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NHL 06

NHL 06

Written by Ben Berry on 12/7/2005 for Xbox  
More On: NHL 06

I’m a huge fan of the National Hockey League. I am a season ticket holder, am the president of the booster club for our local NHL team, and play recreational hockey, poorly. So it’s fair to say that I get a little psyched when the new hockey games come out. With the end of the NHL lockout and the beginning of a new look NHL, I was even more excited to play EA Sports NHL 2006.

EA has been producing NHL Hockey video games since 1992, originally under the Electronic Arts Sports Network (EASN) NHL Hockey logo. This 14 year franchise has become the most popular hockey video game franchise. NHL Hockey has been produced for every major platform since the “16 bit” era, and the 2006 version is available for Playstation 2, X-Box, GameCube, and PC.

As the game has evolved over the past 14 years, game modes have been created to fit nearly every gamers taste. “Exhibition” mode allows for instant play against the IA or a human opponent. “Season” mode allows the gamer to play through an NHL season and the Stanley Cup playoffs, if their team qualifies. “Dynasty” takes season mode and adds the duties of a General Manager both during and between seasons.

If the NHL season options become tedious, there are the “World Tournament” and “International Elite Leagues” modes as well. In the “World Tournament”, the best players from each country take each other on in what is comparable to the World Cup of Hockey. The “International Elite Leagues” expands upon the previously included European leagues, while including the NHL players who ventured to Europe during the NHL lockout.

Two major changes have been added to the controls, the skill stick and classic deking control. Gamers utilize the skill stick to perform special moves with top offensive players. Moving in on net, a quick tap of the analog stick will move the puck between the stickhandlers legs before roofing a shot over the goaltender. Classic deking control allows the user to control the puckhandler in a way similar to the early days of the NHL series.

Graphically, NHL 06 falls a bit short of expectations. The NHL series has had roughly the same quality for the past few years, mixing 2D and 3D graphics between the fans in the stands and the action on the ice. Small improvements can be seen, but in general the graphic engine in the game appears to be nearing its limits. Hopefully, the move to the Xbox 360 in NHL 07 will force the developers to move to a new engine for all platforms.

In terms of audio, this game is still near the top of the class amongst sports titles. The sounds of the game, the in-arena announcements, and the game commentary are all improved over previous versions. Key players throughout the league have unique audio segments that are played when they produce during the game. Sadly, the announcers remain the same mediocre talent from the previous versions. With the redistribution of NHL announcers and the new NHL national TV deal, hopefully this will change in NHL 07.

If I’ve been harsh on the title thus far, that’s because I am such a fan of the franchise and want to see the few areas it’s lacking improved. After fooling around with “Exhibition” mode, I launched into “Dynasty” mode like an Ilya Kovalchuk one-timer.

It was really enjoyable at first setting rosters and negotiating contracts between seasons. While the game has minor league teams, assignment of non-roster players is generic to the “minors” and doesn’t allow the player to be assigned to a specific league. Additionally, none of the new rules regarding contracts, trades, waivers, or even the salary cap are included. There are some settings in “Dynasty” mode, such as changing the cost of tickets or the percentage of profit on concessions that look to be a compromise on not including a salary cap. This was likely due to time constraints and should be fixed in NHL 07.

On the ice, this game is tough to beat when it comes to fun factor. I’ve played hundreds of games from all different genres and on several different platforms, and to me there’s nothing quite like racing into the zone with the puck and backing off the defender right as you saucer pass the puck across the zone to a streaking winger who one-times the puck over the goalies shoulder. While I’m a proponent of skill over grit in the real NHL, fighting will always have its place in the EA NHL. Beating down the opponents goon with your teams own tough guy doesn’t just give you the reward of dishing out a whoopin’, but it also gives your teams momentum a boost, and that certainly doesn’t hurt in a close game.

If I have any complaints about the on-ice experience, it’s to do with the difficulty settings of the game. “Easy” is so easy, within an hour of game time, even novices will be racking up 8 to 10 goals in a game. When the user moves up from “Easy”, the difficulty goes up so much so fast that even advanced users will have trouble keeping control of the puck in the offensive zone for more than a few seconds. This is likely due to the increased skill of the computer AI, which was surely a necessary upgrade from the previous offerings. Adjusting the specific settings of each difficulty rating allowed me to find a level of play that I found both rewarding and challenging.

EA made a big deal of emphasizing the customer player creation in the NHL 06. While this “EA Creation Zone” allows for customization of a player from head to toe, these customer player features have never appealed to me. If EA wants to find a way to include more flexibility in the game, they should acquire licensing from the Canadian Major Junior Hockey leagues in order to offer more “real” players for the “Dynasty” mode drafts.

As with prior versions, multiplayer can be accomplished at the console level or via Xbox Live. Even with the advances to the AI, the best hockey comes from a live opponent. Xbox Live offers a terrific option for those who can’t find a worthy local opponent. I may have to go the Xbox Live route myself, as dominating my editor at console hockey has become ho-hum.(editors note: when your opponent takes the Red Wings against the Blue Jackets you tend to win most of the time)

In conclusion, NHL 06 improves upon NHL 05, and provides some advances that point towards what could be an amazing title in NHL 07, especially on the Xbox 360.

Decent gameplay, a solid dynasty mode, and an improved physics engine more than make up for poor team creation and few major enhancements as NHL 06 goes “five hole” on the competition.

Rating: 8 Good

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.

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About Author

On my 12th birthday, I got a floppy drive, I stayed up all night playing Stock Market for Commodore 64. I owned everyone I knew at the various NHL titles for Genesis. I first learned how to code in LPC in the middle of the night from a heroine addict on the campus of Michigan State University back in 1992 when MUDding was the only ORPG there was. I was a journalism major my first time through college, and have been writing off and on since, and programmed up until 5 years ago, when I put down the tools of ignorance to become a business analyst. I'm a member of several gaming 12 step programs for MMO's, and I don't game nearly as much as I used to. I'm mostly on the lookout for items you haven't already seen reviewed 50 times, whether they are games, or just things a gamer might use. I'm now work out of GN's east coast office in Boston, and looking forward to spending the weekends my fiancee is away with Boston University Women's Hockey playing games while the snow falls. View Profile