Chop Chop Hockey Preview

Chop Chop Hockey Preview

When most people think of ninjas, they don’t often think of hockey. With their next Chop Chop release, Gamerizon is looking to change all that. The developer has just announced that their latest release, Chop Chop Hockey, has just been submitted to the App Store for approval. Join Gamezebo as we lace up our skates and aim for the net in our exclusive preview.

We recently had the chance to touch base with Kael Lazla, a producer at the Montreal-based Gamerizon about this latest entry in the series, and we were delighted to hear that this was more than just a simple re-skin of Chop Chop Soccer.

Rather than using the same physics engine as previous games, Gamerizon has developed a new engine that is not only reactive, but predictive and dictated by actual gameplay. According to Lazla, this results in some incredibly fast-paced action;

“The gameplay mechanism took us 4 month to create. It’s completely different from what you’ve seen in Chop Chop Soccer. We wanted to create a deep and easy to use gameplay. But we also wanted to reproduce the same feeling you got when you see a real hockey game on TV. It’s frantic, fast, spectacular and really fun to play.”

Like previous Chop Chop games, all of the action in Chop Chop Hockey can be controlled with a single finger. If that sounds somewhat limiting, chances are you’ve never played a Chop Chop game before. Players can expect to control a full range of movements, including skating, wrist shots, slap shots, checking and passing.

The title will feature four different arenas at launch and eight unique teams. Expect to do battle on a classic North American style ice rink, a European style arena, the ice rink at Rockefeller Centre and even on a Norwegian fjord at night. You can also expect to choose between three different camera angles, offering a standard front view, an action view that’s great for body checks, and a side view that should prove comfortable for beginners.

The eight teams aren’t simply unique because of their appearance, but due to their stats and play style. Gamerizon has prepared a handy breakdown of what can be expected from your on-ice competition. Fans of the Chop Chop series will no doubt recognize some teams inspired by past and future titles in the series, including the yet-to-be-released Chop Chop Caveman and Chop Chop Zombie;

• The “Killer Bees”: Fast, accurate, and deadly but, yes, they can be squashed…
• The “Skulls”: Their gameplay is inspired from a particular Philadelphia Hockey team from the seventies. Nuff said…
• The “Flamingos”: Elegant, artistic, light-footed and dressed in … well, pink. Their goalie is INSANE.
• The “Cops”: Methodical, structured, organized though not particularly creative.
• The “Commandos”: Surgical and resourceful, but is their green camouflage outfit that effective on the ice?
• The “Infernos”: They fire shots from every angle! Weaknesses? We haven’t found any yet.
• The “Ninjas”: Yes, they wear masks and strike like lightning. No, we don’t know where they’re from.
• The “Cavemen”: A new formation from the Ice Age. They may still be rough on the edges as far as skating goes, but most observers agree they’ve mastered slashing, cross-checking and basic annihilating.

And while the game isn’t even released yet, the team is already working on plans for additional content down the road. “In the near future, we are going to add four tournaments, four rinks, and four teams. One will be very Tron-like.”

Expect this one to skate its way into the App Store during the first week of November. For a limited time, you’ll be able to pick it up at the introductory price of $0.99. In the meantime, why not check out the wealth of exclusive screenshots that Gamerizon sent our way?

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.