''NHL 20'' 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 hock ...

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 Vancouver 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 and ...

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 was released globally on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on September 13, 2019. It is the 29th installment in the NHL video game series and features

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

center Auston Matthews as the official and North American cover athlete, and would return as the cover athlete in

NHL 22 ''NHL 22'' is an ice hockey simulation video game developed by EA Vancouver and published by EA Sports. It is the 31st installment in the ''NHL'' video game series and was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series ...

. Elias Pettersson of the

Vancouver Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and play their home games at Rogers Arena. Bruce Bo ...

was named the cover athlete for the Swedish cover, and Patrik Laine of the

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...

was named the Finnish cover athlete for the second year in a row.

Features

''NHL 20'' introduces new game modes such as Squad Battles in Hockey Ultimate team. The game features a new commentary team of play-by-play man James Cybulski 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 Whaler ...

as the main color commentator at ice level. The pair replace 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 th ...

'' duo of

Mike Emrick Michael "Doc" Emrick (born August 1, 1946) is an American former network television play-by-play sportscaster and commentator noted mostly for his work in ice hockey. He was the lead announcer for National Hockey League national telecasts on bot ...

and

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. ...

, whom Ferraro worked with on previous NHL video games. Consequently, the ''NHL on NBC'' graphics package and score bugs have been removed and replaced with a generic EA Sports graphics package and score bug. Cybulski and Ferraro will be joined by other celebrity guests (i.e., rapper

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, ...

) for certain games. Expansion Mode is also available, with the user adding a 32nd team to the league. Although the default team in this mode is named "Seattle 32nd Franchise" (to reflect the real-life

Seattle Kraken The Seattle Kraken are a professional ice hockey team based in Seattle. The Kraken compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and began play during the league's 2021–22 season. ...

that began play in 2021), any city and team name combination can be used, and the league will be realigned accordingly. During the 2019 NHL Awards, EA announced that ''NHL 20'' would be getting a new shooting engine powered by RPM to reflect signature shots of players such as

P. K. Subban Pernell-Karl Sylvester Subban ( ; born May 13, 1989) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. Between 2009 and 2022, he played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, a ...

and

Alexander Ovechkin Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin ( rus, Александр Михайлович Овечкин, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐˈvʲetɕkʲɪn; born 17 September 1985) is a Russian professional ice hockey left winger and captain of the Washington Capita ...

. World of CHEL now has challenges, weekly in-game events and more.

Reception

''NHL 20'' received "generally favorable" reviews for the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, according to

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 D ...

Accolades

The game was nominated for "Sports Game of the Year" at the

23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards The ''23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards'' is the 23rd edition of the D.I.C.E. Awards, an annual awards event that honors the best games in the video game industry. The awards are arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), and were he ...

, and won the award for "Game, Franchise Sports" at the NAVGTR Awards.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NHL 20 EA Sports games Electronic Arts games PlayStation 4 games 2019 video games Video games developed in Canada Xbox One games NHL (video game series) Xbox One X enhanced games