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Ah, memories.

 

I remember doing a house-painting job as a hired-hand back in the hot summer of 1991. when out of the sheer boredom of the day, I went to a local drugstore on my lunch break and picked up a random game magazine. There was an advertisement in there for some upcoming hockey video game that looked top notch (for that time..). As a kid from Pittsburgh, the Pens had just won the cup, and I was really intrigued about EA making a hockey game that would let me take control of Mario, Jagr, Stevens, and Barrasso. The next day, I traded in a bunch of games towards the purchase of the 16 bit Sega Genesis. Electronic Arts’ “NHL” was my first 16 bit game purchase- and it was a great game with a lively ¾ perspective view of the game of hockey...

 

As with any startup sports game, the original NHL game on Genesis had its flaws. The goalies were weak in all the corners, and a well placed slapshot to any of those corners often found twine. Several yearly iterations offered marginal improvements in those problem areas, and eventually tightened-up the defense, checking, and goalie control. The yearly series seemed to peak in quality and fun around the year 1993/1994. NHL ’94 was the “dorm room hit” that caused me and my friends to forget about frat parties and various other forms of debauchery in favor of weekend tourneys of NHL ’94. The game had a great deal going for it. Player control was awesome, and stick handling and momentum seemed perfectly balanced. Of course, this was only 1994- and “franchise play” wasn’t around in many sports video games, nor was playcalling, advanced defense, trades, updated rosters, etc. Despite this, NHL ’94 left its mark on gamers and critics everywhere as one of the most popular and revered sports games of the 1990s. It had good balance and play control, plus a huge fun-factor. It sure left its mark with me, as well as many of my pals at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania circa 94/95, who’s grades suffered accordingly.

 

Well, the designers of EA’s NHL 06 have stated that there would be a return to some of the things that made NHL ’94 great- particularly in terms of the way stick-handling was handled and player momentum. After playing the game, I applaud them for this acknowledgement of something that has been missing in the NHL game over the past 15 years. Simply stated, in terms of puck control, skating, and maneuvering, NHL 06 has the best controls and “feel” of any current-gen hockey game ever made.

 

Last year’s NHL 2005 was way too much like a football game for most fans. NHL 05 was about huge, knockout checks that would give your team a slight numbers advantage for a few seconds because every hit was huge, and often left the opponent on the ground having to get up while your team skated down the ice. This year, there’s still checking, and it can be effective, but not to the crazy point of a “football-game-on-ice” that we saw last year. Try to check Ziggy Palfy into a much bigger forward and see what happens. Ziggy might stand the guy up and bounce off, but now not every player can make huge, cruching, board-shaking checks. Some of the checks are realistically understated, merely causing the opponent to be hindered for a second, or lose control of the puck. Big hitters can still hit well, but all the checks don’t equate to train-wrecks like in year’s past. Good job here EA.

 

There’s also the new “skill-stick” factor. Star players have a star shaped icon under their feet when the have the puck. This “star” denotes their ability to perform high-end offensive moves/shots/dekes when you use the R-stick pushed in various directions (which are tied to certain personalized moves for the given star player.) Some of these moves are very impressive, and can lead to what is called “Highlight Reel Goals.” It’s a nice touch that doesn’t seem overdone on its own merits.

 

In game sounds are handled well in terms of sound-effects, pucks hitting boards, etc. The the commentary by Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson is handled well enough to not make them annoying, yet nothing makes it stand-out either. (Disclaimer: this may be because I’m spoiled by Pens color-guy Mike Lang.) EA tracks, as usual, make their return with a bunch of artists who’s tunes don’t do much for me, but with the notable exception of Animal Alpha’s “Bundy”, which harkens me back to the days of my headbanging youth.

 

Like most of the hockey games this generation, you can call some basic offensive and defensive plays, as well as change lines, etc. Of course, the rules in NHL 06 also reflect the new NHL rules- such as no 2-line passes, the goalie box, etc. Out of the box, the game is configured to be a more “arcadey” experience than some would probably like, but there are some adjustments you can make to help this, but perhaps not enough. More on this later.

 

The graphics are exceptional as well, as are the arenas, in-game replays- you name it. On the surface, NHL 06 looks to be a highly polished hockey experience, with big-time production value and presentation. Player movements and animation are really incredible to behold, and EA’s motion capture is to be applauded for capturing the various types of skating animations, speeds, etc.

