Ah, another year, another EA Sports NHL game. But, is this year’s newly hyped NHL better than the previous? In short, yes, yes, yes.

The next installment of the NHL franchise, the second to come to the new generation of consoles, is NHL 16.

While its predecessor, NHL 15, was good, it heavily, read  extremely, lacked content. What was exciting and fresh game play was brought down by the absolute lackluster variety of ways to play.

The only thing that kept me playing NHL 15 was the simple play-now game mode, played with friends at home, and Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT), where you create your own NHL team and compete against other players and their user created teams.

Now, did NHL 16 improve on this? Yes. NHL 16 promised extended content and features, and it provided. They’ve even went as far as making practice mode an extensive mode to practice that perfect one-timer or how to make goalies look stupid on every.. single.. breakaway. Here’s the breakdown:

Gameplay

Gameplay for NHL 16 is what seems to be just a slower paced NHL 15. But this is a good thing. NHL 15 had fan-tastic gameplay that was smooth, exciting, but just a little bit too fast. NHL 16 managed to make it feel as smooth as before, while adjusting it to be just that little bit slower that makes it feel like the players on the ice are going at realistic speeds. Checking feels completely refreshed, you can almost feel the hit when you have Tyler Myers showing Mike Cammalleri that he isn’t allowed to be behind the net by slamming him on open ice.  Being able to hit those one-timers and slapshots to sizzle the net feels extremely satisfying, but never when someone rockets one past your own goalie, a feeling I’ve felt so much it burns.

Game modes

What was the previous game’s downfall, is the current game’s success. Yes, NHL 16 vastly improved what was contained in their game by adding loads of content in the form of game modes. The Be a Pro game mode, where you can work your way up from CHL Rookie to NHL Hall of Fame legend, has been revamped similarly to NHL 13, which was highly requested. Season mode, where you take your favorite NHL team and lead them to many a Stanley Cup, has also been buffed and allows the player to take more control in the formation of their team with the goal of creating a dynasty. HUT has mostly stayed the same, except allowing you to take your team to play in a single-player season, I found this very useful for learning which players work well with each other and how to score. And, thank the hockey gods, EASHL has been brought back, EASHL allows you to form a team with your friends and play against other user created teams, each player is locked to one position with the player they made and, instead of in previous titles where EASHL was present where you leveled up your player, often being matched up against other players with a 99 Overall while you were stuck with your 72, EASHL player skill is now dependent on selections of classes of what kind of player your position is, From Sniper to Enforcer for forwards, Offensive Defenseman to Two Way Defenseman, and Hybrid Goalie to Butterfly Goalie, this all balances really well for EASHL, making it more of a team dependent game mode where communication is important. Overall, with Shootout mode added again and Practice mode getting even more extensive, NHL 16 delivered with what they promised, and that is thick layers of content to play through, and many a player is extremely happy with this situation.

Cons

Now, as with every title made by EA, there are some cons. The, oh too extremely common, problem with online game modes for NHL 16 is the connection and latency issues, but it is getting better. Extremely slow with progress, but better. I would put that with my average internet connection in my home, 1 out of 7 games are scraping barely playable, while about 1 in 11 are just completely unplayable. But as for online play, connection with others is my only real problem, and for offline I don’t find much of a problem at all, except for the announcers lines that get stale after about four months of play, but who doesn’t love Mike Emrick’s voice?

Verdict

Overall, EA did a surprisingly good job of listening to what their fans had to say about improvements, and they acted upon it. They fixed the goal horn sounds for each team and added their mascots, making the game feel even more personal when you score with your favorite team and hear that sweet post-goal song play, In my case Joe Satriani’s Crowd Chant makes the perfect music for those bar-down goals. It looks good, It plays good, and It has tons of content to dive into for countless hours, and for that I give NHL 16 the rating of:

9/10 For a solid, balanced game full of content that is only hindered by internet connection issues.