The Nintendo Wii has seen its share of motion-controlled uses since it debuted. Gamers can control everything: swords and lightsabers, cars, planes, baseball bats, tennis rackets, bowling balls... the list goes on. But one particular sport has been strangely absent since the Wii's entry on the scene in 2006 - hockey. With the exception of the budget Kidz Sports Ice Hockey, no other ice action has gotten the waggling Wiimote treatment. Until now.

   2K Sports is the first to venture into the full-on hockey sim territory with its newest incarnation, NHL 2K9, and for puckheads everywhere, it's definitely a stride in the right direction.

I'm gonna make Gretzky's head bleed

   First of all, let's establish one simple fact: NHL 2K9 is not a perfect hockey game. That said, it does many things right, and lays a very solid groundwork for several fundamental Wii control options, allowing anyone to jump right in to the action. The game is played with the nunchuck attached, and the analog stick moves your players around the ice. Passing is done with the A button, but there's a trick - your player will pass to the teammate nearest where you're pointing with the Wii remote. It sounds a bit complex, but really it couldn't get any simpler. It took me a few times to figure this out when I first played (not having read the instructions yet), but after I kept performing drop passes to no one instead of hitting the open winger, I realized that I wasn't pointing at the right part of the screen. After making that adjustment, the gameplay became a lot more fluid, and I was streaking past the D in no time.

Shaken, not stirred

Puttin' on the foil, coach!

   Of course, this wouldn't be a hockey video game without fights. And it wouldn't be a Wii hockey game without utilizing the motion-sensing remotes to control your pixelized pugilists. Whereas 2K could've gone the simple route with a Wii Sports style, two-handed punching fest, they opted instead for a more complex and somewhat challenging system that has you tilting the nunchuck to stay balanced while at the same time swinging the Wii remote toward the screen to mimic punches. This sounds okay, except for the fact that swinging with one hand often makes it rather difficult to keep the other hand perfectly steady, and you end up on your ass more than you'd like. Still, it's a fun way to get the family to bond and relieve some tensions without having to call the cops.

This sure ain't a beauty competition

   Hockey players get beat up a lot. They get bruises, lose teeth, and receive stitches on the bench. But when it's all said and done, and the pads are off and they've taken a shower, they can still put on a suit and tie and at least look presentable. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for NHL 2K9. While I understand that the Wii is underpowered when compared to its high-def brethren, the graphics on this game are the biggest sore spot. If you popped in your old Xbox copy of NHL 2K6, you'd notice smoother animations, more detailed goalie helmets, and less pixelation than this game features. The game introductions look great, as video footage is shown on the ice, and the players move well during close-ups and replays, but it's sad, really, that the extra, "next-gen" level of detail is absent, especially given the smooth rendering of the latest Mario offerings and even 2K's own MLB Power Pros 2008 (which are, granted, more cartoony in nature and require fewer polygons than the more "realistic" graphics of NHL 2K9). As I said, though, it's the only major downside you'll find with the title, and by focusing more on the fun you're having, you'll be able to get over it.

   On the audio front, the announcers do a decent job of relaying the game's action, though some of the classic sports lines - "The (fill in team name here) are doing a good job of limiting scoring opportunities, but need to play the body a bit more" - can get a little tired after hearing them several times. Also, while it's quite funny hearing "Bad Boys" the first time you take a penalty, hearing it every time there's a call will sap a little bit of your soul. The licensed music is okay and leans toward the alternative genre, as most hockey games do, so make of that what you will.

Hockey - where you get points even if you lose!

   The most exciting part of sports is overtime in hockey. Anyone who says different is either way overdosed on Prozac or has never watched a hockey game. Nothing beats the joy of taking that final shot and sending your team home with the much-needed two points for the win, especially after your lackluster goalie blew a two goal lead in the third period.

   In real life, shootouts are almost as fun to watch as overtime. They again bring the decision of the game down to a few shots, and the mental struggle between skater and goalie is great to experience. Unfortunately, in NHL 2K9, the shootouts suck. Plain and simple. And this isn't just because I lost a tournament in a shootout, it's because they are the hardest part of the game to control. While normal game-time shooting and one-timers are good ways to score goals, breakaways are infuriatingly hard to manage. You can't really get a good angle on the goalie, and usually your limp wrist shots are turned away with ease. On the defensive side, when the computer/your opponent takes a shot, your control changes to a view from behind the goalie, and images of a nunchuck and remote pop up on the screen. You're given about half a second to react and move your controllers in the same direction as the on-screen images in order to guarantee a save, and if you don't, there's a better chance that the biscuit will end up in the basket. In short, the shootouts are a terrible drawback, but one that thankfully only occurs at the end of the game, and it's possible to change your overtime format anyway. Set it to standard OT to avoid any flinging of Wiimotes at the TV.

Let's head out to the pond, eh?

   If full seasons aren't your bag of pucks, you can try out one of the game's smaller modes. Pond hockey pits you in a 4-on-4 (plus goalies) contest on an outdoor rink with snowbanks for boards and a more wide-open, shinny like style. The mode can be fun for groups of players, or those just looking for a few minutes of action without getting bogged down in salary caps and trade negotiations. And if you're looking for an even tinier slice of ice, you can try the mini rink, which features a 2-on-2 (again, plus goalies) matchup on a ridiculously small skating surface. If you don't know dump-ins from wraparounds but still want to have fun and knock some people on their asses (or, like me, have always had this really weird dream of ice skating on a tiny mirror), this is the mode for you. You can pick any three players you want - fight with your buddies over who gets Ovechkin - and then go to town crashing and banging all over the rink trying to set-up scoring opportunities. Again, it's a quick mode that lets you get some fun in without having to do all of the more "serious" stuff that can occur when you're pretending to be a GM, and allows everyone to get in on the action right away.

   And if you're looking for an even more entertaining way to kill a few minutes, there's a mini-game included in the middle of the games themselves - Zamboni driving! That's right, you get to drive the Zamboni, cleaning the ice between periods. You're given three minutes to steer the resurfacing machine across the ice, and graded on how much you get done. It's a bit hard to steer - you turn the remote sideways, like in most Wii racing games - but once you get going it's pretty addicting.

He shoots, he scores!

   NHL 2K9 takes a giant leap forward in gameplay and controls by transferring hockey to the Wii. It may not look or sound the best, but just like the Millennium Falcon, she's got it where it counts. Anyone wanting a fun hockey experience on the Wii, alone or with friends, would be happily served by 2K9.

       ... Darthziggy