In recent years it has seemed that the sports video game franchises that rank near the top in reviews always happen to be for the sport that America forgot...Hockey. Last year IGN rated NHL 08 near 9 for both PS3 and XBOX 360.

Well this year, NHL 09 has come back with some new features and a new mode of gameplay that could very well change online sports gaming as we know it.

Most of these new gameplay features will seem the norm for most non-sports gamers, but as sports gamers know, our games focus on the stats and trying to emulate the actual sport first and leave new features on the backburner. That's why sports games always seem to be a few years behind the gaming curve.

One feature that seems to be showing up in almost every sports title now is the be-a-player, be-a-legend, etc mode. It seems that those making the titles finally realized that sports gamers aren't that different from most gamers, and love to be put into the game/customization. In this year's EA Sports NHL 09 there will be a superstar mode, which I am ecstatic about. When I was little I dreamed about playing pro hockey and this game will allow me, in a way, to live out that dream. Also what makes this mode so exciting is that a player will have to start out in the minors and work their way up. There's also an interesting way to gain points to make yourself a better player, points are allotted based off of each shift you skate and the coach will give you immediate feedback. It also gives gamers the option of playing only their shifts or playing the whole game, with regular player switching controls when you're character is not on the ice. This mode is a longtime coming, but this alone was enough for me to buy the game as this is just an additional game mode on an already great sports franchise.

But wait there's more.

NHL 09 is also including something I have never seen attempted in a sports video game. They are in fact attempting a sports MMO on a console. This at first made me do a double take, and I had to look at the date this report was posted to make sure it wasn't some sort of April Fool's Joke. Yet, this is real, so in short I'll explain how this is going to work, why it is awesome and leave you with a video showing more. This mode is the advancement of online leagues, instead of playing as a team, you now only control your character. You're one player and you can pick any position you want (including goalie). You can play some pickup games to find teammates, or you can start a team with friends and play. One nice thing about this mode is that it plays like a real hockey game, if you go all "squirt" (little league hockey) on an opponent and your whole team just all follows around the puck, you will be punished when you face a team that sets up in position and takes advantage of all the holes in your defense. Each player is individually graded after games and if your team sucks you can leave it or just kick the crappy players off. What makes this mode even more exciting is that there's an online leaderboard that ranks players overall and by position. There will also be a leaderboard for the best teams. The part that will appeal to most competitive sports gamers (like myself) is that your glory doesn't stop online, at the end of the season EA will actually give away a trophy to the best team. There is a lot more that goes into this mode, but I think this video will save both of us time since this could easily be an essay professing my love for this game mode.

There also are improvements over last year's title. One of these is an option to revert back to the old control scheme from NHLPA 94 of a one button for passing, one button for shooting, instead of using the joysticks to shoot and pass. Another feature that may not matter much to non-hockey fans playing the game, but will to those who love the game, EA has finally added stick lifts to the game! It is about time as I would get so frustrated when an opponent would score off a one-timer and I knew if I only had a stick lift option I would have been able to stop the play from even occurring. Additionally the hits will be bigger and closer to what fans see happening on the ice, and with that the fighting system has seen an improvement as one can now actually just pull the sweater over the opponent’s face and hit them repeatedly in it.

This game promises to be the best hockey game ever released and with the track record of hockey games, could be the best sports video game ever made.