You can forgive 2K Sports for shaking in their boots a bit. After years of being the only licensed hockey game on all the big three consoles (Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s XBox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3), Electronic Arts announced their first-ever Wii hockey title “NHL Slapshot” while 2K decided to go Wii-only with “NHL 2K11.”
There hasn’t been a ton of information on EA’s newest hockey title, though. All I know is that Wayne Gretzky would be the cover star, the game would employ a miniature hockey stick controller and the game would include a mode in which you take a player form “the peewees to the pros.”
While this trailer won’t tell you everything about the game (no shots of people using the controller? Are there any standard hockey games or do you just play with your character the whole time?), it gives an indication for the look and pace. Of course, you have to wonder about the realism of the game when you see a polygonal Wayne Gretzky checking people as if he’s Cal Clutterbuck. It’s also really strange to see Mike Comrie passing to Gretzky ... does that mean they’re using the NHL license plus “The Great One” or are there some other legends/former Oilers teammates in the game? I’m sure there will be more information soon, but I’m intrigued nonetheless.
Either way, take a look at the official trailer for EA’s upcoming “NHL Slapshot.”