 

The modes of play such as franchise make their return, as well as online play. Unfortunately, franchise isn’t as involved as some would hope, and there’s team goals that often don’t make sense. I have no idea why my Penguins goal for the year is to “get the first overall draft pick” considering the talent on the team. So my guess is that these team goals were written long before the NHL agreement with the players were signed, and the free agent sweepstakes began. Not a game-killer at all, but still rather curious.

 

Where the game will falter to some fans is in terms of realism. There’s a really bad tendency of the AI to not react to one of your players who just got the puck passed to them. Example- I skate Gonchar down the ice and hit Mario on pass as he’s camped about 25 feet to the left of the goalie. You can count “thousand one, thousand two,….” Before the defense reacts to him. It takes almost 2.5 seconds for them to finally react to a stopped Mario with the puck. At that point, someone will move towards him to try to check/poke-check. Now, the goalies will normally react to all players with the puck, but it’s the defensemen, center, and forwards who are slow to do so. So Mario gets an easy shot on goal. Then, repeat as necessary. That said, goalies can play tough in this game, especially some of the better ones, depending on the skill level you have them set at. So they can stop many of these shots, but this 2 second reaction time on the part of some of the defenders can lead to too many shots on goal for my own personal liking. No amount of slider adjustment that I have tried seems to fix this problem. Perhaps it won’t be a problem for everyone, but for someone like me who respects the fineries of defensive play in hockey, its an annoyance. Is the game still good and worthy of purchase? Yes. Should this be high on EA’s “fix for 07” priority list? You bet it should.

 

Also, even when the penalty sliders set to “MAX”, penalties are rare- and that sure doesn’t reflect the current NHL as the players are called for many of the clutch and grab tactics that used to be legal. Hockey realism fans will be annoyed with this.

 

My last gripe about the game relates to what I feel is one of the biggest problems in this year’s game. Simply stated, there are not enough options for “adjustability”. This is where 2K’s hockey game has crept ahead of EA’s game, and if EA wants to regain the mantle of having the most popular hockey game, they will have to compete here too. There are very limited adjustment sliders in NHL 06. There’s some, but some of them seem to do relatively little. Also, you MUST play either 5 or 10 minute periods, whereas in the competition’s game, you can set the time to your liking to get the kind of stats and realism you like. EA needs to endeavor to make their games far more customization friendly in the future so that all types of fans can get the type of gameplay experience they want. Not all blue-blooded hockey fans want to have huge amounts of shots on goal and very few penalties in their game. Of course, this is the type of trend EA must correct for all of its sports games, not just NHL 06.

 

Now, that doesn’t mean that pushing the difficulty up to “difficult” doesn’t equate to a very “hard to win” game of hockey. It does. However, it usually equates to the AI scoring on way too many shots within 25 feet of the goalie- deserved or not, screened or unscreened. Of course, on “Difficult”- the opposing AI goalie stands on his head to make saves, while yours may as well bask in the red illumination from that light behind the boards. To me, that’s called cheap. I just don’t think that upping any sports game’s difficulty should merely increase the “cheap” factor. That’s why it’s called “Artificial Intelligence” and not “Artificial Cheapness.” The end result is a “quest for sliders” that give a “realistic”: game of hockey. Good luck with that. No matter what you do with the sliders, it barely effects the miniscule amount of penalties and the “delay” factor in the AI skaters reacting to passes to the slot.

 

All that aside, NHL 06 plays one heck of a fun game of hockey, and its very enjoyable and easy on the eyes. Hopefully next year EA will take this skating/stick control model and apply it to a more fully realized engine capable of a greater degree of defensive gameplay realism. I admire EA’s harkening back to NHL 94 for tight player/puck control, but the next step must be a full set of available customizations, options, and online leagues like Take Two’s great hockey series offers.

 

 

One last thing- unlike Take Two’s NHL 2K6, EA’s game boasts more current rosters as of this writing (10/19/2005). Sidney Crosby and other rookies have been implemented into the online and single player roster update, as well as various line/roster modifications for NHL 06. Meanwhile, 2K is still on its mid September roster update that does not include the rookies and some of them more recent player movement.

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