NHL 2K9 (Wii version)

Hockey and Nintendo fans everywhere rejoice, because for the first time in three years (Not counting the abysmal Backyard Hockey for DS) an NHL game has finally come to a Nintendo console! It’s already been out in North America since September 8^th, but it only came out over here in Europe on November 14^th, despite all other versions of the game being released before it.

This game is notable for being the first NHL game to come out on a Nintendo console since EA Sports’ NHL 06, the last time I purchased an NHL game, so expect to see a few comparisons to that while reading this view, and don’t expect any EA VS 2K flaming.

Presentation

Let me say first of all that the instruction manual sucks. Unlike many other games, all you get is a list of all the controls except for face-offs, making that quite difficult to learn. Afterwards, all you have left is a very brief description of the menus and game modes, and that’s it.

When you load up the game for the first time, you’re asked to enter a name with an on-screen keyboard. With this being a Wii game, the first thing I did was point the remote at the screen, expecting a cursor to appear indicating where I was pointing. I got nothing, so then I turned it on its side and tried using the d-pad instead. Again, nothing. Next, I moved the control stick on the nunchuck, and finally something moved. This is only a minor presentation flaw with this game, and it doesn’t get in the way too much, but I found it a bit strange considering that almost every other Wii game makes you point the Wiimote at the keyboard to use it.

Next, you’d expect to be taken to the game’s menu, but instead you go straight into quick play mode, where you can pick your teams and begin play. To access the menu, you either have to press + or B, and from there you’re left to adjust to the game’s awkward menu system. Again, you can’t point at anything so you have to use the nunchuck and press A on the Wiimote to access the different options.

The game also has a fairly decent soundtrack, with the exceptions of ‘Knocked Down’ by Pennywise, which was also in NHL 06 (and I’m personally very annoyed that it returned) and another song, ‘Bad Boys’ by Inner Circle, which doesn’t fit among the rest of the mostly metal soundtrack, and for some reason is this game’s fight song. The game’s sound effects are also very good, although some teams have inaccurate goal horns.

And speaking of sound, the commentary team of Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda of the San Jose Sharks really fit well, unlike in NHL 06 with the annoying voice of Jim Hughston and his partner Craig Simpson, which to this day owners of the PC versions of EA’s NHL games still have to put up with.

Gameplay

This game does have a nice range of game modes, including Quick Play, Franchise, and Season modes as well as Pond Hockey and Mini Rink, both of which you probably won’t pay much attention to. The Franchise mode is quite well built, but again navigating through the menus can be difficult at first. Unfortunately this game has no online mode unlike other versions of the game.

The controls in this game are pretty much spot on, and suit the game perfectly: you point at a team mate with the Wiimote and press A to pass, you flick the Wiimote for a wrist shot and you hold B while flicking the remote to pull off a slap shot. You can use the Wiimote to hook opposing players with the stick, and you can also swing the nunchuck to pull off a so-called ’special move’ with the puck, or slam other players. For the most part, the controls feel great, and unlike with NHL 06, scoring really is a “feel good” moment. Goals can occasionally be hard to come by, even on easy mode, so you’re not always beating the other team by 15 plus goals. In between periods you have the option of a Zamboni driving minigame, in which you have to clean the ice in a set amount of time. This is done by removing the nunchuck and holding the Wiimote on its side, tilting it to steer much like in Mario Kart Wii. You press 1 to accelerate and 2 for the brakes. You’d expect them to be the other way around, but there we go. You don’t really achieve anything from playing this minigame, other than Randy and Drew commenting on how you did afterwards.

My only complaints regarding the controls are the fighting and face-offs. As I mentioned earlier, there is no mention of the latter in the manual, so you’re left wondering what the hell you’re supposed to do when you get to that part of the game. As far as I’m aware for face-offs, you’re supposed to flick the Wiimote at the right time, and then… well, something. The fighting controls are shown on screen, but they’re really hard to master: you have to keep your balance by shaking the nunchuck, and you punch using the Wiimote. I’ve found that the controls for fighting are very unresponsive, so I’ve lost all but one of every single fight I’ve been in so far. I’ve seen at least one screenshot of the game where you have to punch with the nunchuck and balance with the Wiimote, which for whatever reason doesn’t occur in-game, though I can imagine that it works better.

There are also a number of odd glitches in the game, including one where you get permanently locked in a fight without the on ice officials coming in to separate the players, and the only way to stop it is the exit the game.

