NHL 09 Review

Hello folks, welcome back.

I'm not even sure ANYBODY's reading me hehehe, what with Internet being virtually infinite and me writing a blog about once a year.


Good news people: I just got a new deskjob, and i hate it, so i'm more inclined to slack off/blog.



Well, on my last blog i believe i was talking about the DS.



Well, i just traded it for a PSP and i'm very satisfied with it. I wanted to buy NHL 09 on PSP but they stopped making hockey games back in 07, so i bought it for PS2.



Only $33? Sign me up!





Back in my house, opening the new game, all exited. I remove NHL 06 from the PS2 and insert NHL 09.



New menu, new interface, very promising!



Anxious, i go and do an exhibition match, get the feeling of the game.



Little did i know i was in for a surprise! The new analog controls are made to simulate the hockey stick like never before. You don't just push a button to do a slapshot, you pull back the right analog stick and flick it up. You can fake shots and wristshot that way. To do a pass, hold R2 and flick the analog stick in the direction you want.
Same commands for the poke checks.


Sounds easy? Not when you have been playing NHL games since 94!

Instead of trying to get used to the new commands, i quickly go into custom commands and switch the controls to what i'm used to, plus some tweaks.



After the exhibition, i came to the conclusion that, all that EA did for NHL 09 on the PS2, was update the rosters and stats of players, tweak the dynasty mode a little bit, and change the controls and interface.



The gameplay is almost exactly the same (hurray for that) except that it is much more hard to score with one-timers. You will do the most beautiful pass jugling in history, the goaler will stop it easily.

But if you slapshot from the blueline, there is a chance that it will find the back of the net.

I was at first frustrated with this, but it forced me to find new ways to score.



For example, a slapshot from the blueline, if stopped, will rebound from the goalie. If you have another player coming at top speed in the zone, he might be able to catch that rebound, and automaticly put it in the net.

Backstrom was quite good at that i found.



The animations between plays are the same, goalie saves are the same, player behavior is a little different though.



I created a new team for my Dynasty, of course. I did the fantasy draft and everything, because i find that when i create a team and select players from a team and THEN start a dynasty, you'll have the Crosby on your team AND the Crosby in the penguins team. If you remove the salary cap, you can have two Crosbys on the team! Stupid, right?
With fantasy draft, at least every team has to do the draft (even drafting your created players) and so there's no evil clones roaming around in the NHL.


Yeah!



So anyways. $33 is a good deal for a PS2 game i find, if only to have the new rosters available and to play with the new analog controls, wich i am not doing.



I am still addicted, watching my Dynasty grow. If anybody is wondering what my team is, I called it the Miners (wich sounds like minors and is confusing my friends) and they play in Val-d'Or, wich is a small city in the province of Québec. I was thinking of doing a second montreal team, or even re-create the Québec Nordiques, but i thought that a Val-d'Or team would be much funnier.



After a lot of struggling in the first half of the season, i was able to make important trades and am now in the first position for the play-offs. I cannot afford to offer good contracts to my star players right now, but drafting is so fun anyways.



See ya!