EA Sports' NHL '09 Review

EA Sports' NHL '09 was released today—I woke up at 9:00 a.m. and ran to GameStop to purchase it. So far, I would say that it was entirely worth walking to GameStop with a hangover to get the game, ha-ha.

When you begin the game you will create a character and go through all the tutorials, but then the real fun starts.

You can just jump into a game, start your own franchise, or do what I did, start the new Become A Pro mode.

In Become a Pro you get to use your created player and rise through the ranks of your favorite team—the Chicago Blackhawks for me. You will begin in the AHL on their third line, and you need to play hard to rise the lines until you are a first liner for your AHL team.

Then after you play well on the AHL teams first line, you will get promoted to the NHL team's third line and you will also have rise through the lines until you are your team's star player.

I started playing Become a Pro on the "Pro" difficulty, but found it tough due to a completely different style of play than was used in the old versions of the EA NHL series.

Depending on whether you like a challenge or just like to have fun will dictate what level you play on.

So far I'm loving the game and can't seem to put it down.  Let me know if you ever would like to play against me online for XBOX 360 (gamer tag: DontToewsMeBr0—that's a zero at the end).

Well back to shredding up the NHL...