If you are looking for realism and quality presentation NHL 09 is the game for you.

User Rating: 9.5 | NHL 09 X360
This is my first review and I am a huge sports game fan, so I figured why not do it on the best sports game of all time in my opinion, NHL 09.


NHL 09 offers a huge selection of game modes to play, that will never allow you to get bored of the game. When I first got it, I did a lot of the Be A Pro and online team stuff, and was very impressed at how much better being a single player in a hockey game worked so much better than the soccer and football versions.

After about 20 hours of playing those modes, I started playing a Dynasty or Franchise and haven't gone back to the other modes since. The gameplay when you are playing in Dynasty mode is very close to the real thing, especially when you start playing at the hardest difficulty. I sim the season and play the play-offs with close to full length games. I am so impressed at how you have to battle for scoring chances and mix up your offence to counter the AI learning. Playing defense is more fun and you feel more in control than ever. Its amazing that you can play full length games and have realistic stats, other than the hits of course (but I'm cool with that). The goalies for the most part are outstanding and quite realistic in the way they move. I really wanted to give this game a 10 but there are a couple things that bug me about the gameplay. When a puck is barely moving at a goalie they shouldn't give out a rebound, and they do most of the time. The other thing is minor but why do guys miss the net by about 500 feet sometimes, no one misses the net by that much, I like that guys miss the net in this game (because thats realistic), but not by 500 feet. I also think it is just a little too tough to score on break-aways. One other huge problem, what is with the fighting, wow very poor, but really not that important.

Presentation wise the game is excellent, you can put your own music in the game and set it for you teams entrance or when they score which I must admit is awesome. The commentary is pretty good, but does get old, mind you I have played the game A LOT. The stanley cup celebration is pretty good, I was hoping for a little more, but I'm definitely not complaining.

All in all I think NHL 09 has set the bar very high and I'm very interested to see what they do to get better. I really hope they keep things pretty much the same in years to come and just take care of some of the issues like fighting and goalie rebounds. I must thank EA for coming out with such a fine game, if I ever get bored of the dynasty (which I doubt I will), I can always go back to online play and be a pro mode.