Xbox 360/PS3 Review: NHL 2K8

by Michael Bencic on September 21, 2007 at 10:02 pm

If there’s one word that defines this generation of sports games, it is complication.

I grew up during the advent of 8 bit gaming and the explosion of 16-bit. For hockey fans, this was a fabulous time to lace up pixelated skates. Between Nintendo’s Ice Hockey and Konami’s cult-classic Blades of Steel, the seeds of simple but fun hockey had been planted. In 8 and 16 bits the hockey games kept evolving, but the basics were what kept fans returning every year.

Hockey games went on to become a household activity that would even penetrate popular culture, like in the movie Swingers. Over time, the N64, Saturn, and Playstation brought NHL games to new heights. EA, Midway, Sega– there was no end in sight to the options available on the market for hockey fans.

But now, things have gotten complicated. The power of the PS3 and Xbox 360 allow nearly unlimited options for designers. Superior graphics are to be expected, and NHL 2K8 looks fantastic, with subtle and improved animation.

I won’t harp on the graphics too much, because there’s nowhere to go but up and developer Kush Games has done this. Every seam is visible on uniforms. The faces look like living action figures. Equipment is authentic. Sweat pours down faces. Again, there’s no surprise here– just improvements and satisfaction.

What is drastically different and complicated in NHL 2K8 are the sheer amount of options, controls, and simulations. It’s actually intimidating to review this game. I was surprised at how much change there was in this year’s edition, and I have to wonder if it’s what we need, or for that matter, what we want.

Last year, EA added a new control scheme to their NHL series that placed more emphasis on the sticks of your joypad. It has been “borrowed” and adapted by 2K, under the moniker of Prostick. From dekes to slapshots, you crank the stick back and shove it forward as opposed to the classic format of pressing buttons.

I won’t get into more detail here, because to be honest, it bores me to tears. It’s not bad– it’s the natural evolution for Kush Games. But when it comes to video games I want to know one thing– is it fun? Making the experience more authentic isn’t the same as making it more entertaining.

I hate saying this– it is setting my soul ablaze as a Canadian and a hockey fan to do so. I don’t want to turn anyone off of this title, or hockey in general. Yet I found that by making this year’s NHL incarnations more realistic I am not having fun.

There, I said it. God help me, it’s out there now. I don’t want realistic. I am not a simulation guy. The difficulty and speed has been amped up to a point where goals are as rare as my Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse T-bone.

You can convert back to the 2K classic controls, but against the AI it makes things even more challenging and frustrating. Sure, there are minigames where the action is arcade-like, but that’s not why you plunk down $50 or $60.

Even die-hard fans may have a difficult time adjusting to this year’s revamp. Like in my recent review of Forza 2, I am left to wonder if designers are forgetting the word “game” in “videogames”.

Developers also seem to forget what made the NHL series popular on the Genesis and in arcades: Skate, check, shoot. Between Prostick and the insomnia-curing Franchise mode, I wonder why we can’t get another Hitz game (Ah, Hitz 2003– Fast, fun, pick up and play. Wouldn’t Hitz be the perfect sports game for the Wii? You want realism, 2K? Then let me slap the puck with my Wii-mote or make a replay-worthy save with my nunchuck).

The poisonous icing on the cake of NHL 2K8 is the soundtrack. I don’t mind ‘real’ music in video games. Sometimes it adds to the experience, if it suits the title. For instance, Halo 2 had a fantastic song by Breaking Benjamin called “Blow Me Away”. Even NHL Hitz 2002 had Limp Bizkit’s “Rolling” and it was truly adrenaline-pumping.

EA and similar ilk have turned annoying eardrum-piercing licensed tunes into a craptacular art form. Seriously, this is terrible music. For all my back and forth concerning other aspects of the game (controls, boredom) there is no disputing the uninspired and awful choices this soundtrack contains.

NHL 2K8 adds more to almost every aspect of the series– more reality, more control, more difficulty, and more complexity. More is not equivalent to better, though, and I am just not sure I care anymore.