NHL 2K6 is not a huge leap forward into the next generation, but it does offer a solid game of hockey to 360 owners.

User Rating: 7.7 | NHL 2K6 X360
By jstarzyk | Review Date:
My understanding is that to those who have played 2K hockey before, this game’s controls will seem simple. For those who have not, it is pretty easy to pick up. Your basic actions (hit, shoot, pass, etc.) are mapped to the face buttons. More advanced functions are wholly optional, but they will certainly help you. The first is total pass control. With the click of a stick, your passes are instantly mapped to each of your three forwards and two defensemen. This is an awesome feature, which allows to complete some crazy break away passes and put a one-timer in the back of the net. This feature is for more advanced players, and will be necessary on higher difficulty levels. On defense, a click of the stick brings you to 2K’s most forward moving feature this year: Crease control. Crease control puts you in the skates of the goaltender, allowing you to control the direction he faces as well as his blocks when your opponent shoots. When a shot is released, a bull’s eye is set from this behind the goalie perspective. Simply line up the blue selector with this target (or if you need to, you can do an emergency save by a flick of the stick in the direction you wish the goalie to dive) and watch the goalie pull off an amazing save. Sometimes, but not always. This is one of the major complaints I have with the game. Controlling the goalie is easy, but he does not always do what you want him to. Other than that the game play is fabulous.

Graphically the game is not anything to look at. Compared to other launch titles, it falls solidly at the end of the pack. It still looks better than last generation versions, but it fell below my expectations. The sound in the game is actually pretty good. There are some great songs on the soundtrack, and the commentators are really lively. There are points where the sound conks out, however, such as drilling and practicing. It makes for a very boring three minutes!

The replay value of this game is going to be high if you like hockey. There are a variety of modes, including season and franchise (although I was disappointed that the season had a standard all-star game rather than incorporate Olympic hockey into the game). There are a couple of mini-games, which I didn’t spend much time with at all. My interest was mainly in the season mode, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Online play… Well, online play can be fun. There are several exploit goals, which a goalie can almost never get to (with or without Crease Control)! This severely hampers the game’s online value, as most people just go for a record amount of goals rather than actually play a fair game of hockey. The achievements are sparse. There are five in total, and only one may actually give you a problem. If you play with the sliders a little, you can get them without any problem, so they don’t actually add to the experience at all.

NHL 2K6 offers a familiar game of hockey to 360 owners. If you like hockey, play this game. If you do not like hockey, rent it and see what you think. You may like it, or you may want to wait for next year’s incarnation.

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