"The best just keeps getting better."

I've never been much of a sports game fan and heck, my brother would be much more suitable for writing a review of this. Oh well, I like this game so much that I just have to review it. Actually though, I just went down to Business Depot today because I was bored this morning. My brother gave me $40 to buy this game for him and it cost me $20 Canadian (about 10 US cents, LOL)

Graphics: (10) What can I say? The players and arenas are very well modelled and detailed and they look very similar to the real thing. 3D Mode on this is about 5x better than in NHL 98 and is almost as high in quality as NHL 2000.

Sound/Music: (10) The detail EA put here is simply astounding. The colour commentary uses the same 2 announcer as in NHL 98 (Hughson and Rae) but features much more variety and removes some of the sillier comments found in its predecessor. The outstanding ambient noises, the hard rock and music and the arena announcer all add to the TV style atmosphere for which EA is so respected.

Gameplay: (10) NOW THIS IS HOCKEY!!!!! The depth of the options and the teams available add even more to the experience. The AI has improved tremendously on the higher difficulty levels and has been greatly watered down on the lower difficulty levels. Playing a game feels puts you right on centre ice, and watching two computer players play it out feels like watching two fierece NHL rivals hit the ice on a big screen TV.

Challenge: (9) 4 difficulty levels make it so that anyone from a Norwegian or a Belarusian to a NHL Stanley Cup champion can have fun. Unfortunately, rookie and beginner are just too easy, and beginner is nothing more than rookie with all of the rules disabled. Oh well, some people may need it for a while.

Story: (NA) A bunch of teams from the NHL or around the world play hockey against each other for money or personal pride until Sephiroth comes and lays the samck down on Eric Lindros... OK, come on it's a hockey game, why do you need a story? It's just fun.

Ease of Installation: (8.5) A standard WIN 95/98 install marred by one extremely minor flaw. After I installed the updated Glide 3DFX Drivers, The restart option wouldn't restart for some reason and I had to finish installing the game first. Whoopee, probably just a little silly MS-BUG.

Replay: (10) One of the most replayable games I've ever played. Similar to the older Sonic the Hedgehog games in that resepct.

Overall: (10) Has there ever been a better hockey game?

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/00, Updated 02/22/01