The short intro sequence to NHL 10 begins with a focus on some players being punched in the face which is followed by examples of others pushed up against the glass barrier and dry humped. Exciting stuff. It has been some time since I followed the sport of Ice Hockey, I am much more interested in Football (see: Soccer), so perhaps the game has changed dramatically in the past decade. What I can say is that a clip of Wayne Rooney rubbing up against Ronaldinho wouldn’t fill me with an urge to buy the latest instalment of Fifa. Having said that I would be tempted to pick up a copy purely based on a clip which showed Christiano Ronaldo being punched in the face by pretty much any other player. But enough about the kinky intro – it’s game time!

Your performance stats are tracked with a virtual trading card for your player. I really like this idea and it’s especially nice that you can update the image on the card by selecting one from any instant replay of your player. At first I found the Be A Pro mode more difficult to master than in Fifa and found myself just missing out on a place in the top team. I was told to play with a low league team for a while which turned out to be less of an annoyance than I first thought. I found myself lighting up that lower league and returned to the main team a different player. I began imposing myself on games, everything started falling into place, and contrary to my first fears I started to enjoy the mode.

The visuals in this game are to a high standard as always but NHL games tend to have things relatively easy in that department as there isn’t much want for close-ups nor does the smaller arena call for a wide angled shot with lots of information on screen. There is a new first person fighting mode and this is very similar to the one introduced in the PS3 version of Fight Night Round 3 which is relevant as I like neither. I found the first person view in that particular Fight Night game to be painfully restrictive and while that was the intention it caused my level of enjoyment to drain away. NHL 10 is a different story as the focus isn’t on fighting, though I expect the fights mean a great deal to hardcore Hockey fans, but I found the first person view to be clunky and feel the idea should have been dropped.

I found the selection of music to be pretty average by the high standards set in other EA Sports titles but having said this it still sits above any sports title outside of that brand. You can’t go wrong with a classic such as ‘Rock you like a Hurricane’ by Scorpions and ‘Heroes of our Time’ from Dragonforce but the other tracks didn’t do much for me.

I really don’t like using the stick and had to change back to classic controls before I found enjoyment. What I find odd is that I love the stick controls in Fight Night but they don’t work for me at all in the NHL games. I understand the stick controls are supposed to enhance the gameplay but having recently played and enjoyed the old NHL games on the Sega Megadrive I find this new control method to be both awkward and unnecessary.

After a few lacklustre performances plus my annoyance at the stick controls I made a few subtle changes, things started falling into place, and I started to enjoy what this game has to offer. NHL 10 offers up a very good game of Ice Hockey with a few bells and whistles which should help keep things fresh. I accept that I’m in the minority when it comes to disliking the stick controls but for those who share my feelings the classic controls more than takes care of the problem. NHL 10, especially for fans of the sport which goes without saying, should be a worthy title to pick up and play for short bursts of competitive entertainment.

8/10

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