NHL 2K9 – 360 – Review

There were many things that went through my mind
while playing NHL 2K9, and many ways I had planned to intro this review. But
when it came down to it, only one thing mattered: did 2K Sports succeed in
bringing the fun back to hockey? That answer, while worthy of a “yes” in
simple terms, is much more complex given the wide spectrum of gamers in the
world and the wide audience 2K Sports is trying to reach.

Starting fresh with the controls, the developers wanted to create a style that players could enjoy the first time
they picked up the controller. Contrary to the reiterated reports that three
key buttons (shoot, pass and check) would be all you’d need to get through a
game, this was only true while playing under the default controller setting.
If simplicity isn’t your bag, NHL 2K9 offers semi-pro and analog
stick-oriented schemes that feel closer to the hockey game that it appeared
the developers were trying to leave behind.

The new scheme – now labeled “classic” under
2K Sports’ current direction – is not that far from Midway’s NHL Hitz
series. Wrist shots are executed with a simple tap of the X button; hold and
release X to perform a slap shot. Passing, dumping, speed boosts and
backwards skating have all been assigned to specific buttons. It doesn’t get
much easier than that.

The presentation of pre-game and in-between
play effects has become one of the most competitive areas of sports game
design. NHL 2K9 ups the ante by adding to the already existing slate of
realistic animations. Before each player starts skating onto the ice, the
arena goes dark with only spotlights and specific areas lit. Then, right on
the ice, a projector shines cool images, highlighting the home team while
exciting the crowd.

Player faces are more detailed and thus more
prominent, though still not comparable to the standout character models of
the NBA 2K series. Player interactions have been fine-tuned to more closely
match the way real hockey athletes perform on the ice. Excluding a few bad
moments (part of a player’s body occasionally disappears when colliding with
another), the way they skate, shoot, check, spin and turn around is very
natural. When pulling a 180 after rushing the nut, the player must
physically slow down as he turns around. The reaction isn’t instant, which
leans toward the simulation side of the game.

NHL 2K9’s controls are good but contain many
contradictions. One-timers do not lead to easy goals – a wise development
choice. Slap shots, however, can be achieved without much work so long as
you are not blocked by other players and stand directly in front of the
goaltender. This might be somewhat accurate (it’s not uncommon to feel like
a real hockey match was lost because the goaltender was the only one
protecting the net). But you’d think that if someone wound a slap shot long
enough, the goalie would reposition himself and be prepared to stop the
puck. During overtime shootouts, this is very much the case. But in an
average game against any average team, the key to winning is often that
center position.

Additionally, players move faster than a
simulation hockey game but are slower than an arcade title. That isn’t a
problem unless you wanted one or the other; if a mix is acceptable, NHL 2K9
nails it. Though these contradictions may be annoying at times, the only
thing that should have been changed before the game shipped – and must be
changed before NHL 2K10 is released – is the obnoxious goaltending mechanics
employed during shootouts.

Rather than guarding the net intuitively with
a couple of basic left and right movements (and perhaps up and down to stop
high or low shots), you control a beam that turns green when aimed toward
the puck and turns red when aimed away from it. The beam expands from the
goalie as a way of showing that it’s him you are in control of. But that’s
never how it feels. Even the slightest push of the left analog stick is met
with a clunky jerk that makes specific block maneuvers impossible to pull
off. There’s a reason for that. If you fail to block the puck via the first
cumbersome act, a second one appears: now you have to drag a puck cursor
toward the circular target on screen to prevent the puck from landing in the
net. Aside from being a mini-game within a hockey title, it really doesn’t
have anything to do with the sport, and hardly falls under the category of
pick-up-and-play.

Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda commentary is a
significant improvement, not just for the NHL 2K series but for the entire
sports genre. The two sound generally excited about each play, even though
their non-specific wording (they often say "he" instead of "[enter player
name]") frequently sounds no more advanced than sports commentary was 10
years ago. What’s really impressive is how varied their lines are and how
rarely they repeat themselves compared to previous iterations. However, the
developers should know that the game doesn’t need commentary during every
second of play. There are a lot of unnecessary lines (ex: how the players
are struggling to hit the net when only a couple of shots have been taken)
that appear to have been included to avoid having any period where the
commentators are silent. But silence would have been preferred – when you’ve
got music pumping in between plays (sometimes humorously but always
effectively) and loads of sound effects that mimic the sport well, a
commentary breather wouldn’t have been looked at poorly.