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NHL 2K6 for Xbox | 
 enlarge | From: Take2 Interactive Software
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $0.50
You Save: $19.49 (97%)
New (22) Used (31) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 14523
Platform: Xbox
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Media: Video Game
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Xbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 29802
UPC: 710425298028
EAN: 0710425298028
ASIN: B0009XEBWQ
Release Date: September 8, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Dominate the ice with NHL caliber goaltending, skating, checking and puck handling | | • | On-the-Fly Coaching lets you control offensive and defensive flow by effortlessly crashing the net, screening the goalie or pinching your defensemen -- then clearing out the crease, setting up a break out for an offensive rush, or clearing the zone | | • | Hundreds of completely new NHL quality animations including goaltending, checking, shooting, and passing - the most authentic on-ice action to date | | • | Unsurpassed franchise tools - Your team's success hinges on your ability to schedule workouts, scrimmages and manage team chemistry | | • | Incredible online experience - NHL 2K6 features seamless online play and the most comprehensive onlinefeature anywhere, including completely online stat tracking, buddy lists management, and online leagues |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
NHL 2K6 is the champion of gaming hockey, and this new version continues the legacy! Get more control,more emotion and more detail than ever before. Take command of tape-to-tape passing, behind-the-net plays and precision give-and-go attacks. With its all-new presentation elements, commentary and cut-scenes, NHL 2K6 brings the ice to you.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A great hockey simulation March 4, 2007
I own an earlier version of this hockey simulation for the Playstation 2 and I play it a lot. I decided to get the 2K6 version for the Xbox. It retains all of its greatness as a hockey simulator. When you can stop the replay at any point, zoom in from any angle, and see the design on the edge of the hockey puck, you know you have a simulation that pays attention to details. By the way, the price is an amazingly good value!
 Decent hockey action, poorly done overall. May 29, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a huge hockey fan that has bought a lot of hockey games in the past, I understand the need to have a fun, fast-paced hockey video game where you can take your favorite players and punish all the teams you hate. As a programmer, I understand the difficulty in taking something as action-packed as hockey, and capturing it in a game when confined to limits such as buttons and camera angles.
However, capturing this action is the responsibility of the makers of the game, and it is done fairly well for NHL 2k6. For $20, you get a playable hockey game with a few neat new features. The gameplay allows for you to make plays, and it's rewarding when your key passes or setups yield a one-timer or breakaway goal. The best part of this game is by far the gameplay, which for $20, is worth it alone.
The rest of the game falls apart after that though. I personally hate reading video game reviews pick games apart, because then when I buy/play the game I notice all of those flaws. From here on that's all I'm going to talk about (there's a lot of material for inspiration) so feel free to stop if you don't want me to pick out all the poorly done points of this game.
As I just said, I hate reading video game reviews because I never notice the weaknesses in a game until someone else publishes it online. This isn't the case with NHL 2k6. This is the only review of an amazon product I've written, and I was driven to write it because NHL 2k6 has so many frustratingly bad points.
The first I'd like to mention is the rosters. Thank god you can go on Xbox Live and update your rosters, because the game doesn't start with the original 2006 NHL rosters. Sydney Crosby? Nope. Gotta download him yourself. They update rosters from time to time online, and you can bet that if you start a season or franchise, there's no way to update your rosters (understandably) to the new ones.
The second thing is the commentary. Sports games have notoriously bad commentary either way, so I won't talk about the actual voices -- there's an average spread of each kind of line, and hockey is harder than most sports because there are such obscure details about shots and saves (stickside, the puck just bounced in, etc.) The worst thing is the sloppy programming. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the announcers say "They're up by 2" when I'm really up by 4. I've played games where the fans chant the wrong team name -- Penguins vs. Flyers, why are they chanting Redwings?? Commentary is taxing enough on a player, but when it's done so poorly it really ruins the game experience. They'll display a stat saying someone's taken 9 shots on goal and made 2 of them, and the announcers will tell you he's taken over 10 shots on goal. I remember playing NFL Gameday 99 on my PS1 and they didn't have ANY of these little glitches, and as a programmer I know there's no excuse -- it's just a poorly-written game.
There's also glitches in the gameplay of course. Occasionally you can shoot the puck from behind the enemy net and have it just sort of "jump" into the net, resulting in a goal. The puck "jumping" is horrendous in this game. In 2006, the physics engine that keeps track of the puck is actually worse than that of NHL 2000-2002. Times have changed a bit, there's no excuse for having a puck teleport from mid-air to a player's stick when he goes for a one-timer. This also ruins some gameplay, because when a replay pops up (they're usually at random camera angles that don't let you see anything) you see the choppy animation of the puck skipping through space-time.
