NHL 2K10

NHL 2K10 faces stiff competition from EA's NHL 10. Considering the continual amount of improvements that are added every year to its competitor, the 2K series hasn't been given the attention it deserves. Compared side-to-side, 2K10 is not as visually impressive, has less gameplay options available for both offline and online play, and won't be able to hold your attention for as long as NHL 10. It is however, a lot of fun, and in the end that counts for quite a bit.

"Look! Another breakaway!"

The best way to describe the gameplay in NHL 2K10 is "arcadey". In total contrast to its neighbor, NHL 2K10 lives by a mantra that includes almost continual tape-to-tape passes, multiple breakaways, superstar lines, and ice-melting speed boosts. It's really the type of arcade-influenced gameplay one might find on SNES/Genesis hockey incarnations. Players with an eye for realism and simulation would do well to not look at this game for very long, but for those who just wish to get a hold of the controller and go looking for a hat trick, no game could be better suited. Go through a season and you're unlikely to ever see a shutout -- at least on the default setting.

Shooting is as simple as tapping X for a wrist shot and holding it to wind up for a slapshot. In contrast, performing at your best defensively is highly tricky -- pinning players to the boards or raising sticks is much harder to do, requiring an amount of dexterity that is far more advanced than it is in NHL 10. Even the momentum system, generally one of the ways in which NHL 2K10 is quite better than its rival, isn't conductive to making defensive plays as defense men simply won't make small accurate movements in the defensive zone.

That said, things off the ice aren't nearly as fun, and it becomes clear very early on that there is a paucity of options available to players. Besides exhibition matches you can only really get into single seasons, a franchise mode (not nearly as good as NHL 10's Be A GM mode), and simple tournaments. Aside from the thirty NHL teams, players can only play as national teams, some of which are stocked solely with placeholder players. It doesn't help that NHL 2K10's interface isn't exactly user friendly, utilizing a radial-style menu system which hides the majority of its features from casual observance.

NHL 2K10
NHL 2K10

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