''NHL 16'' is an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

developed by

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest an ...

and published by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

. It is the 25th installment of the ''NHL'' series and was released on September 15, 2015 in North America and September 17 and 18 in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. The game was released on

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

, with a separate release for

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

titled ''NHL: Legacy Edition''.

Jonathan Toews Jonathan Bryan Toews ( ; born April 29, 1988) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Captain Serious", Toews was selected by the Blackhawks with the ...

of the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

is the official cover athlete, marking his second appearance on an ''NHL'' cover, following '' NHL 11''. Featuring game presentation in the style of the

NBC Sports Network NBCSN was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated to programming prim ...

, ''NHL 16'' runs on EA Sports' advanced Ignite game engine and features many game modes, including one that has the player take control of their own custom player and pursuing a career in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

and one that has the player play as the manager of any NHL team. The fan-favorite EA Sports Hockey League (EASHL) mode, an online co-operative play mode, also returns to the game after being left out of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of ''

NHL 15 ''NHL 15'' is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It is the 24th installment of the ''NHL'' series and was released on September 9, 2014 in North America then three days later in Europe, Australia and New ...

'', the game's predecessor. Upon release, ''NHL 16'' received positive reviews and was declared an improvement over ''NHL 15'' by critics.

Gameplay

''NHL 16'' contains several game modes; "Be a GM", where the player controls the general manager of a team of their choice, "Be a Pro", where the player controls their own custom player and progresses his career, Hockey Ultimate Team, where the player collects cards of real-life players, build a team, and then take on either players online or A.I. teams, and EA Sports Hockey League, abbreviated as EASHL, a multiplayer-only mode where players can use their own custom player to join other teams, also with custom players controlled by other people, and take on other teams. The EASHL returns after being dropped from the

and

versions of ''

''. It features some changes in its progression system to address balance issues, including a switch to a class-based progression model similar to Be a Pro mode, and the removal of attributes and boosts. A beta for the EASHL mode was available for ''NHL 15'' owners from July 30 to August 10. Other features included are offline and online

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only in ...

modes, online team play, which has the user take control of players from real-life teams, and online versus, a simple head-to-head match. Returning to the game is the

-style presentation, which features the network's score bug as well as commentary provided by Mike "Doc" Emrick (

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present In linguis ...

Eddie Olczyk Edward Walter Olczyk Jr. (; born August 16, 1966) is a former center in the National Hockey League for 16 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins. He ...

(

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

), and

Ray Ferraro Raymond Vincent Ferraro (born August 23, 1964) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and currently broadcaster for ESPN/ABC and formerly of TSN. He played for 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Hartford Whalers ...

(ice-side reporter). Emrick and Olczyk's actual selves are present during the pregame intro cutscenes.

Cover

''NHL 16'' did not have a cover vote in contrast to the previous year's iteration. At the 2015 NHL Awards, it was revealed that Patrick Kane and

of the

, who had won the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals, were selected to be on the cover of the game. It is Toews' second appearance on the cover of an ''NHL'' game, following '' NHL 11''. It was supposed to be Kane's second appearance as well, following '' NHL 10'', but on August 12 EA Sports announced that Kane would no longer be appearing on the cover of the game in light of the fact he was the subject of a police investigation over a sexual assault allegation.

''NHL: Legacy Edition''

''NHL: Legacy Edition'' is an updated version of ''

'' for the

and

, based on '' NHL 14''. There are some minor changes, such as the menu music; however, the EA Sports logo is instead shown for the album arts, the NHL Moments Live from 2013–14 is replaced by some new ones that were made available as the 2015-16 NHL season progressed, and in the "Custom Team" game mode the team name selection is improved. The ''

NHL 94 ''NHL '94'' is an ice hockey game by EA Sports for the Genesis, Super NES, and Sega CD, as well as the first release for the PC (DOS), simply titled "NHL Hockey", without the "94" in the title. The game is officially licensed from the National Ho ...

'' Anniversary Mode is also included.

Release

''NHL 16'' launched in North America on September 15, 2015, in both a standard edition and a deluxe set, which includes bonus content for use with the ''Hockey Ultimate Team'' game mode. ''NHL: Legacy Edition'' launched in North America on the same day as ''NHL 16'', but it was released in a standard edition only. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, an exclusive PlayStation 4 bundle launched with the game simultaneously, packaging both a PS4 console and a copy of ''NHL 16''.

Reception

Upon its release, ''NHL 16'' received positive reviews from critics and received much more positive reviews compared to its predecessor, ''NHL 15'', which received more mixed and average reviews from critics. On

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

, the PlayStation 4 version holds a 79.67% rating, based on 23 reviews, and the Xbox One version holds an 82.23% rating, based on 15 reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the PlayStation 4 version holds a 78/100 rating, based on 28 reviews, and the Xbox One version holds an 80/100 rating, based on 18 reviews. Critics generally felt that ''NHL 16'' was an improvement over ''NHL 15''. They directed acclaim at the fun gameplay of the game's wide variety of game modes as well as the return of the EASHL mode. Some criticism was aimed mainly at some lack of depth in these game modes as well as the game's menus and interface. Mat Paget of

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

awarded the game an 8/10. He complimented the content of ''NHL 16''s game modes as well as the inclusion of the On-Ice Trainer, which he believes would help brand new players and would work very well in the game's Be A Pro mode. He stated, however, that the game's menus can sometimes be confusing to get around. For ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 ...

'', Matt Bertz wrote that EA Sports are heading in the right direction with ''NHL 16'', but he felt that they failed to bring any "game-breaking quality" in terms of gameplay. Bertz complimented the game's improved

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, moveme ...

system for opposing teams as well as the ''

NHL on NBC The ''NHL on NBC'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by NBC Sports, and televised on NBC properties, including MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, USA Network and NBCSN in the United States. While NBC covered t ...

'' game presentation. Anthony LaBella of ''

Game Revolution ''GameRevolution'' (formerly ''Game-Revolution'') is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screensh ...

'' found the inclusion of several game modes to be positive for the game, but felt that some of them were not thoroughly developed enough. LaBella also enjoyed the revamped EASHL mode as well as the game's presentation.

References

External links