NHL 2K9 To Be Released on Wii

[fredr123]

Gamespot preview of NHL 2K on the Wii. This particular preview gives me renewed hope that the whole thing won't be dumbed down and suck. Par example:

Passing is done in one of two ways. The first method, which most players will find familiar, is to simply direct the analog stick toward a teammate and hit the pass button (A). It's quick and easy to perform, but it requires that your player skate toward the pass recipient (which you may not want to do) and doesn't allow for some of the more advanced passing techniques.

The second method of passing involves pointing the Wii Remote where you intend the puck to go and hitting the pass button. Crosshairs will appear on the screen and will magnetize onto a teammate if relatively close. Though this method takes some practice, it allows for passing independent of player movement, as well as the ability to lead the pass recipient, and even a means to chain multiple passes together for quick give-and-go's. Using the Wii Remote for passing is also more accurate, given that directional passing can sometimes result in passes to the wrong teammate. The one knock against the point-to-pass control is that the crosshairs, although small, can be distracting, especially with multiple players.

Crease control returns to 2K9 but works slightly differently on the Wii. You can assume control of your goalie at any time by hitting the 1 button. During a shot, the game will slow down and you will be forced to match a remote/Nunchuk configuration displayed on the screen (for instance, tilting the remote and Nunchuk toward one another to drop into a butterfly). Doing so correctly will result in the proper move being executed to stop the shot. Messing up doesn't always result in a goal, but it dramatically increases the likelihood. This feature had some response issues in the build that we received, given that it involves contorting the controllers, but the feature is entirely optional.

[fredr123]

http://www.destructoid.com/nhl-2k9-w...c-101441.phtml

The trailer shows a bunch of people actually playing the game. Looks like motion control is going to play a big roll in this game. I think the controls will polarize players: people will either love it or hate it. Hopefully there's an option for a more traditional non-waggley control scheme.

[troutman]

This game provides fighting with the remotes:

http://nintendo.ca/cgi-bin/usersite/...Num=5&from=wii

Wii Remote™ Fighting – Adding a never-before-seen layer of fun to hockey video games, NHL 2K9 features on-ice showdowns. When two players have raised their aggression enough to fight, pointing the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller downward drops the gloves. Once a fight has started, punch with the Nunchuk and balance with the Wii Remote to get your opponent off their feet.

Just got our Wii yesterday. When can my Mii drop the gloves with your Miis?

[nickerjones]

i picked up this game tonight only because nhl 09 wont be in for my 360 til tomorrow... I liked it to play with my buddies ...... its alot harder than the EA version using just a controller. The wii mote/chuck is a lil difficult to pick up but its alot of fun. Season or something like that wouldnt be fun by yourself. The graphics arents good at all but overall i give the game a 8/10 mainly because you can play for hours with friends........... Now nhl 09 im ready to play be a pro!!!

[fredr123]

IGN seems to be the first out of the gate with a review of 2K9 for the Wii. 6.8/10. Ouch.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/908/908915p1.html

As a hockey fan, I'm psyched to see the Wii getting a bit of NHL love. Unfortunately, it's going to take a whole lot more from either 2K or EA, should the company throw its hat in the ring as well, to deliver something that I'd truly recommend as a unique, Wii-specific take on the sport. 2K has the right idea here, including motion shooting, IR passing, and motion-based goaltending, but the core game is just too much of a rushed effort, and the final product is a visually unpleasant, choppy, incomplete package. No create-a-player, no online, frame issues that hurt the IR passing and break up the overall flow of the game; that's not the NHL 2K I know from other consoles.

That's not to say I didn't have fun playing the game - I did - but it's as if the sport has gone through a time warp in its conversion to Nintendo's console. I'm not talking from 2K9 to 2K7, but rather sub-2K3, especially on the visual front. In fact, even then the series was never as thrown together or unreliable as it is here. It's still a fast, generally pleasant game of puck, but in no way does NHL 2K9 prove that the company has the passion or follow-through to make a serious impact on Wii. We want to see this game thrive. As it stands right now, it's a big rough, still fun, but a token rookie year as far as sports games go. 2K, it's time to give this one an overhaul for 2K10.

[fredr123]

IGN gave NHL 06 on GCN an 8.5/10 (78/100 on metacritic). Yikes. NHL 06 had a number of really frustrating bugs on GCN that made me want to toss the controller through the plasma once or twice a game.

And now NHL 2K9 gets a 6.8?

