The James Logan Courier

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

Another fall means another round of hockey games from the usual suspects, but the rules have changed slightly for 2010.

The biggest twist is "NHL Slapshot," a brand-new, Wii-only game with arcade tendencies that harken back to EA's early hockey days and a pack-in hockey stick peripheral that makes it a beast of its own creation.

The stick is nothing more than an enclosure for the Wii remote and nunchuck, and those who wish to play "Slapshot" without it can do so with two alternative control schemes. But the scheme designed around the stick — buttons play a role, but the act of swinging the stick allows players to shoot, check and deke — is surprisingly fun and, thanks to "Slapshot's" arcade leanings, plenty precise enough to work.
For those who want "NHL 11" on the Wii, the downside to "Slapshot" is obvious: Even with the more traditional control schemes, this isn't a sim on that level. But "Slapshot" also isn't shallow: It has the whole league, some junior clubs, roster management, a season mode, a Peewee-to-Pro career mode, goalie controls, mini-games and a player creator. Don't let the stick gimmick trick you into thinking "Slapshot" is a one-trick game. It isn't, and if you want a game that plays like EA's classic NHL games but has a modern feature set (online play excepted), this is not to be missed.

Wii owners who want something more serious have another exclusive option in "NHL 2K11," but it's hard to get excited about a game that's pulling stand-in duty while 2K Sports retools the series for a 2011 reboot on all three consoles.

"2K11" isn't without new material:The Road to the Cup mode — which pits players' Mii avatars in a series of mini game challenges — benefits from clever games and a funny game show format, and improved MotionPlus implementation enhances the stickhandling controls.

Mostly, though, the game feels as tired as its stand-in status implies. It looks aged, it counters the stickhandling improvements with other control issues that return from last year, and online performance remains spotty. Player records return data from the 2008 season, and certain features from previous 360 and PS3 versions still aren't here. Next year's game might be worth this holdover, but right now, owners of those consoles are missing little.

It helps, of course, that those systems still have the best simulation in the business with EA's "NHL" series, which, since its own reinvention a few years back, has toed the line between authenticity and accessibility better than any sports game — "Madden" included — ever has.

"NHL 11's" big new feature — an Ultimate Hockey League mode that involves playing well in any mode and collecting cards that improve player attributes in lieu of competing with other players in a monthly online tournament — might be too big for those who wish to play the game on a remotely casual level. But obsessives who love both hockey and the tenets of role-playing games should adore the new challenge, which is insanely deep and wholly unlike anything a sports sim has attempted before.

For the rest of us, the changes are more minute but worth mention all the same. The Canadian Hockey League joins the game's comprehensive roster of teams beyond the NHL, and the Be a Pro career mode now begins in those junior ranks before shifting to the NHL. The faceoff system gets a pinch of extra depth, sticks break, and tweaks in the physics quietly infiltrate the entirety of the action to improve everything from checks to dekes.

(c) 2010, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.