There’s pretty much no denying the fact that over the last three years, EA has taken over the world of video game hockey, leaving 2K Sports far behind.  The NHL series has advanced far beyond the NHL 2K series in terms of gameplay, visuals, presentation, content, and realism in each of the last three years.  In fact, many would argue that 2K’s hockey effort from last year can’t match up to EA’s release from three years ago.  Despite the market domination, 2K continues to chug along, producing one sub-par hockey game after another, and this year is no different. 

At its very core, NHL 2K10 is a deeply flawed hockey game.  Paramount to any good sports experience is a game’s understanding of the game it’s attempting to simulate.  Unfortunately, NHL 2K10’s developers fail to accurately represent the flow of NHL hockey, and in some cases, even fail to grasp the rules of the game.  Players’ movements are so stilted and choppy that the game’s pace actually suffers.  Likewise, players move far too slowly, especially when compared to the puck, which flies along the ice a bit too quickly. This might not be so bad if it weren’t for the extremely wonky puck physics.  You’ll frequently see pucks take ridiculous, unrealistic bounces, and even get stuck in the boards during corner scrums. 

Most egregious, however, is the game’s lack of understanding of the basic rules of the sport it’s trying to emulate.  On several occasions, I experienced stoppages of play when there shouldn’t have been any.  There are even occasions where icing is called in inappropriate situations, which is essentially unforgivable when the company is producing its tenth hockey game.  If a company can’t get the fundamentals of a sport down, it almost doesn’t matter what the game looks or sounds like; it pretty much can’t be successful. 

Once you get past the game’s fundamental flaws, there are still far more negatives than positives to speak of.  Computer-controlled players tend to be pretty stupid.  Opposing puck carriers frequently attempt half-hearted deke moves that allow for ridiculously easy takeaways, and teammates often ignore pass attempts, refuse to move towards the opposing goal for rebounds, and generally act like hockey is an entirely new sport to them.  While the game advertises its new AI engine as a feature, it actually hurts the game a lot. NHL 2K9’s AI was in no way perfect, but it was significantly better than this year’s.

The player you control doesn’t fare much better.  Players are hamstrung by long, choppy, uninterruptible animations for practically every in-game action.  Executing a quick turnaround is anything but quick, as your skater hitches and spazzes out during a simple turn.  Once you do turn yourself around, getting a skater up to speed takes far too long.  Momentum problems like this are everywhere, and are made even more glaring when they’re seen in combination with the game’s tendency to magnetize skaters to the puck.  Plenty of sports games will fudge the trajectory of a ball or puck, and have it magnetize to a player at the end of a pass or rebound, but NHL 2K10 does the exact opposite; it makes players zap to the puck.  It’s jarring to watch a player teleport into the trajectory of a pass, and it’s just another example of this game’s lack of fine tuning and polish.

While most of the game’s flaws hinder your performance, there are a few that actually make the game easier (not better, just easier).  Passing to teammates is far too easy, and the puck shows no evidence of a physics engine while it is in mid-pass.  Strangely, though, laser-accurate passing is offset by the computer-controlled players’ complete inability to complete a one-timer.  Far too often, players fan on open one-timer attempts, leading to turnovers and serious frustration.  While this does discourage people from abusing the one-timer, it also makes one of the sport’s most exciting plays a virtual non-factor.  Goaltenders are usually a little smarter than their teammates, but they too occasionally lose their minds and leap out of the crease for no good reason.

If NHL 2K10 was a great looking game, these massive failures of execution would be a real shame.  Luckily (kind of), it isn’t.  Character models look decent from a distance, but up close, every player looks washed out, generic, and, strangely, Asian.  The aforementioned clunky animation set doesn’t help the game’s visual presentation any either, nor do constant clipping issues.  At least the arenas look good, with realistic lighting and ice surfaces that degrade over the course of a period.  The audio presentation is actually quite good, with Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda providing solid play-by-play, and high quality sound effect work.

NHL 2K10’s limited suite of game modes is largely unchanged from last year, except for one major addition.  Players can now invite a friend to play with them in any game mode, meaning that your buddies can play the other side of every season game.  It’s a great way to encourage multiplayer action, and something that needs to be implemented in EA’s franchise.  Sadly, the My Player mode found in 2K’s NBA series is absent again from their NHL game.  "My Player" mode (or "Be a Pro", or "Road to the Show", etc.) has become a pretty standard game mode for sports titles, and it’s omission here makes the game feel instantly dated.  There’s also a franchise mode that seems shallow and underdeveloped, as well as a 2-on-2 game and pond hockey, which are silly distractions that add little to the game.

It’s really hard to review NHL 2K10 without comparing it to NHL 10.  There is no question that EA’s product far surpasses 2K’s, but even if there were no EA hockey game this year, NHL 2K10 wouldn’t be a good choice.  It’s too buggy, choppy, and unrealistic to be considered even a solid title.  After a decade of hockey titles, the fact that 2K can’t put together a better package than this is surprising, confusing, and somewhat shameful.  As good as they’ve gotten with their basketball title, they should be able to produce at least a sold hockey sim, but this definitely isn’t it.  Oh well, at least you get to drive the zamboni.