That said, as consoles have evolved and become more powerful, developers have taken the hockey genre and sped it up to arcade-like quickness. 2001's graphics are solid. Skaters move on the ice with reasonable fluidity and the animations are nice. The player in possession of the puck will move down the ice at a good clip. How much speed is actually gained from this technique, however, is open to debate, as we'll see later in this review.
Defensive animations are just as convincing.
The brutes behind the blue line will lead the puck handler with precision while skating backwards and flip around at the right moment to give chase if they get juked. Nothing spectacular here, but definitely a solid job. Goalie animations, on the other hand, can be a bit strange. But if the goalie strays out of the crease, he seems to glide across the ice at completely ridiculous speeds. In addition, goalies don't even kick their legs when skating, an altogether impossible task.