by: John Olin

September 18, 2005

NHL 06 comes to us while there is still a lockout with the NHL right now. Electronic Arts claims it has recaptured the glory of NHL 2004 in reality it is just a few minor tweaks from 2005, completely updated rosters, and the fact that it says ‘06’. The game controls pretty easily. You can get a burst of by pressing R, press A to Pass in offense or switch player in defense, X to shoot in goal, and a few other control intricacies that make the game better. Overall it controls just fine and is easy for people to pick up. When you are on offense, the defense isn’t particularly hard on you on normal difficulty, every so often bunting into you to get the puck. When you are on the offense, it is usually pretty easy to keep it that way, even if they slide up on you and get the puck for a bit of time. The plays you form don’t necessarily mean anything, as you probably won’t follow them, and nor will your own team as you will be pressing A every so often or passing it to them yourself. The defense however can be near impossible on the offending team and your side. Somehow, the goalie can see right through the two to three guys in front of him already, surrounding him, and block a shot going at 100MPH. The only times you really do score is by very complicated passes, sometimes you go for the goal, then get it back then go for it again. Even stranger though is sometimes they dive at random times, or will scoot out of the way letting the puck slowly slide in. Those instances are very few, but they still happen.

There is also interesting things you can do with the right analog, by shooting the goal backwards, between the legs of someone, or turning around over someone coming at you. These moves can be hard to do, and these special right analog moves normally can’t be done affectively unless the player you are using has pretty good stats.

The multiplayer in the game is done well enough, allowing you to go on or offline with it. There isn’t a whole lot of slow-down in the game, and for the Americans out there, you probably will end up playing with a lot of French-Canadians, as well as Canadians in general. It is definitely more diverse online if anything, and while there is some unresponsiveness it works great overall.

Visually, NHL 06 looks pretty good. The ice has great reflections and looks extremely well done, with the fogged up logos and lines in the ice. The players themselves have sort of bad facial features, and can sometimes look boxier than they should, but it is excusable seeing how hockey players are boxy in the first place. The players also vary in sizes, and the goalie is actually extremely detailed with his padding. The interaction of the players and the ice together holds up well, with the animation of the players being done well with a completely solid frame rate.

The audio in the game gives you a great feel of the game, specifically the audience sounds along with the bells and whistles that go off when you score. The audience cheers, the lights go flashing, and you hear thunderous cheers and horns. The audience also cheers and stomps when one team or the other is doing well, or bad depending. The sounds on the ice are all pretty basic clacks of wood and the scrape of ice, but it is still fine. The audio commentary often repeats itself to much, with Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson do it, so all it really does is help build an atmosphere so you might as well mute it out in your head. The music, which you only hear in the menus, really is an eclectic mix of alternative rock songs from some popular artist, but you really won’t hear it much.

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NHL ’06 is the game for hockey fans who can’t get enough, since they really can’t get much this year. It doesn’t really improve much and I wouldn’t say it is the best hockey game money can buy right now, but if you don’t have an online version of the game yet and are a hockey fan spend the cool $30 and check it out.

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