If you’ve read enough of my reviews then perhaps you have come to notice that I am more so the actionadventure gaming buff and that I seldom review sports games; in other words, I’m a nerd. But that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize a fun game with fantastic features when I see it: enter NHL 06 for PS2, Xbox and Gamecube.

Last month I purchased a PSP bundle that came with Gretzky and the very next day I had to buy a new game because the great one just didn?t cut it. I understand fully that comparing games on consoles to games on portables is like comparing apples to oranges but I feel that in this case I have to do it simply because NHL 06 triumphs in the area in which Gretzky fails ? a crucial one in this case ? gameplay.

With Gretzky handling the puck is just plain annoying – half the time when you try to recover it, you find yourself skating right around it. This makes it nearly impossible to set up some nice one-timers or crucial rebound shots. Puck handling with NHL 06 is smooth and even better, you can pick up the controller, watch for the button guide on the load up screen and you?re good to go.

In a few matches I found myself quickly moving beyond the basics and onto some of the more complicated areas, such as switching up your defensiveoffensive strategies. Toggling the strategies is done with the D-pad while player movement is controlled by the left analog. The right analog is used to activate a star player?s special shots. It sounds complicated having to worry about two analogs and a D-pad but it becomes quite fluid after a short while.

What impressed me most about this game was that it was more than just firing the puck at the net, it was also about being able to quickly switch up your defensive or offensive strategy on the fly – it becomes almost an art. For example, moving past the third line and changing your offensive strategy, so that you have two men move down with you allowing you to initiate beautiful set-ups and pass-backs would leave the goalie nice and schooled. This also works in reverse, for when your opponent begins to move into your zone you can make the quick switch to your defensive strategy so that if needed, the whole team comes to the rescue.

In general, the game is still no cakewalk. It?s almost an insult to the goalie if you bother to shoot the puck from the third blue line for instance. You really have to get the hang of the targeting system when shooting the puck as well. When you hold the button down for either a slap or wrist shot, targets appear behind the goalie. Aiming at an illogical target won?t give you the goal but deeking to the left and then aiming for the right will improve your chances.

The game has a variety of modes including full season and exhibition, as well as NHL 94! I don?t know if EA was aiming to show how far hockey games have come along but this is certainly what comes to mind when playing the more-than-a-decade-old version. I also loved being able to create a player and model his facial features to look like anyone I wanted. I chose to model a player after myself. And on top of this, when I used my doppelganger in the game the commentator referred to him by the name I entered, which was my own, ?Johnny.? How spectacular is it when charging down rink with the puck to then hear the commentator say, ?Johnny fires the shot and scores!?

So there you have it, NHL 06 is in many ways proof that we shouldn?t get too excited about the next generation of consoles just yet because there are still solid titles on the systems we have right now. Definitely pick up a copy of this one, especially if you?re looking to get an early fix of hockey now that we know we’ll soon be able to get back into the race for the cup.