NHL 2K9

"Not bad, but work needs to be done"

2K Sports' NHL 2K9 for the Wii represents the first non-shovelware hockey game to be released on the Nintendo Wii. It is a mixed bag really, with some things that were done right, and other things that could have been improved upon.

Gameplay- 7/10

The Wii motion controls work fairly well with this game, which is fairly important considering the fast paced nature of most hockey games. Passing is as simple as pointing at your intended target and pressing A. Shooting is as easy as a flick of your wrist. Player movement is fairly responsive, and with the introduction of a speed boost bar, you now have an idea of how much you can use before you tire out a player.

My main concern though with gameplay comes with deking controls. You can only do a very limited number of dekes, and you cannot do them at high speed. This basically makes games nothing more than shooting and hoping it goes in. Also, while the "point and click" passing usually does work fairly well, there are sometimes issues where a the player looking to pass doesn't exactly do what you want him to do. He will either leave a drop pass, or completely miss the target.

Franchise Mode- 7/10

Before I get into why I think the franchise mode deserves it's own rating, the reason why I will review this particular franchise mode on it's own is simply because a lot of the reason people buy the 2K series over the EA series is because of this very mode.

The 2K series has always had a very in depth franchise mode, and this year's version may be perhaps the most well constructed franchise mode yet in some ways, yet it lacks in many other ways. A new potential stat has been added, which allows young players to progress much quicker than in previous years. This addition has actually made 7th round picks somewhat usable for the first time, which is a pretty big thing.

My main concerns though are two somewhat minor details for casual players, but for a hockey fan, they simply do not make sense. One of these concerns is with free agency, specifically, players not signing anywhere. You CANNOT tell me that a whole bunch of players would just simply not play in real life if offers did not meet their liking. I mean, yes you have the occasional player do that (such as Alexei Yashin). But to have sometimes TWENTY star players do that... Just plain silly. The other concern lies with trading. You HAVE to follow the strict roster limit, which is a new thing for the 2K series, because in previous years you did not have to in order to make a trade. This is a bit of a nuisance that makes things more tedious than they need to be. The freezing glitch that has existed since 2K5 is also still in this game, which is bothersome, but as long as you consistently save, you really need not fear it.

Audio- 6/10

There are many issues with several portions of the in game audio. For instance, the commentators will occasionally screw up names, which is fine in real life, but should NEVER happen in a video game. The menu music is a mix of average and WTF (I honestly never expected to hear the song "Bad Boys" in a hockey game soundtrack). And I always wonder why sports games need to have this pointless "chime" that you hear whenever you click on a menu. But then again, that last criticism was about sports games in general rather than this specific game.

Graphics....

I really will not bother to give the graphics a score. For an apt comparison of the graphics in this game to graphics in another hockey video game, pop in NHL 2001 for the PS1. But seriously, the fancy graphics are not the selling point of this game. So if that is what you are looking for, you won't get it from this game

Overall Impression- 6/10

There is a LOT of potential with the Wii motion controls. And while I feel the controls were actually rather well done for a first time effort, there is a lot of work to do with some minor details, such as franchise mode and audio. I am also confident that next years edition will actually have acceptable graphics rather than N64/PS1 era graphics.

Buy/Rent/Avoid

I would rent it to see what the hullabaloo is about the motion controls, but I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you only own a Wii, or if you haven't bought a hockey game in at least 3 years.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/08

Game Release: NHL 2K9 (US, 09/08/08)