Review by: Todd Brakke

NHL Slapshot is not the best hockey game on the market this year. That much is certain. That, however, doesn’t stop it from being a unique and interesting diversion on the Wii, where EA’s excellent NHL 11 is a bit too advanced to tread. From a surprisingly effective hockey stick controller shell to its all-too-enjoyable Peewee to Pro mode, NHL Slapshot is the perfect game for those looking for a throwback to the sort of goodtime hockey many of us grew up playing with the very first iteration of EA’s NHL franchise on the Sega Genesis.

The first big test the game had to pass was making the hockey stick controller shell work as a viable way to play the game and not just a neat gimmick to draw in the kiddos. At this they’ve been surprisingly effective.

Getting your WiiMote (sans WiiMotion Plus) and Nunchuk into the housing can be a bit tricky at first, but once you get the process down, it’s very simple. I had to remove the wrist strap from the WiiMote to keep it out of the way and, ultimately, I got tired of trying to wrap the Nunchuk’s cord inside the “hidden” compartment in the middle of the stick, instead letting it dangle loose. Ideally, you could just leave the Wii controllers in the stick, but you can’t navigate the Wii’s menu to launch the game while the Wiimote is in the stick housing, so even if Slapshot is the only game you play for a month or more, you’ll still have to remove the controller from the housing each time you play just so you can launch the game. It’s annoying, but hardly lethal.

Once you’re actually in the Slapshot interface, the stick assembly is very effective. On the ice a slapshot motion produces a slapshot. A quick wrist flick executes a wrist shot. Checking players requires a cross-check motion. You can even attempt a stick lift motion to separate an opposing player from the puck, although I found this maneuver trickier to execute than the others. Although all of these motions work as they’re intended to in isolation, there are drawbacks to playing the game this way.

First of all, measure your expectations for what you can and can’t do with the stick. The shooting motions work great, but aiming shots, passing, and dekeing are purely-button and controller stick-driven affairs. I can’t help but wonder, if the game had supported the WiiMotion plus, if they couldn’t have done even more with the stick. Just being able to aim your shots based on your shooting motion would’ve been a huge plus.

If you’re the type to play a bunch of games consecutively, which the game design encourages because of the hyper fast gameplay, you’re going to get worn out. You have to keep the stick in front of you in something of a hockey pose, which also means leaning forward a lot at the waist. After a couple days of constant play my back and shoulders were absolutely killing me. Frankly, it’s a relief to have the review done because my back needs the rest at this point.