Guess we'll find out (hopefully) later today when I get a chance to try out 2K9 for myself.

Ye

[nickerjones]

Fredr123

thats because those ign'ers are communist lol.... No really the game graphics and single player are horrid ....... but like i said if you wanna play with buddies its fun .... especially when u act like you toss off your gloves ( point both chuck and wiimote down) and you get to pummel your buddies in a brawl.... and you actually have to swing like a hockey stick to shoot so its fun.... but just for multiplayer

[fredr123]

Great. And what about those amongst us that don't really have any real life friends? What about them?

[nickerjones]

Well i guess that puts you and LOCKE in the same boat so my suggestions is you guys should PM each other and go in halfsies on a Wii and make nice together!!!

[fredr123]

I picked up NHL 2K9 for the Wii yesterday and got to briefly experience the game last night before bed. Let me preface my review with a few caveats:

1. I was a loyal EA Sports disciple. I owned or played pretty much every NHL game going back to the days when they only had a license from the NHLPA up to the current generation of consoles. I have never owned let alone played a hockey game by 2K Sports, but since EA has forsaken Nintendo and PC gamers the last couple go 'rounds, this had to change.

2. I only managed to play the game for about a half hour or so. Several circumstances conspired against me yesterday and they may become apparent as my rant continues (e.g., Lethbridge's own Theo Tams is this year's Canadian Idol winner! That means southern Alberta is 3/6 for Idol competitions. I heard Theo will be playing a show at Park Place mall next week. By December he'll be working at the Park Place mall.)

3. I didn't get a chance to play until everyone else was sleeping. In order to maintain the covert nature of my operation, I played with the TV on mute.

4. I had a few beers in my system when I was playing.

Please bear in mind how long I had to actually play the game. This is more of a first impressions-type of review and probably will not do the game justice. However, as in life and many other things, first impressions mean a lot.

Rather than jumping directly into a game, I selected the tutorial mode to see if I could quickly learn a thing or two about the controls. Tutorial mode basically consists of eight screens of text that you can page through that describes how to pull off the basic moves in NHL 2K9. Click a button to exit those screens and they dump you alone on the ice against a goalie. Knock yourself out. I lumbered around the ice for a few mintues casually taking wrist shots and the odd slapshot trying to figure out how to deke and aim and score. It was clear at this point that the control scheme had something of a learning curve to it.

After utterly boring myself with the tutorial mode, I decided to jump into a quick game. It was at this point that I noticed how awful the menus are. It's not that they're poorly laid out or that the organization doesn't make sense. No, my main beef is that the words and logos (including the logos of the teams themselves) are fuzzy, distorted and overly difficult to read. Maybe it was my tv. Maybe it was my sleepy eyes or the beers coursing through my bloodstream. In any event, it's not a deal breaker but it does make you wonder what else lies in store graphically when 2K Sports let an illegible menu system go gold.

Calgary versus St. Louis, here we come. Why St. Louis? I dunno, just because. It would be nice if there was a button to select a random opponent.

I skipped over all the cut scenes during the game because I didn't have sound or the time to waste. I wouldn't expect much on that front. Afterwards, I realized I probably also skipped over the zamboni mini games. Bummer.

For the life of me, I can't win a faceoff. The method for doing so is not described in the instruction manual although the control setup screen found in the in-game options at least tells you what buttons to mash. Maybe some day I'll get it.

You control your dude with the joystick on the nunchuk. Z is turbo, C makes you skate backwards and shaking the nunchuk makes your dude do a superstar move, if he's able. The remote is used to point an icon all over the screen. The icon determines where you passes and shots will go allowing you, in theory, to point and click your passes all over the ice. The A button is your regular ol' everyday pass along the ice, but the - button gives you a saucer pass. To do a wrist shot, you simply flick the remote. To do a slap shot, you hold the B button and flick the remote as you would for a wrist shot. If you release the B button before flicking, you get a fake shot.

On defence, holding B and shaking the remote causes your dude to attempt a poke check. Pressing and either releasing or holding the - button makes your palyer do a diving poke check or drop to block the shot. You check guys by shaking the nunchuk.

There is also a way to control your goalie that might be fun but I didn't have time to try it out. You also have access to a host of line change options on the fly but again I didn't try them.

