NHL 2K9

Every once in awhile, the thought would pop into our heads – why isn’t there a hockey game on the Wii? Then we picked up the Wii Remote and Nunchuk and said “oh yeah – riiiiiiiight.” Eventually, though, it had to happen, as simple math (zillions of Wiis sold = chance for money) dictates that at least one of the two NHL license holders would take a shot at the fastest game on ice.

That turned out to be the gang at 2K Sports, who made the admirable decision to translate a traditional puckfest onto the most untraditional console - by no means a simple task. To say we were dubious it could be done would be the understatement of the month.

Imagine our shock and surprise when we discovered that the decidedly different control scheme NHL 2K9 utilizes actually works pretty well. Sure, traditionalists will initially recoil in horror at the thought of waving the Wii Remote to shoot the puck or throw a punch, but once they get over the learning curve it becomes pretty easy to figure out how to make things happen. Our favorite moves involve shaking the Nunchuk – doing it while charging the net executes a Superstar move, while on defense it throws a nasty check. Either way, it’s very satisfying.