NHL 09 Review

What is the best way to capture the intensity of the best sport in the world?  Is there a gaming system that will translate the action from a cold hockey rink to a TV set?  Can a video game make the NHL more interactive or more addicting?  And most importantly, will a company step up and make a video game that my dad can finally play?

Tough questions to answer in a world full of sports video games, but I believe that EA Sports has come very close.  NHL 09 is the newest title in EA’s yearly hockey series for the XBOX 360.  Graphically this game is the best yet and runs very smoothly on Microsoft’s system.  Let’s start with the hitting; it is much more realistic and believable in comparison to last years installment, which really lacked that smooth “run the player through the glass” feeling.  This year the energy and fluidity of the game have been pushed to a whole new level.  You believe the game, you feel the game.  The menus are great and the ability to tweak almost every gameplay setting is also a good feature. A gameplay editor allows you to customize any portion of your experience, making the game more personal and making you the next Colin Campbell.  In addition EA has kept the “Skill Stick”, making the controls amazingly simplified and a million times more enjoyable than the ”button-mashing” of old.  Even though the controls are brilliant and the gameplay is much more realistic, I still don’t think my dad could play this game, but that is not EA’s fault.  He’s just too old to play video games.

This game comes close to getting high marks but still falls short.  There are a few annoyances in the game that hinder its playability.  The camera angles available are not the best, there are some glitches in the realism of player deeks, the fighting could be much better, and the physics of certain shots sometimes make the instant replay feature needed so you know the answer to, ”how did I get that shot off?”  Xbox will hopefully release a game patch to solve some of these things, but if EA Sports is taking note and read Inspired Magazine, they will know what to change for NHL 10.

7.5/10

— Luke —