NHL 09

September 17,2008 - Last year’s NHL 08 was just an extremely polished and well-made game, giving you a great hockey gaming experience for the first time in a long time. With a great base to build on, the team at EA Canada had the pleasure of being able to focus on new features and modes with NHL 09 instead of having to spend a lot of time to fix problems, like many sports game series these days. Do the new additions make this a worthy purchase or is this just your typical roster update?

The biggest new feature of NHL 09 is the Be A Pro feature and its integration into the rest of the game. When you first boot up the game, you’re prompted to create yourself, or whoever you want to make, with the somewhat limited create-a-player option along with picking from various types of equipment that will have an effect on the attributes associated with those items. From there, you’re able to hop into the Be A Pro mode, which is NHL 09’s career mode, to, usually, start on the third line of your chosen NHL team’s minor league affiliate as you try to earn your way up through the ranks to eventually being the star at your position amongst the top professionals in the NHL.

This new mode for NHL 09 is modeled after what EA’s done before with their FIFA and UEFA games as you’re rated during and after each game on how well you stay in position, how well you play with your team, and your stats along with comments to highlight particular issues or bright spots that your coach has to say about your performance. The main issue is that even if you’re on the third line, you start every game anyway, so the mode definitely is extremely biased by trying to help you move up the ranks sooner than it realistically should. When you push Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg out of the way about 20 games into your career as a 78 overall rated player, it can’t help but feel a bit inauthentic compared to say MLB 08: The Show’s career mode that feels a bit authentic by moving you up at a slower pace. Regardless of those issues, it still has the addictive “just one more game” quality that’ll keep you playing more and more until you realize that it’s no longer dark outside.

The other great use of your Be A Pro player in NHL 09 is the new EA Sports Hockey League online mode, which is a glorified clan mode that simulates more of the team sports experience better than any other console sports game. You can create your own team, but unfortunately without a good logo and uniform creator, so you use the stock of jerseys already in the game. With up to 50 teammates in your club, you’re able to gather up into groups of six to play each position individually in the locker room, a glorified lobby system, as you ready up for your next game. The reasons to play these games are for the honor of your team, gathering wins to go up in your division standings, level up your online Be A Pro player, and compete for each season’s title if you can win enough. If you’re not much of a fan of relying on others to help you win, you can stick with the returning leagues or the other typical online modes that NHL 09 has.

The gameplay itself was definitely great in last year’s game, but NHL 09’s made a few tweaks that make it perform a bit better than before. The game still has the same difficult but rewarding gameplay that NHL 08 had in spades, so the overall gameplay still feels as good as it felt before. Checking’s been made a bit easier with the use of the right stick of knock your opponents onto the ice, which now results in more giggling as you beat up on your opponents and smash them into the boards to possible injure a few of them along the way. Dekes been fleshed out a bit more for those who like a little more flair into their play style, though it’s still not as easy to use as the more traditional moves. Those that can’t seem to get a handle on these analog stick controls can try out the NHL 94 control mode, which lets you use those great old-school controls in any part of the game.

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