Beyond the glitches, there's the logical issues. Some of the features are just poorly implemented. The pro-pass is probably the best done of them, and that's really more of a "we should've thought of this awhile ago" feature than a ground-breaking innovation. Football games have been using dedicated pass buttons for years. The maximum goaltending is absurd; there is no camera angle that lets you make an informed decision about which direction the puck is going to go, so players usually just take control of the goalie and press the auto-save button to keep the retarded AI from giving up a goal. The enforcer system is silly and tends to be more of a nuisance, because players stick with the Intimidated mark for a long time and sometimes their stats drops don't make sense at all.
The AI is also poorly done in that it doesn't seem to work very well with the player. Regardless of what difficulty setting or team strategies you use, you're going to have players lolly-gagging in the neutral zone for no discernable reason. Whether they're picking daisies or flirting with the other team's dline on the bench, it gets annoying when you're trying to set up a play and one of your players is out of action.
Sluggish button reaction times not only ruin your plays in-game, but make menus more of a hassle between games. You'll find yourself accidentally going to the wrong menus because it takes a few seconds for the Xbox to understand that you pressed B. The menus themselves are awful. Counterintuitive, uninformative, and their inefficiency becomes even worse when coupled with the bad soundtrack for the game.
Xbox Live is fun and the system for feedback/record keeping is good, but there's usually nobody to play with. A game should have more than 40 people playing on a good day. Beyond that, Xbox Live reveals how exploitable the game is. You can very easily weave in and out of players, maneuver impossibly on the ice, and there are plenty of "money shots" to be discovered online that the game's system simply won't let any player or computer block.
All in all, for $20 you're still going to find disappointments in the game. Even as a hockey fanatic, who usually swallows every shortcoming in a video game for the love of the sport, I'm pretty upset that I went with 2k6 instead of 2k5 or some earlier version. I bought it just to have the great rookies of this season, but half of them somehow didn't make it into the first roster list anyway, so if you don't have Xbox Live your better off buying one of the ESPN-backed years. It's fun, because it's hockey, but it's still just a poorly-done game that proves how much money we're letting programmers make with recycled code, new rosters, and a bit of a visual facelift.
Good game for Great Price December 17, 2005
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This game is pretty fun. Pretty good graphics, along with good soundtrack and easy controls, I'd be fine buying this game for even $30.00
Not Perfect, but better then anything EA Sports October 31, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Its seems like hockey fans have been plagued with a whole bunch of games that aren't even worth the name "simulation". Nobody seems to be able to understand the concept of Defence and puck play usually flops from one break away to the next. Fortunately we are one step closer to a true hockey Sim. With ESPN NHL 2K6 you can take control of anyone of NHL's teams in Exhibition, Season, Playoff, or ESPN's praised Franchise mode. On the side are a slew of mini-games and "party mode's" which basicly consist of death match and elimination style games best suited for multiplayer. Although unimportant, they provide some fun away from Season play. If your a hard core Franchiser (like me), you'll find yourself in a world of sliders and switches which make fine tuning your gaming experience easier then ever before. This is a must because the settings on default are hardly perfect. The graphics engine seems a little outdated but who cares, hockey is hockey and the occasional glitch won't phase many players. What most people don't understand is that ESPN isn't just a cheap alternative to EA Sports NHL series (although the $20 tag is nice!), ESPN actually makes better games and in my opinion you can't go wrong. Unfortunately, inorder to get the game to a state that is anywhere near "realistic play", you have to spend an hour or two messing around with the sliders and difficulty settings, on top of learning the games vast selections of controls. It took me a day of fiddling and two Franchise restarts inorder to get the game just right. There are a few things that are poor on this game, for one the Commentary is pretty depressing and after a week of play you'll of memorized every line. Managing team rosters is hellish at first and even on the highest difficulty (Hall of Famer) AI still seems impared. Goalies make drastic moves out of the crease and like to poke-check way too much. Puck movement behind the net seems to really be lacking and its way too easy to make wrap around goals. ESPN's Procontrol is clumsy and bothersome and is better turned off. But with all these things aside 2K6 is the best Hockey game that I have played for a long, long time.
It shuts EA Sports right out of the game.
Xan
Love Hockey Love 2k6! October 12, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a great hockey game. I find myself playing it for hours. I am sad to see the ESPN format gone due to EA buying the rights to that as well but it is still a great game where you and your friend can battle on the ice for hours and never tire. A great game for a great price!!
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