Making a successful team sports game doesn't seem inherently harder to do on the Wii than on other consoles, but as Madden and NBA Live development teams can attest, it's much more difficult in practice than it is in theory. When researching successful sports games on the platform like Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Wii Sports, EA Canada creative director David Littman found an underlying common trait. “The best sports games on the Wii are games where you’re one character doing the same exact motion as real life,” he states.
Many EA employees scoffed at the idea of holding a small plastic hockey stick to play NHL on the Wii, but Littman commissioned a third-party company to build a prototype hockey stick peripheral anyway and brought it to the studio. After only a few minutes with the stick, suddenly naysayers were turned into believers.
The black Reebok-branded stick features housing for the Wii remote toward the bottom of the shaft and the nunchuk near the top. The stick controls work as one would expect; making a cross check motion results in a check, and slapshot motion shoots the puck. The nunchuk’s analog stick controls player movement, and passing is relegated to the B button. “The gameplay is going to be super fun and casual, but still based on realism and authenticity,” says Littman. “The stick brings that.” Since both the nunchuk and Wii remote are on the same plane, they can work in tandem to accurately register your movements, which Littman says eliminates the need for the Wii MotionPlus attachment. You can also play without the peripheral if you prefer.
We only got our hands on the game for a few minutes, but the gameplay offers a low barrier of entry. Within a few minutes we were lining up one-timers and sending our foes into the boards. Compared to its sim-focused counterpart on the other consoles, Slapshot feels more arcade-like, featuring laser shots, bigger checks, and floaty skating more akin to the Genesis-based NHL games.
Many Wii sports games lose the interest of enthusiasts when they gut the deep game modes found on other consoles in favor of simple-to-play minigames.To avoid this pitfall, NHL Slapshot is offering Pee Wee to Pros mode, a full Be A Pro offering that chronicles your rise through Pee Wees, Bantams, Juniors, and the NHL. When you’re skating on the ponds in Pee Wee hockey, your character looks like a wobbly-kneed kid swimming in his hockey gear. These early games are three-on-three, but you’ll only be playing a handful of games as a tyke, and as you climb up to the elder leagues your player grows into his skates and the games become traditional five-on-five affairs.
The default player for Pee Wee to Pro mode is cover athlete Wayne Gretzky, but you can edit your player name and choose your equipment just like in the other NHL games. As your hockey career advances, scoring goals and earning good grades awards you with attribute points and boosts that can help you take your game to the next level. Throughout your career, a local reporter chronicles your accomplishments, and coaches school you on the finer points of hockey.
To meet the unofficial Nintendo mandate, NHL Slapshot also features four minigames for quick pick-up-and-play fun. Though EA chose to forego an online mode, the game includes exhibition, season, and playoff modes for fans who want the full team experience.
Check back at the site as we move closer to the September 7 release date for more hands-on impressions of EA Canada’s debut Wii hockey game.