You can also create your own players and teams, however the only big restriction with the player creation is that, while you can change his skin tone and the like, you’re limited to a small number of facial appearances to choose from. When you create a team, all you have to do is enter the city, team name, abbreviation and select one out of about 100 odd-looking logos, and then copy players from the default NHL teams.

Graphics

This is one of the other few bad aspects of the game. While screenshots of the game don’t really do this game justice, making the game look really murky, I can’t exactly continue to defend it as the graphics aren’t really very good. The crowd is paper thin, the decals on the Zambonis are pixelated and the players look as though they’re wearing really skin tight jerseys. Looking at the jerseys up close they look quite good, although not so much with the white jerseys which all have a big black area underneath the armpits, which is supposedly shading. The player models look nothing like their real-life counterparts, and some of the animations are poor.

This is the one thing that annoys me about third party Wii games: while yes, the console is less powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3 and therefore can’t handle HD graphics, there are games that have very good graphics like Super Mario Galaxy. Third party developers are very lazy when it comes to this aspect of the game, and unfortunately, 2K Sports are no exception.

Lastability

The franchise mode gives the game some nice single player depth, and should keep you entertained for a long time. Pond Hockey and Mini Rink don’t really add much to multiplayer as you already have Quick Play for that. The lack of online mode is a bit disappointing…

Overall

It’s nice to see the NHL finally come back to a Nintendo console, and for those who have waited for the last three years, this game is a very nice treat as most of its aspects are superior to NHL 06. However, the game is flawed in places and there is still a lot of room for improvement, and a few bugs which need to be ironed out. Still, it’s a decent effort on 2K’s behalf, and definitely worthy of a purchase. Even if you already own another one of this year’s NHL games, I recommend checking it out anyway.

Rating: 6/10 – “Decent”

The NHL has a rich history, and yes fine, while unlike other smaller leagues where teams disappear and no one cares, when an NHL team disappears, people notice - But who remembers them now.
This is the PowerPlayGoal.com guide to teams that lasted less than 5 seasons.

Brooklyn Americans

Where: Madison Square Gardens
When: 1941 - 1942
Why: The team was collapsed in 1942
Accomplishments: The team was rather unsuccessful in their brief two years of actually existing. In those two years neither year resulted in a trip to the playoffs and the team suffered greatly from the poor behavior of its staff off the ice.

California Seals / Oakland Seals

Where: Oakland/Alameda Colliseum
When: 1967 -1978
Why: Never successful at the box office, the team was constantly in the red, and they were sold to Cleveland (which is mentioned next)
Accomplishments: The team enjoyed limited success reaching the playoffs just twice in their shortish history.

Cleveland Barons

Where: Richfield, Ohio
When: 1976-1978
Why: After failing to establish the franchise and losing a shed load of cash in California, the franchise was sold, and moved to Ohio.
Money was poured into the team, and for a short period it actually worked, bringing in record crowds featuring numbers in the 12,000’s.
Sadly numbers dwindled on the team being unsuccessful, and the team became cash strapped having blown lots of money early on.
They eventually merged with another cash strapped team, The Minnesota North Stars.
Accomplishments: None, other than lasting just 2 years…

Kansas City Scouts

Where: Kansas City, Missouri
When: 1974-1976
Why: The team was named after a statue in the city. They were an expansion team awarded to Kansas in 1972.
The NHL at this stage was struggling to cope with the increased expansion and therefore the talent pool was very thin, with many players who were not up to a professional standard suddenly finding themselves in the big leagues. This led to the teams demise after just two years, and they were moved to Denver. Seems like fans actually want to see a winning team.
Accomplishments: Winning just 12 games one season.

Philadelphia Quakers

Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
When: 1930-1931
Why: Moved to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh as a way of avoiding crippling debt, the team remained financially streched for the year in Philadelphia, and finished with a 4-36-4 record, terrible then and just as bad now.
It was announced that they would not ice the following season, and never returned, leaving Philadelphia waiting until 1967 for a new team.
Accomplishments: Tied with the Quebec Bulldogs for the fewest wins in NHL history.

I hope you have found this episode of Wrist Shot interesting, and full of small “shots” of hockey.

KevKev.

Yeah yeah, I know. I already ripped on a Los Angeles Kings logo not too long ago, but that was an old one that they don’t use anymore. And no, I’m not ripping on the Kings just because I happen to be a Ducks fan either (just because I dislike a team doesn’t mean I can’t admit that said team probably has a good logo. Example: I don’t care too much for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and yet they have one of my favourite logos in the NHL). There’s just something about this logo that annoys me every time I see it.

