2K - NHL 2K8 Review

While EA Sports has dominated sports video gaming for the last 15 years, I find that lately they've become lazy and more than willing to live on reputation rather than on the innovation they became known for.  After all, when 2K sports NFL 2K5 came out and immediately became the hottest football game on the market, EA cried like little babies and struck an exclusive deal with the NFLPA to wipe out the competition (2K struck back by getting the exclusive rights from the MLBPA, effectively taking out the best football AND baseball games off the market: 2K for football, EA for baseball).

EA in recent years has been hit hard by 2K's hockey series as well.  Actually, scratch that.  2K has made EA it's bitch in recent years in terms of their hockey games.  From the time that I first played NHL 2K5, I was hooked on the 2K series.  The skating motions were more fluid and realistic, the games were challenging, you had to work for goals (though there were some fluky things that worked everytime, just like with EA), and the mini game section was a cool way to kill an hour with friends.

I've remained really happy with 2K's hockey series until this year.  This year, they took a dramatic step back, which I guess isn't all that surprising when you consider this might just be the last year the game is produced for the Playstation 2 (though if PS3 sales lag, you might see another year of sports titles).  In other words, they seemingly don't care about those of us who don't have $350 for a Xbox 360 or $600 for a PS3.  Nice...

The gameplay is familiar, but much more choppy.  I'm not sure if they just didn't do the needed amount of testing or what, but things don't feel as smooth as they have in the previous 3 installments.  The skating feels a lot less smooth, and the goalies have taken quite a step back.  They aren't quite as bad as the goalies from last year's EA game (the worst I've ever seen), but they surely are not up to snuff with previous installments.

The new features are limited.  2K has revamped the franchise mode to include waivers, two way contracts and salary cap management.  This is great, except waivers don't work all that well, and the idea of restricted free agents, while they seem to be included, work the same as any other free agent.

2K has also introduced "superstar moves," taking hundreds of new animations and making it possible for you to recreate some of the game's most famous players and their breathtaking moves.  This feature is nice, but it does take practice to get it down.  If you try to pull it off without practicing it first, you'll be in trouble.  2K has also introduced the new Reebok NHL uniforms, although if you buy the game,  you have to go to 2K's website to get the code to unlock them.

Outside of that, the game is essentially the same.  However, for some reason, menu screens have a delay thing going on when  you move from one option to the other.  This is extremely frustrating (I've noticed that Madden 08 has the same issue).  There's also a bit of a delay after selecting an option, as if the game and the machine aren't on the same page.  Since this wasn't an issue at all before now, I don't understand why it is now.

At 20 bucks, NHL 2K8 is still a good value.  However, if you have 2K7,  you may want to give that game a spin for another year.  Essentially, your 20 bucks is buying you a roster update and a slower, less responsive game.  It's still enjoyable, but it's a full step below the 3 previous editions.

3 stars.