Hands-On With 3 on 3 NHL Arcade

NHL 99 on ps1 - Best hockey game ever

@ wild cat there assuming its saku cuz it is red jersey is eastern conf and blue is western sooo u get it right andd for everyone saying this isnt goign be good well thats nice to kno its not suppose to be better then nhl 09 its for fun a little thing for the ppl who like the rookie vs softmore game in the all-star skills comp and miku is better then saku and has better stats u go look

Do yourself a favor and just pick up an NHL HITZ game for some arcade hockey

lol

wow nobody cares what your youtube name is. but this looks funny and cool

wow im getting that! my youtube username is: meowmixer59

I'm sold, this game looks like a lot of fun. Thats what games are for...FUN

This game kinda sorta looks like one of my all time favorite hockey game, NHL Open Ice. I used to play NHL Open Ice both in the arcades and PS1 all the time. I wish they could do another one of those for the Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3. I do want to check out the reviews for this game before I buy. Oh well time will tell.

jt029 thank you for telling us useless information because every says its saku , i dont believe the most recent posts had his brothers name

I'll stick with NHL 09, thanks.

it looks alright....i won't be getting it though

Guys.. its not Joe Thornton neither Miko Koivu 3 reason's 1st = Miko is in West not East 2nd = Miko Koivu's number is ''9'' not 11, 3rd = ''11'' is Saku Koivu's number

This looks like a crappy NHL Hitz (Before it tried to be serious with the Pro versions). Man, I miss that game. To bad Midway, as a company, has gone so far downhill.

This looks disappointing...

i guess people in gamespot can't read because thats saku koivu from montreal not joe lol

No fighting?!?!? No thank you. Fighting in a game like this could have been a blast. Too bad they are trying to be so politically correct.

No fighting? Are you kidding me? LAME!

Looks like this could be a great way to get my girlfriend 1. playing xbox 2. into ice hockey Double Win.

That's koivu.

Can't wait. I just hope the online community will be strong. Looks very fun though and already got my M$ points ready for it.

@Ranger: He's in an Eastern uni, it's clearly Saku.

It reminds me of NHL Hitz. They need some more fun hockey games arcade style i hope its like Hitz

A must buy for me! As soon as I saw that picture I busted out laughing. LOL $10 is a good deal if you ask me.

Man this is definitely going to be worth 9.99$. But no fighting kinda sucks.

Assuming its Saku because Mikko doesn't compete next to Saku's stats. And Nabokov isn't in there because he is mediocre.

i heard this from the aaron and shanker podcast, bt wow the suckage was not properly desribed. www.aaront.com- THE NEW FTB PODCAST

who is to say it isnt his relative M. koivu...hmmm, everyone assumes saku, but there is another and he does happen to play in the west go look at the Wild's roster, or watch some games

Finally I get to have the fun part of hockey games rather than wasting $60 on the full game.

Yes I can clearly see that that is Koivu. I didn't take the screenshot; it was provided by EA. The Thornton/Luongo match-up story was from my time with the game. I chose that screenshot because it showed off the disparity in player size in the game. Sorry for the confusion.

Dang people already ripped on them for calling Saku Koivu Joe Thornton, not even the same conference!

this is saku koivu lolll

Joe Thornton? erm isnt that Saku Koivu?

Looks really fun

looks awesome

I might buy it.

This is fine, but when will the gaming world get what it really wants: Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey 2010?

Halo3g0d: That was a typo, there are only four goalies in the game. The ones I listed are it.

You only listed 4/5 goalies, maybe nabokov is the 5th. Can Dipeitre get hurt in this cuz it seems no matter what type of game he gets hurt

Reminds me of the old Hits series

lol this had been done already and was part of the actual game. i believe it was in 05 or 06. any of you guys remember?! it was pretty solid and fun game, but ya they should just make it included with the actual game. for now i'll just stick to nhl 09.

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

I dunno about this one.. I was kind of excited by the pics.. but I can see it getting old rather fast. And you're right.. Where's the fighting?!? I'll wait for reviews before getting too ahead though.

Awesome i will probably get this

Potential Epicness? I think so!

Sure Joe Thornton is a big dude in real life, but this is ridiculous. Rumbling down the ice with the puck, Joe's at least twice the size of the defender ahead of him and--what's this?--probably twenty times larger than goalie Roberto Luongo. The Vancouver goalie has shrunk to a speck in net and, with the gigantic Thornton bearing down on him, it looks to be a mismatch of epic proportions. Thornton rears back and blasts a backhand shot that look destined to find twine, only to have the shot stopped by mini-Luongo, who ends up being a bite-sized brick wall after all.

Such is the strangeness of 3 on 3 NHL Arcade, a downloadable arcade hockey game for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network from the same folks who brought us last year's masterpiece, NHL 09. Their influence of NHL 09 is obvious--the game uses the same analog stick-centric controls from EA's NHL series, while everything else around it is distilled down to its most basic, and silliest, aspects. Players can't go offsides, hitting is over-the-top, scoring is plentiful, the audio sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon, and there are lots of power-ups. Some will give you a temporary burst of speed, others will give you a scoring bonus that will multiply your goal if you find the back of the net. There's also a power-up that will freeze a player on the ice, effectively giving the other team a power play of sorts. None of it is realistic but it's sometimes worth a laugh.

Hearkening back to the days of the skinny, medium, and fat guys from Ice Hockey on the NES, 3 on 3 NHL Arcade forgoes actual NHL teams for a handful of NHL stars that are organized in one of three categories: fast, strong, and all-around. There are forty players to choose from, including four goalies: Martin Brodeur, Rick DiPietro, Henrik Lundqvist, and the aforementioned Luongo (Personal Note of Outrage From a San Jose Sharks Fan: Where in the sweet feathery hell is Evgeni Nabakov?).

On the ice, 3 on 3 is always moving--there's no puck drop after a goal; instead, play continues as normal. While the periods themselves are timed, you play to a set score, so if it takes you six periods for someone to reach five goals (or whatever total you set before the match begins), then so be it. There's also multiplayer for up to four people (including online play). With a shallow single-player experience--a simple "play now" option is pretty much it--it looks like playing with your buddies will be the best way to have fun with 3 on 3.

In my experience, one-timers were abnormally tough to pull off--even when playing with some of the game's most skilled players like Sidney Crosby and Jarome Iginla. Also curious: The complete lack of fighting. Even though this game is quite obviously going for the family-friendly crowd, the absence of fighting is noticeable and sort of a shame. No need to make it bloodily realistic, of course, but watching two big-head players blast each other like whack-a-moles in the middle of the ice might have been amusing.

3 on 3 NHL Arcade is coming to XBLA and PSN on February 4 and will cost 800 points and $9.99 respectively.