NHL2K9 Posted by Joe Anderson on Sep 26, 2008 12:40 (Sep 26, 2008 12:40) |
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NHL2K9 is here and at a budget price too, but can it match up to the glitz and glamour of its EA counterpart NHL 09? Well let’s find out. I must admit I love hockey games, specifically EA’s NHL series, however being from the UK I obviously have no idea of the rules, all I know is that you need to barge people out of the way to get the puck and try to score. I personally have never tried the NHL2K series before so I have to say that the feel of this game was pretty new to me.
NHL2K9 offers a very accessible control system, offering three settings for those new to the game and the seasoned pros. The basic setting was ideal for beginners like me, allowing you to pick up the controls and play the game without too much complication, while the other settings such as Hybrid and Pro Stick master, which I found to be similar to the NHL games are aimed at the more experience players. To me the controls are a very important part of the game, after all some of us are men and don’t believe in reading manuals (or in my case don’t receive the manual due to the game being a review copy), so an accessible games is quite essential.
Of course since I am reviewing the game I thought it best to try out all the control settings, of the pro stick and hybrid systems the Hybrid seems to offer the best alternative, the left stick is used to control your skater and the right is used for your hockey stick, pulling back to and then pushing forward to shoot, or just pushing forward for a slap shot, you can also aim your shot left and right in this way, which is handy. Using the face buttons also allows you to add a bit of variation to your play, allowing you to beat opponents and such. I don’t know if it is just me but I certainly found the action in NHL2K to be a lot more frantic than NHL 09, everything seems to go at 100mph, every time your player gets the puck there just seems to be an entire team bearing down on you, however that’s not to say that this game is more difficult than NHL 09, in fact I would say it’s quite the opposite. When playing NHL 09 I would constantly struggle to score in an entire game, however in this game I was finishing plenty of matches with scores such as 4-4 and 3-2. There is certainly plenty of all out action in this game, which in my opinion is a good thing.
The game provides plenty of options for hockey crazy fans, there is a quick play mode, franchise mode and of course the online mode. Online is were things really hot up, here you can play in weekly tournaments, full seasons or play with up to 11 other players (12 including yourself obviously) in a team, which is great fun. The presentation in NHL2K is very impressive, the players all look very realistic (although I have no idea what they look like in real life) as do the crowds, the action also seems to run very fast without any noticeable slowdown, which is surprising given what I said about the speed of the game. NHL2K9 is a very impressive game, it is very accessible, fun to play and it has a great online mode. I would highly recommend this game to hockey and sports fans alike. I am sure that anyone who buys this game will enjoy the fast paced action that it provides.
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