Ice Hockey is one of the more popular American sports this side of the pond, maybe its the fact our lovely weather allows us to play on iced over ponds all year round without stadiums or that it involves the occasional scrap. Whatever the reason, EA have brought us another game based on this great sport in NHL 09, and yet again, it’s a top title.

Like so many other EA sports titles you have a wealth of play types and options, so much that you will need a few hours just to get through them all and see what is on offer. For this review I am going to try and pick on the newer or more exciting aspects of the game. As per-usual you have the huge Dynasty mode, here you play as the whole team plus the manager and coach. As well as playing each game in the season you are also able to purchase new players, set play types and change the team as you seem fit.

Be a Pro has made a welcome return, here you can choose to be a nobody who has just arrived in the team or you can go for a seasoned pro staring from the last season and playing through. In Be a Pro you are controlling just one player, the manager will be constantly watching you and grading your performance, play well and you get more games, play badly and you will find yourself on the bench or even worse, traded to another team. To grade you he will advise you what he expects of you, this will be based on how many goals you score, how many assists and so on.

The amount of teams to choose from is staggering, most players this side of the pond won’t recognise a large amount of them, but each team has a points system were you can work out who is better on attack or defence and choose the right team to suit your playing skills. As well as the NFL and AHL teams you have global teams including Czech, German and Russian leagues. 

Whilst playing you have opportunities during and after each game to create and upload highlights. The editing suite is very simple to use, allowing you to choose your favourite camera angle and zoom distance. NHL 09 effectively records the whole game, so as long as you have enough hard drive space and patience you can pick apart your most recent game, cut out the best bits and upload them for others to watch. Included in the video edit mode is a photo mode, here you can take a snap shot of the action and even a close up of your player to post on your very own hockey card. The interactivity does not stop there, you can even import a custom soundtrack onto the game, as long as you have a playlist saved on the Xbox/PS3 you can use these songs for different areas of the game, so you can have your favourite tunes played out when you come onto the ice and another one for when you score.

Control wise this game has been gutted and redesigned again, the dual stick system has been updated yet again and now plays even better, during attack the left stick moves your player and the right stick is for your hockey stick, flick it left and right to deke and push down and up for slap shot. During defence the right stick becomes a body check, allowing for some easy to pull off and brutal challenges. To make the game appeal to a wider audience EA have had a stroke of genius and also brought back a very old control method from NHL 94, with just the left stick to move and two face buttons for attack and pass, there is no excuse for not playing now.

Online mode has grown into a beast since the last iteration. There are the usual ranked and unranked games, quick play and custom options. EA seem to be trying to form a community around the sports titles, what with the vid and pic uploads you also have chat rooms, here you can set up single games or a huge 6 a side fest. Setting up a game is very easy and it is well integrated into the Xbox system. I would recommend downloading the most up to date roster as without this you cant play online and it will take up to five minutes to get this info.

Whilst this title is another update on the ever running NHL franchise, it is a great addition and has so much to offer over last years version. Highly Recommended.