Hitting your opponent proved difficult at first. Every video game requires you to figure out the proper timing to line up big hits and 2K9 is no exception. Guys like Sarich, Regehr and Phaneuf seemed more likely to successfully remove their man from the puck compared to Lombardi. Maybe that's a good thing. Suffice to say there were no giant cartoon hits and bodies flying all over the screen last night.

Passing was a bit awkward. Imagine the screen panning up and down as the puck carrier races down the ice. Your team mates are doing their best to get open and get into position for a scoring chance. Everybody is moving all around and now the game expects you to use a cursor to point to where you want the pass to go? My passes always seemed to be a step or two behind when they should have been made. The cursor seemed to blink a lot owing in large part to the low frame rate of the game which then lead, in my opinion, to some problems making quick accurate passes. Hitting the - button to shoot a saucer pass was also a bit of an awkward stretch for my hands. I'll probalby get used to that though. If I was playing against a huma opponent beside me, the number of cursors on screen could be distracting. Telegraphing passes would probably be unavoidable.

Players seemed to lumber down the ice. Even when I had the turbo button down, the players moved more like Bertuzzi than Lombardi.

Shooting was a bit of a crap shoot. I think you're supposed to aim with either the joystick or the remote, the instructions weren't really clear. Given all the other stuff that's going on with aiming passes and what not, it became a great challenge to get off a quick shot by flicking the remote after using the same thing to select a series of passes. Again, I bet this will become less of an issue as I get used to the controls.

The AI in NHL 06 on GCN was terrible. Defenders would consitently defend the wrong side of their men staying between him and their opponents' net instead of staying between the man and their own net. 2K9 didn't seem to suffer from this problem. The AI did a better job on defence during my brief experiences last night although the computer's ability to pick off my passes with ease was kind of irritating.

Don't even get me started on the graphics. Without exaggeration, NHL 06 on GCN looked far better. I don't think 2K9 does much to differentiate itself from Nintend 64 graphics. Players look nothing like their real life counter parts. The player models are awkward and move much like I would on the ice. There's not grace to their motion whatsoever. There's too few polygons in them and the textures are not realistic. Helmets seemt to glow like pucks on the Fox network. Logos and names are distorted. Not at all a good outing by 2K Sports in the visual department.

[fredr123]

I won my first and only game 3-1. Each of my three goals was scored by (slowly) skating across the blue line in the centre of the zone and wristing a shot at the net. Two of them beat Legace clean. The other seemed to hit his glove and fall into the net as he flopped around. No matter how I hard I tried, I could not successfully complete a one timer or redirection. No Sega dekes either. While you have some limited control over your stick while you're skating (use the + pad) it's nowhere near the control you get in NHL 09.

I did get into one fight. It basically consisted of me shaking the remote and the nunchuk wildly, hoping to score a blow or two. After having my lunch handed to me, I looked up the controls for fights and found out how to throw a decent punch. Maybe next time there will be some skill and strategy to my bout.

I wanted to try out a few different modes. There's a practice mode and an pond hockey mode that I selected but was never able to successfully enter. In each, player one and player two take turns selecting players from the available NHLers in order to round out all five positions. You couldn't pick, say, the Canucks for one team and the Predators for the other. You have to select individual players, scrolling first through the list of teams and then through the list of players on each team. Again, there doesn't seem to be a way to randomly select players. This grew tiresome really quickly and I never got started in either of these modes.

There are some great ideas here but they fanned on the execution. Next to maybe light saber battles, I can't think of any other genre of game that is better suited for the Wii's motion controls than hockey. This should be a match made in heaven. At least initially, the button mashing that has become so common in other games and on other consoles has evolved into wildly swinging controls on the Wii. I'm hoping that once 1:1 motion control becomes possible with the recently-announced Motion Plus addon, controls in Wii games will be more precise and elegant. Less wild swing, more graceful swooping.

The inefficiences of control in 2K9 is only partly 2K Sports' fault, I suppose. While the game is meant to be fun and easy to pick up, I found that the more advanced functions like blocking shots, stick checking and saucer passes required uncomfortable hand contortions to pull off. I'm crossing my fingers that the controls will become more natural as experience increases.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure this game is any better than NHL 06 on GCN (the last EA hockey game available on a Nintendo platform). The graphics from that four year old game are probably better and the controls seem to make more sense. 2K9 doesn't suffer (at least not yet) from those same flaws. And the catch up code has yet to rear its ugly face.

