Have you ever wondered what it is like to control another player? Or to play in the World Cup of Hockey?
This game has the 2004 World Cup of Hockey license, so, if you want to recreate Canada's big win in the 2004 World Cup, you can do it. It takes full advantage of the enthusiasm of the World Cup, which comes once every four years. Eight teams: Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Canada, and the United States of America will play for the highly sought-after cup. Real uniforms are in game, except for the Finnish team's uniforms, who use SUOMI on the bottom on the front side and FINLAND in the logo. World Cup of Hockey mode replaces the tournament mode that had been intact since NHL 2001.
Most of you recall NHL 2004's Dynasty Mode, which the schedule prior to the second year was the only time that the game schedule that changed. So, this year, you're given the exact same game schedule every year. If you begin the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs and end the season against the Washington Capitals, that will be the case every year, as will every other game in between. Unlike NHL 2004, you can't use your created team in Dynasty Mode. Being the general manager of any NHL team is a tough job, and you need to meet the owner's goals, such as get the No. 1 draft pick. You're running with the big dogs, General Manager!
The teams you can play are more than fifty, from the NHL, Deutschland Eishockey-Liga (English: German Hockey League) of Germany, Sweden's Elitserien, SM-liiga of Finland, and International.
New in NHL 2004, you can create a team, doing more than just rosters. Remember, in the Blades and Absent from NHL 2005 is the create-a-player mode.
International League has twenty-one teams, including the newest addition EA SPORTS created, Denmark. Only eight of those teams, which, as mentioned earlier in the review, will be playing for the highly sought-after World Cup of Hockey. Austria, Belarus, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United States are available for you.
New, you can control your teammate on offense without having to switch teams. Not only that, you can choose your faceoff formations, allowing the user to choose more faceoff formations than just the same one you've played with for years.