the rinks in NHL 2003 seem massive compared to the other Ice Hockey games I’ve played. Playing this, I can understand why some games make them smaller – even at the fastest speed, NHL 2003 still feels slow.
Despite that, though, it’s still fun to play, and there’s a bit more room to focus on the tactics involved rather than a mad dash towards everything. There are a lot of modes, although the create a team option is very limited as there’s only two pre-named teams that you can assign players to. The “achievement” like system where you have to perform certain tasks in matches is a great addition. All-in-all, an enjoyable ice hockey game.