On the whole, I was utterly underwhelmed with this game. I will give it more time and try out other modes (sober) to see if that makes any difference, but thus far my first impressions of this game are not promising. I'm used to unpolished hockey games that seem incomplete and rushed to market (I told you I played EA Sports games on PC and Nintendo for a long time). Next to what has become of the EA franchise on the next-gen consoles, 2K9 on the Wii is abysmal in every respect. The only thing 2K Sports has going for it is that they're the only game in town available on the Wii. I think they're banking on capturing the hockey-starved Nintendo owner who has for so long been forsaken by EA. If EA were to port their game over to the Wii next year with dumbed-down graphics, it would deal a serious blow to 2K Sports.

[nickerjones]

i see you didnt take my advice and make friends with locke...... I think to win a face off you use the trigger button and you pull the wii mote to you and it sends the puck behind you........ Anyhow like i said not fun as a 1 player game but it was fun playing with a friend, only because its not as easy as skating towards the goalie and dishing it off last second for a one time goal......

[Slava]

I just bought this today and have played a few games. I finally won the last game I played (against the Oilers, so maybe that means nothing!). I am basically just so happy to have a hockey game for the wii that the graphics and such are of little consequence!

I don't doubt that some of the other systems have better hockey games for 2009. I have Madden 08 and it is actually a lot better than this game in terms of the operation and graphics in general...so my hope is that EA comes to the Wii next year and puts this to shame!

[kootenayguy9]

To win a faceoff you need to hold the B button down and flick the wiimote in the direction you want the puck to go.

The Wii version is fun but the graphics are horrible for a 2008 game. I think the graphics in NHL 2002 for the PS2 are better.

I think this game is hard to compare to NHL 2009 for the PS3/360 as they are for totally different audiences.

[OutOfTheCube]

LOL, good ol' Wii, replacing button presses with flails as always.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by kootenayguy9

To win a faceoff you need to hold the B button down and flick the wiimote in the direction you want the puck to go.

The Wii version is fun but the graphics are horrible for a 2008 game. I think the graphics in NHL 2002 for the PS2 are better.

I think this game is hard to compare to NHL 2009 for the PS3/360 as they are for totally different audiences.

I guess this is where I differ from the average gamer. I want graphics that are reasonable, but really I just like playing hockey! I don't doubt that the graphics are better on other systems, but the game is still fun and that is the main reason for me to play!

[fredr123]

I still haven't had a chance to play since my muted 30 minute session last week. We're going out of town this week so I hope to experience the game again some time before the All Star break.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by fredr123

I still haven't had a chance to play since my muted 30 minute session last week. We're going out of town this week so I hope to experience the game again some time before the All Star break.

Surely you must feel that illness coming on to keep you away from the practice for a day ahead of that trip? Its been going around and you know how it is with kids...you catch every little illness!

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Slava

Surely you must feel that illness coming on to keep you away from the practice for a day ahead of that trip? Its been going around and you know how it is with kids...you catch every little illness!

Man, if I didn't take a day off when I first succumbed to the symptoms of e. coli I'm not going to take a sick day to play NHL 2K9. Although the level of fecal matter is probably remarkably similar in each instance...

[Cowboy89]

I bought 2K9 for Wii on the weekend and I have to agree with fredr123's ratings for this game. In my household we have a Wii and a 360. On the 360 we have NHL 09.

I bought 2K9 anyway because I thought the Wii controls would bring an added element to the game to make it fun for my 4 bachelor household to play in multiplayer mode. Boy was I wrong. The game is so bad compared to NHL 09 on the 360 that I'm considering trading it back in used to EB games for another Wii game. Graphics are terrible, almost so terrible that even if game play was a dream it would not fully redeem it. However, the gameplay is awkward and simply replaces buttons with flailing wii remote swings. Using the "-" button for saucer passes is incredibly awkward and doesn't get acceptably easier over time either.

Since that first experience lasting about 4 hours, I simply cannot bring myself to play this game when NHL 09 is sitting there right next to it. As for those expecting the graphics to get better if EA releases an NHL game for Wii, I severly doubt it. The Wii is a vastly inferior system for graphics and simulation sports game engines. I also bought NCAA 09 "All Play" for Wii on the weekend as well. The gameplay for that game is supurb and I enjoy playing it, however the graphics are about as good as my Madden 2004 game for Xbox. I think that the "All Play" designation on the game (And Madden 09 as well) is so that the Wii version's screen shots do not get confused with the screenshots from the PS3 and 360 for marketing purposes.