Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

The past NHL games released by EA Sports have all been great. With the success of the games in the past it worried me that they would just stick to the same formula and basically just send out updated rosters with each new release. Luckily this is not the case at all. NHL 09 is the best hockey game to date. The controls aren't that much different from the previous year, but that is a good thing because this game has the best controls for a hockey game ever. You truly feel as if you have complete control over your players every move. Newly introduced control wise this year is the new "Hit-Stick". It is not that much more different then last years, but it does seem to work better and give you more control. As always the franchise game mode is spot on, giving you control over basically ever aspect of your team. The big new features for this years game are the "Be A Pro" mode and the many new additions to online play. The "Be A Pro" mode allows you to create a very detailed player and take him into the league. You start off on an AHL team of your choice and try to work your way up to the NHL. You can be traded, handle contracts, and much more. All of your players stats are tracked and can be viewed on a very cool page that shows tons and tons of information about your player. You can also unlock hockey cards for your "Be A Pro" character and you can take pictures of your player to put on them. You can choose any position you wish for this mode. This mode is extremely deep and fun and takes this game over the top. Online play also adds a bunch of new features this year. Newly introduced is OTP (Online Team Play) where you can play a ranked match with up to 10 people (5 on each team). This is a really fun mode because you can talk and come up with plays with your team and each human player can be assigned (if you wish) to a specific position. This mode works amazingly well and is super fun and a easy way to make some friends to play with in this great game. Another mode added online is the "League" feature, which is honestly brilliant. In this mode you either make a team or join one that was made by another player and you play online with that person or anyone else in your league team (up 16 people can be on a team, that means 16 vs. 16 online play is possible). That may sound cool on it's own BUT!! you can play as your "Be A Pro" character on your online league team and earn stats and points to improve your player. This is extremely cool and a neat way to show off your player to world online. Overall this game does everything right. Everything about this game is deep from the teams you can pick spanning from NHL to throw-back teams and foreign leagues, to game modes and online play. This is the best hockey game to date and a must for fans of the sport or games in general.