''NHL 16'' is an

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

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 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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

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 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. 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 i ...

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 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 Divisio ...

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 To ignite is the first step of firelighting. Ignite may also refer to: Music *Ignite (band), a melodic hardcore band from Orange County, California * ''Ignite'' (Econoline Crush album), 2007 * ''Ignite'' (Shihad album), 2010 * "Ignite" (Eir Aoi s ...

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 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'', 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 '' NHL 15''. 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 invo ...

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 tense. Radio was ...

), Eddie Olczyk (

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 associ ...

), and Ray Ferraro (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 Patrick Timothy Kane II (born November 19, 1988) is an American professional ice hockey right winger and alternate captain for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Blackhawks selected him with the first overall pic ...

and Jonathan Toews of the

, who had won the

2015 Stanley Cup Finals The 2015 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) season, and the culmination of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Western Conference champion Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Eastern Conference ...

, 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 ''NHL 10'' is a video game in the NHL series developed and released by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts, and is the 19th game in the series. The game debuted at Hockey Fest '09, a three-day interactive festival celebrating the sport ...

'', 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 '' NHL 15'' for the

and

, based on ''

NHL 14 ''NHL 14'' is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It is the 23rd installment of the ''NHL'' series and was released in September 2013. However, the game was released on September 7, 2013 for subscribers o ...

''. 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 to ...

, 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 machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

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 ...

'' 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, screenshot ...

'' 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