NHL 10

Like a perennial playoff team that adds a new piece each year in its quest for the Cup, the NHL series has been great for the last couple seasons. As we’d hoped and expected, NHL 10 brings its “A” game once again, re-asserting itself as the finest hockey sim available on 360 and leaving us to wonder where it can possibly go from here.

The most noticeable difference between NHL 10 and what’s come before in the series is that it’s significantly slower — an option we initially wanted to adjust. After a couple matches, however, we came to love the toned-down pace. It makes the game feel less like a videogame interpretation of hockey and more like the actual sport itself. On that front, a fantastic new passing system lets you feed the puck precisely where you’re aiming, rather than into the stick of the nearest friendly forward. And abilities like jockeying for the puck along the boards, shooting from your knees, and blasting an open-ice one-timer make each goal uniquely intoxicating.

Off the ice, you’ll find more fanciful additions: experience points, leveling up…even quests — seriously! Normally reserved for sci-fi operas or post-apocalyptic wastelands, RPG elements make a surprisingly snug fit for hockey, especially in the still-awesome Be A Pro mode. Like last year, you’ll unlock new gear as you complete assigned objectives as a single skater, but new attribute enhancements, like +5 wrist-shot accuracy, kept us completely hooked.

On the other side of the coin is the boring off-ice work in the Be A GM mode. Balancing finances, making beneficial trades, and scouting for international superstars as a front-end boss is a far cry from the excitement of a top-corner slapshot or center-ice fistfight. If you’re willing to tolerate the slower side of the sport, there’s a lot of progression to be made as a manager. As in Be A Pro, completing objectives earns you both experience and levels. But there’s less satisfaction to be had. The reward for your managerial success is respect, which makes it easier to make killer trades and…not much else. If you’re into sports semantics, it’s a deep and challenging addition, but Be A GM’s business simulation is a bit too dry for us. We’ll stick to battling it out on the ice, thanks.

And it’s the hockey that makes the series so fantastic. We love that NHL consistently builds loads of terrific improvements, both big and small, into each subsequent release. But here’s our biggest worry: newcomers. NHL 10 offers up brilliant authenticity at the cost of being pretty intimidating, and we’re hoping it doesn’t split the audience into two camps: fanatics and the not-quite-hardcore-enough. Rookies will have an uphill battle against the complex controls, the tons of abilities to memorize, and the freaky-smart A.I. opponents. Thankfully, the ease of avoiding the 82-game grind and hopping straight into a season, quick playoff series, or Stanley Cup final lets you get your feet wet doing something substantial while learning the game. The new monthly seasons in online leagues make the multiplayer easy to digest and enjoy, too.

For the hardcore hockey lovers who expect the significant improvements each year, NHL 10 is pure bliss. Everything you loved before is either back in full force or improved enough to warrant playing again. The core experience was already electric, but the enhanced realism, new player abilities, and gratifying sense of progression have us skating on smooth ice.