A horrible shame it is that there’s no access to the NFL license for anyone other than EA. It’s been said time and time again that they lack the ability to develop a really great sports game. If you happen to be a fan of games played on ice, though, there’s still time to enjoy a good hockey game. The ESPN license is gone this time around, snapped up by our friends over at EA, and unfortunately the look and feel of the ESPN license went with it. You can see where the industry is headed, but at least for now, the NHLPA hasn’t signed over exclusive rights to the players or their visages to any one company. It’s a good thing too, because without it we would all miss out on a great game.

There are nits to be picked for sure, but it’s abundantly clear that with NHL 2K6 you get smooth action, a game full of features and startlingly realistic graphics (in High Definition at least). We can only hope that the business folks don’t negotiate an effective hockey franchise into oblivion.

Until the Armageddon known as exclusive license actually begins, we can kick back and enjoy another excellent execution of the NHL 2K hockey franchise’s hockey physics and game play. I put this first because this is essentially what a video game boils down to. You can have the best graphics in the world, and if the game doesn’t do what you tell it to, it is complete and absolute garbage. NHL 2K6 has one of the best control schemes I have seen so far. It is easy to use, intuitive and allows the range of control from newbly basic to savvy professional. You can even transition between control schemes while playing.

To really do it justice, I need to jump into some details. First and foremost is the movement. Hockey games live or die by how well the skaters can be controlled on the ice. There are several different mechanics that have been employed to varying degrees of success when it comes to moving your skaters around. They usually exist on a sliding scale somewhere between running back and forth with incredible friction as if not on the ice and always-in-motion complete lack of control. NHL 2K6 sits right smack dab in the middle. When you skate in a straight line you build up speed quickly and can make direction changes in smooth arcs without losing much time or speed. If you need to though, you can dig in your skates spray some snow and take off in another direction. You sacrifice momentum and speed when you do it, but it’s often preferable to arcing around in circles trying to find the right one that will put you where you need to be. Putting the icing on the cake is the ability to skate backwards on defense with just the mere touch of a button.

The second most important control concept that is nearly as critical as movement, if not more, is that of passing. Many games have tried different mechanisms, but I have yet to experience anything as smooth as the one in 2K6. A common theme in many sports game is to have a pass button and to indicate the recipient by aiming the analog stick in their direction. This makes sense in basketball and football games because there are only a few people to whom you could be passing. In hockey games since you can dump the puck at will it’s hard for the game to interpret what you mean by pressing the stick in a direction. Most just hit the puck that a ways and they couldn’t give a damn if there is someone there or not. NHL 2K6 has this scheme by default, which is fine for beginners who don’t do much passing. As you begin to see the allure of it though, you’ll realize that using the analog stick is too cumbersome to actually use. Once you’re at this point, click the right analog stick and icons show up over your players’ heads. Tap any of the buttons to pass, or double tap to execute a one-timer. Never have I known it to be this easy to coordinate between teammates in a hockey game. Using these passing icons in conjunction with the on-the-fly play changes really puts you in control of your offense’s actions.

All of the other critical bodily functions are in place and easy to use putting you in direct control of the action on the ice. Score one for 2K Sports.

Besides the control, there are a few new game play concepts that are both useful and innovative in their own ways. The first is the ability to take over the goalie on defense using the new Crease mode. On defense, if you click the right analog stick in your view is changed to an over the shoulder view of your goalie. A pie stretches out across the ice away from the goalie indicating the direction the goalie has covered. The pie is green if you are facing the puck carrier or red if you are not. When the opposing player makes a shot, a blue cross hair pops up along with a red icon indicating where the puck will enter the goal. The game slows down for a second, a la Max Payne, while you try to line up the cross hair with the puck icon. If you do and manage to press A in time, the goalie will block the shot with a skate or his body or even catch it in his glove. The latter being the best proposition because with the other two there is a chance that the opposition will try to smack it back at you.

This option worked great for me. I often get frustrated when the computer-controlled goalie lets easy shots past him. This gives me the ability, given enough time, to jump into the goalie seat and take control of my destiny. There were two minor flaws to it though, both related to transitioning to and from the goalie mode. The first happens because goalie mode and icon passing use the same trigger whether on offense or defense. There are times when I think I have the puck (but I don’t in fact) and clicking the right analog stick takes me to goalie mode when I might have been able to recover had I been controlling the right player. The second has to do with changing back from goalie mode. More than a few times, I found the transition from goalie to offense to be jarring and in at least one instance I somehow got stuck in goalie mode for a time.

The second new game play feature has to do with your team’s enforcer. When your enforcer is on the ice, he is denoted with a big E icon. If you use this guy to check opposing players, they will become Intimidated and have their skills temporarily lowered making scoring that much easier.

The third new game feature is the on the fly coaching that is a great idea with one significant drawback. When you are on offense, you can’t actually call plays until you are past the centerline. This creates a practical problem when trying to use your defensemen in offensive plays if you are a man or two down (scoring while two men down is actually one of the game’s achievements). Other than that, the plays work, they make sense and they allow you to mix up the action and keep your opponent guessing.

As far as game modes go, there is no lack in this game. You’ve got a full list of game modes including a franchise mode and full rosters, something the Xbox version went without because it was released so much earlier. There’s also a party mode that lets you play several different mini games with up to three other friends. Basically all the game modes you expected from the previous games in the NHL2K series are here in force. Unlike their competitors at EA that are planning to make you buy multiple Maddens to get all the features you want.

Besides being a brilliantly fun game with intuitive and usable game play mechanics. NHL is a good looking and sounding game as well. It’s not on par with the other games on the 360 in my humble opinion, but it was good enough for me. The ice and stadium look incredible and the spray from the ice adds a nice touch. The players look decent far away and not horrible close up. The fans in the crowd are true three-dimensional models instead of the animated cardboard cutouts you get in some games. These guys look good far away, but look ridiculous close up. Which happens a lot as it turns out. Every now and again the announcers will talk about some made-up celebrity and they’ll zoom in on the Skybox or they’ll show people going to the concession stand in between periods. It’s obviously meant to create the effect of being at a hockey game, but it only succeeds to show the contrast between the high poly models of the hockey players and the low poly models of the crowd. Other than that though, I can’t complain about the graphics other than to point out that they are less than the system is capable of.

The most notable aspect of the graphics was the resolution. For the first time playing a hockey game, I felt like I could see what was going on down to the puck level. You can clearly see the puck and can make out details like when it hits off the net poles and deflects away. You can see how the puck slides in between players’ skates and you can see the contact between puck and stick when you poke check the puck away. It was an eye-opener for me, like nothing I’ve experienced in console gaming until now.

The only other complaint I have is that the menu system is clunky, hard to navigate and often does the opposite of what you expect. Prompts are worded strangely in some instances and you really have to read them to avoid exiting to a menu or something else bizarre. Not a major flaw, but it does detract from the overall experience and is one of a few issues that keeps it from being an A quality game.

It’s still a great hockey game though and commensurate with what we expect from 2K Sports. We can only hope that exclusive licensing doesn’t eliminate them from the business of developing superior sports titles.