This year’s crop of NHL games have one big advantage over last year’s:
there’s actually an NHL season this year. That could have been reason enough for
the game companies to simply update the rosters from last year’s games and call
it a day. Luckily for gamers, this is not that case for all games and we have
some new modes of play and gameplay enhancements in games like Gretzky NHL 06.
Gretzky NHL 06’s major new mode of play is called Wayne vs. Wayne, and while
totally unrealistic it sure is fun to play. This mode includes a feature known
as 99 Time. You accumulate 99 Time by shooting on goal, checking the opponent,
and pulling off good moves. Once you accumulate enough 99 Time, none other than
Gretzky jumps onto the ice and joins your team. This is a power play of sorts as
you get a 6 on 5 advantage and that extra man is Gretzky. Needless to say, this
mode is pretty high scoring and consequently a lot of fun.
As for the other modes of play, they’re on the high scoring side of things as
well. The defense always seems to be at a disadvantage no matter which side of
the puck you find yourself on. On offense you have plenty of breakaways and two
on one situations, which almost always lead to a shot and often to a goal. On
the other side of the puck, your defense is consistently shredded by the amazing
pass precision of the computer. There are times you’ll feel like you’re in
control of a pee-wee hockey team as the computer plays an extended game of keep
away with the puck. I found the time of possession stats to be consistently
one-sided, with me on the very short end of the stick.
As for checking it seems to be overpowered in the game. Checks are consistently
hard and almost always put the receiving player onto the ice. They never lead to
a penalty, though, but to make up for this the game calls a lot of other
penalties such as hooking that often come as a surprise and seem to be called
for the sake of calling something.
The game features a nice shot system that lets you pick your spot in the net and
determine the power of the shot. It sounds like a lot to do before shooting the
puck, but it is easier done than said and you’ll quickly get the hang of it.
Overall, though, the control feels too loose and imprecise. It’s hard to get
your players to loose pucks – the developers went a bit too far overboard while
trying to capture the feel of skating on ice.
Gretzky 06 has an interesting mechanic in that it tracks the chemistry of your
lines. As your lines spend time on the ice and make plays together their
chemistry rating will increase. If things go poorly when they’re on the ice,
then their chemistry suffers. So what effect does chemistry have on your lines’
play? To be honest, it’s hard to say. I couldn’t really notice any big changes
between high chemistry and low chemistry lines so after a bit I stopped paying
much attention to it.
The game comes with a season mode that lets you specify the length of the season
and lead a team towards the cup. The options here are fairly standard – trades,
stats, and the like. For some reason though it takes the game a very long time
to simulate the matches that you don’t play. Other modes include countdown, in
which you play 3-on-3 games without rules, showdown, in which you take one team
through a gauntlet of games against every other team in the league, and Gretzky
Challenge, in which you try to recreate great moments from Gretzky’s career.
Gretzky 06 also includes multiplayer support. In addition to Ad Hoc games with a
friend, Gretzky 06 supports Infrastructure mode so that you can take on
opponents over the Internet. The gameplay maintains the same speed as you find
in the single player game, with lag never being a problem.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
70%. Gretzky NHL 06 is a decent hockey game, but it falls short of
being the great one.
