Bill Clement

Jim Hughson

Craig Simpson

NHL 09

Stick in Hand, Onto the Ice

Once upon a time, long ago, tired of kicking a ball around in &quot;FIFA 09&quot;, I thought - why not swap the boots for skates? So I picked up &quot;NHL 09&quot;. Same developer, familiar style, menus, interface - it felt like I was about to fire a puck straight into the net from center field... well, center ice. And at first, I actually liked it. The graphics were decent enough for the time. Again, I didn&apos;t really have anything to compare it with - I didn&apos;t own any other hockey simulators. But if you placed it next to its football sibling from EA, &quot;FIFA&quot; definitely looked a bit better and more vibrant. Here in hockey, everything felt more angular, as if lagging behind modern visuals by a couple of years.

On the bright side, you could create your own player, go through a career, struggle on the bench at first and eventually break into the main lines. The controls were simple - press the buttons: pass, shoot (pretty similar to football), and the puck went... well, somewhere. There were even some basic tactical schemes, letting you shuffle players between lines and stage your own mini-revolutions within the team. So everything was technically by the book - a season mode, tournaments, team selection. Play as much as you want.

But something just didn&apos;t hook me. No, the matches themselves were fine. I guess it&apos;s just that I wasn&apos;t really into hockey tournaments, didn&apos;t know the players, and therefore didn&apos;t stay for long. Though I do remember playing through a season.

In the end - yeah, it&apos;s a decent game. Played it, skated around, had some fun. But I went back to virtual football. I guess I&apos;m more of a grass guy than an ice guy.

6 out of 10.

Once upon a time, long ago, tired of kicking a ball around in "FIFA 09", I thought - why not swap the boots for skates? So I picked up "NHL 09". Same developer, familiar style, menus, interface - it felt like I was about to fire a puck straight into the net from center field... well, center ice. And at first, I actually liked it. The graphics were decent enough for the time. Again, I didn't really have anything to compare it with - I didn't own any other hockey simulators. But if you placed it next to its football sibling from EA, "FIFA" definitely looked a bit better and more vibrant. Here in hockey, everything felt more angular, as if lagging behind modern visuals by a couple of years.

On the bright side, you could create your own player, go through a career, struggle on the bench at first and eventually break into the main lines. The controls were simple - press the buttons: pass, shoot (pretty similar to football), and the puck went... well, somewhere. There were even some basic tactical schemes, letting you shuffle players between lines and stage your own mini-revolutions within the team. So everything was technically by the book - a season mode, tournaments, team selection. Play as much as you want.

But something just didn't hook me. No, the matches themselves were fine. I guess it's just that I wasn't really into hockey tournaments, didn't know the players, and therefore didn't stay for long. Though I do remember playing through a season.

In the end - yeah, it's a decent game. Played it, skated around, had some fun. But I went back to virtual football. I guess I'm more of a grass guy than an ice guy.

6 out of 10.

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