Now there are some who say that this logo is actually quite good, and yes, in some ways it is mostly a sharp design. But obviously they’re not exactly looking at it the same way as I do, and if it wasn’t for the major design flaw that I’m about to pick out, I would actually like this crown. If you must know what the aforementioned design flaw is, I’ll tell you now…

It has a face.

Confused? Yes, the way I see this logo, it looks like it has a freakin’ face. A sad, wimpy, pathetic looking one at that, making it one of the only sports logos in the world that looks more intimidated than intimidating.

Still confused? Can’t quite spot it? Perhaps the image you’re about to see below will help you understand where I’m coming from:

Now compare the two, and chances are you’ll finally understand what I’m on about.

And there we have it, perhaps one of the biggest/weirdest design flaws in any professionally designed sports logo ever, and I’m probably the only person in the world who’s noticed it. I prefer the shield logo that they had previously (now a secondary logo), that said ‘Kings’ just as well as any old crown would, and it was miles better and more intimidating than this crappy, frightened looking crown.

And even if they insist on keeping this crown, there’s plenty of things they could do to make it better, like getting rid of the ‘eyes’, which are supposedly diamonds or something, that really don’t need to be there. And while they’re at it, they should get rid of that area underneath the crown, or at least make it look less like a mouth.

Overall, this logo sucks. Please bring back the shield, or come up with something better.

Since Halloween is just around the corner and is commonly associated with curses, superstitions and stuff, I felt it quite suitable to bring up a popular topic along those lines: curses and superstitions in hockey!

Now I won’t lecture anyone on the more famous curses such as the Curse of 1940, which saw the New York Rangers suffer one of the longest Stanley Cup droughts in NHL history, lasting for 54 years until 1994. However, I will bring up a more recently noticed curse and another one which may seem more fitting for Halloween (despite it happening during the 1975 Stanley Cup Final).

One particular curse I am referring to is what some call the “President’s Trophy Curse”. Basically, there is a belief that when a team wins the President’s Trophy (which is awarded to the team with the best overall record in the NHL, immediately giving that team home ice advantage throughout the playoffs), then there is a chance of that team becoming cursed. The belief came about because since the trophy was introduced in 1985, it has been awarded 23 times: most teams that win this trophy end up being defeated early in the playoffs. Two have made it to the Stanley Cup Final and lost, and only seven have gone all the way to win the Cup, with an example being the 2007-08 Detroit Red Wings, who also happen to be the team that has won the President’s Trophy six times, the most by any team.

Some of you may be familiar with an event that occurred during the aforementioned 1975 Stanley Cup Final, in which the Philadelphia Flyers faced the Buffalo Sabres. Because of unusual heat in Buffalo in May, a heavy fog had appeared inside the arena and the teams were forced to play under that condition, and they, as well as the on ice officials and the puck were invisible to the fans. At one point, a bat had appeared seemingly out of nowhere flying across the rink, and it was killed by Sabres centre James Lorentz, who spotted it, raised his stick and swatted it (in doing so he earned the nickname ‘Batman’). Some Sabres fans considered this to be an “Evil Omen”, and although Buffalo won the game in OT, the Philadelphia Flyers were the team that would win the series 4-2 and win the Cup.

Hope you had an interesting read, and Happy Halloween!

Welcome to Hockey in real life - The section dedicated to helping you overcome real life problems and events while making sure you can remain a hockey fan.

The credit crunch.

The credit crunch seems to be the buzz word at the moment, and with the economy collapsing, the thoughts of recession looming many people are cutting back on their spending and for many people this will include things that they love, eg. Watching hockey.

We are here to help, and here’s our advice on how you can save money, yet still watch hockey live in person.

Search long and hard for cheaper tickets.
If you don’t own a season ticket, then you will often find the average ticket can cost from anything such as $20 and up, especially nearer, or on game day, and then worse still, you get royally screwed for booking fees, especially from companies like ticketmaster etc.
However. Websites such as stubhub.com offer tickets for prices as low as $5, and the costs are very low.
Stubhub guarantee all tickets, and lets face it, its better than that shady looking man who hangs around the parking lot in a long trench coat hawking dodgey tickets.

Sundays big game sold out? Don’t worry, you can still see hockey - Just look around for a smaller local team, or even a small college/university team. Heck, you might find that you even prefer going to their games instead, as they often seem more like hockey should be, with increased violence, shaky players and more than often, better seats. The merchandise is usually much cheaper too - Plus… No Gary Bettman!

No matter what you choose to do, be it last minute $9 Boston tickets, or a $1 Sunday League hockey game, or even a $9000 VIP suite, Enjoy the game.

I’m KevKev, for PowerPlayGoal.com