Picture your average ice-hockey goalie dressed up in all of his gear.
The washboard shaped knee-pads, the Gears of War shoulder pads, the oversized oven gloves, the riot police visor, the ice-skates, everything. What you've got there is a bloated monstrosity of a man, good for absolutely nothing except his intended purpose. NHL 09 is exactly the same. It's huge, it's impenetrable, it cuts no corners, but in its own unique way it's near perfect.
No effort at all has been made to streamline or trim down the complex controls of NHL 08, and the mass of features and modes that it had are all still here. And that's fine. They're what made NHL 08 a great ice hockey game in the first place, even if it was a lumbering beast of a game. For the sequel EA have piled on a couple more excellent features and a few little ones, with one slight problem.
For whatever reason NHL 09 only provides tutorials for the newest features and the absolute basics of the game. All the stuff in… more »

Picture your average ice-hockey goalie dressed up in all of his gear.
The washboard shaped knee-pads, the Gears of War shoulder pads, the oversized oven gloves, the riot police visor, the ice-skates, everything. What you've got there is a bloated monstrosity of a man, good for absolutely nothing except his intended purpose. NHL 09 is exactly the same. It's huge, it's impenetrable, it cuts no corners, but in its own unique way it's near perfect.
No effort at all has been made to streamline or trim down the complex controls of NHL 08, and the mass of features and modes that it had are all still here. And that's fine. They're what made NHL 08 a great ice hockey game in the first place, even if it was a lumbering beast of a game. For the sequel EA have piled on a couple more excellent features and a few little ones, with one slight problem.
For whatever reason NHL 09 only provides tutorials for the newest features and the absolute basics of the game. All the stuff in between you're meant to have assumed knowledge of from earlier NHL games, just like you're meant to know the rules and terminology of the sport. The first thing NHL 09 does is have you make your own pro, and woe betide anyone who doesn't know the difference between a grinder and a sniper. It's one thing to target your game at ice hockey fans, another to ignore everyone else altogether.
Still, the new features here are pretty great. Be A Pro mode lets you play a single amateur athlete of your own creation and take them from the minor leagues to hockey stardom over literally hundreds of matches. To even get out of rookie status takes 75 games, assuming you also make the grade and hit all the stat requirements. If you're inclined to play the game realistically you'll also have to keep an eye on your stamina and swap in and out of the match accordingly. And would you believe it, watching from the sidelines (or from the plexiglass of the drunk tank penalty box) is kinda fun once you're attached to your team and care about their performance.
The other big ticket item is the online Hockey League that lets you and your friends form a team and play together online, with everyone controlling an individual using the same camera and controls as Be A Pro mode. You'll all even (very... slowly...) gain experience to spend on your stats as you take on other teams from across the world, your team's position in the global online league rising and falling accordingly. This is the feature this series' fans must have been crying out for ever since Xbox Live first arrived six years ago, and EA have finally delivered. Hell, it's probably the feature a lot of gamers envisaged when NHL Hockey first came out for the Mega Drive in 1991. And now it's finally here. And it's... well, it's ice hockey. A lot of ice hockey fans are going to be very happy.
Seriously though, it does make you wonder- the controls are as complex as they could ever get, there's full match commentary, the AI's wonderful, and you can either play a manager, a single athlete or take the whole game online and have every player controlled by a human being. Where can they go from here?
8/10 4/5