NHL 09

"YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN."

This game is hockey.

Game Play 9/10
The harder you work within the frame work of each individual game type and player type -- the harder the game pushes you back. I personally like this. The better I get at the game the better it gets. The key to the whole thing -- I found -- is the little fine tuning slider labeled "A.i. Learning" This is the brains of the game so to speak. I have read other reviews that complain that it is virtually impossible to score/pass/check etc on anything higher than rookie. I play on the hardest difficulty and I have no problems scoring (within reason). This is by no means a boast at all -- I suck at video games. I just don't like winning easy. I rather jump up and scream when I win -- than opposed to chalking up win after win. I find the key to this is if you roll back the a.i. learning slider a notch or two and roll back the shot accuracy and power in accordance with pushing up the difficulty. I think EA has found an amazing way to let you tailor the game to the way you like to play and still keep it competitive and fun. (I am also hype that they left this in NHL 10)

Graphics 10/10
Absolutely stunning. Interesting story: I first got the game and was playing on a TV the size of a note pad and wasn't to taken with the graphics. Not that they were bad -- just I wasn't blown away. Well, I have since got a new TV and things are crystal clear and MAN -- they did some sweet work on this. On top of the attention to detail -- the fine folks at EA must have hired a room full of computer programing monkeys and did some SERIOUS number crunching on the equations to get the bloody physics of the way a hockey jersey slightly flaps when you are tearing up ice on an odd man rush.

Sound 7/10
See above, but replace "graphics" with "sound". Where they didn't shine through on this is the damn commentary. Now it's not as bad as "You have to catch the ball and score touchdowns to win at football" from Madden 08 -- but if I have to listen to the commentators wax prophetic about how "Someone's black and blue on that one! Ya, he didn't even mean to, but chalk up a blocked shot for him!" LITERALLY every time a shot is deflected wide or into a crowd... god help us all.

All in all -- this is a hockey game. It plays like a hockey game. And if you like hockey, you will like this game. But just like real hockey -- you only get out of it what you put in to it.

Keep your stick on the ice kids.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/09

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