It's an awesome system that can be initially a little difficult to pick up and get right, especially if you're on defense, since checking is assigned to the right thumbstick, but once you learn it, bringing the other team to its knees feels incredible. Shooting is a simple matter of flicking the right stick toward the goal or winding up by first pulling away from the goal. It's easy and intuitive to skate one way while simultaneously holding the puck away from defenders in a game of keep-away. This is a system that works wonders, especially with the vastly improved puck physics from last year's title. With this control scheme, you have to think of the left thumbstick as the player and the right thumbstick as the hockey stick. As a result, NHL 09 is an extremely refined hockey title that is an absolute blast to play.īack from last year's title is the amazing skill stick control scheme. The refinements are numerous, and there are several new features in NHL 09. NHL 09 is fairly similar to last year's title, which is a very good thing because NHL 08 was a very, very good hockey game. If you like hockey games at all, you really owe it to yourself to at least give NHL 09 a try. It's not the best sports game ever made - that goes to NFL 2K5, in my book - but it's certainly up there with the best of them. If you're short on time and just need to read a sentence or two about this game, here it is: NHL 09 is the best hockey game on the market this year, and it makes a strong case for being the best hockey game ever made.

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