We’ve given plenty of play to EA Sports’ upcoming “NHL 11" video game title and for good reason: it’s the industry leader. That doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten all about 2K Sports and their Wii-exclusive hockey entry, though. Here’s the company’s official trailer for “NHL 2K11.”
If the company’s self-imposed X-Box 360/Playstation 3 hiatus didn’t put a lot of pressure on the company to knock the Nintendo-only title out of the park, EA will do its part. The software giant will release its first-ever Wii hockey title (“NHL Slap Shot”) this fall, complete with an intriguing mini-hockey stick controller and some obscure dude named Wayne Gretzky on the cover. (Intrigued? Check out more details about the title here.)
As far as “NHL 2K11" goes, it seems that they’re working to improve the last title’s putrid graphics. Much like EA, they’ve also decided to integrate broken sticks into play. I’m on record of saying that this sounds like an dangerous “realism vs. fun” proposition, but let’s reserve final judgment until the games see the light of day.
One other noticeable change is the trick moves added to the title. As you can see from the embedded video, players apparently can hold a puck on their stick mid-air and try to score in that way. I wonder how often that will happen in actual gameplay being that such a thing happens very rarely in hockey competition. It could certainly be a cool little trick, though.
Expect plenty of video game related fun as more previews and trailers come through the grapevine. Games typically come out in early-to-mid September, so this is just the beginning of the information overload from the competing game companies.