Over the past few years, EA has managed to show that they have the dominant hockey game on the next-gen platforms. NHL 2K9 had its shot this year to try and regain the lead, so did they succeed in doing so?
The NHL 2K series has been around for years now, and for a long time it was the hockey game to own, it was the king of the virtual ice pretty much.
Then, EA Sports went back to the drawing board and re-defined hockey games, leaving the NHL 2K series playing catch-up once again. NHL 2K9 is a whole new game though, and appeared poised to really make a run this year at something special.
NHL 2K9 had a lot going for it in regards to hype and such heading into the release, unfortunately though the game is a real mixed bag of good and bad.
The first thing I’m going to start off with in NHL 2K9 is arguably its highest point, the presentation. NHL 2K9 is a great looking hockey game, with amazing character models, fluid animations, and more. The way the players skate up and down the ice, take hits, shots, etc. is very realistic.
The same authentic feel is carried over into the audio presentation of the game as well, with top-notch announcers, good sound effects, etc.
The game is based on more of a classic style of hockey, as Visual Concepts came to the decision to use a more classic set-up. What does this mean? This means that the controls really focus on the face buttons. You have your pass button, shoot, etc. If you want though, you can use what they call Evolution controls, which map things to the analog stick.
