Have you ever played NHL 2K10 for the PS2? That game has everything a Hockey fan could want, Deep Franchise Mode, Create a Team, with Colors, City and Logo options, Realistic Player Behavior, Unlockables, Classic Teams and Classic Sweaters, The Fighting is realistic, defensive positioning, I could go on and on, but you get the Point. I still play my PS2 offering to this day.
@@mylitcig1116 I guess more sad. This generation laid the ground work for great sports games for the future & yet the developers got rid of the features to add junk micro transactions or to bring them back as new features.
Yes and on those games, throwback jerseys and legends were not blocked by a pay wall. DLC should've never been things that were available free on previous year's games. I really started to resent gaming during the 360 years.
@@j.peters1222 might be 2k5 you're thinking of.. I remember loving the NFL 2K5, there were mini games, a crib with a trophy room. Was jus a dope game *edit After watching more of the video I'm glad he brought the crib feature up and the mini games lol
I loved 2K3-2K5. I really miss the days of competition in the sports game genre. Everyone loses when there is only one developer putting out game. It´s a sad reality with the increasing costs of game development, specially in sports where there is such a demand for high quality graphics and life-like players with the correct face on them. Hoping we will see indie developers putting out high quality hockey games in the future, like football (gridiron, not soccer) games have started getting. We wont see a NHL license but we just might survive that. Competition would do us all good.
So that's the main reason we don't have competition in the 4 major sports? Costs? That's just awful with all the talent out there. I also hear MLB itself ordered cross play for multiple consoles. Just sad.
I don’t think competition would do any good sadly. If indie developers were to make unlicensed games, they wouldn’t do much of a dent to force EA or 2K to change anything with their games. If 2K and EA were competing against each other…well just look at the recent times when NBA Live made a comeback. Both companies made shitty series. They know they’re going to make money regardless of the quality.
9:18, i agree, what you said about nhl 2k5, it also features dream team mode, where you can hit the ice with the nhl elite as you take on a ladder of all star teams hand selected by hockey finest including, martin st louis, mats sundin, marty turco, brendan shanahan and more, party mode, you play the battle mode, and playthrough 15 multi player mini games, challenges all in the name of becoming the king of the rink, there also arcade style, elimination mode, pond hockey, mini rink, intense contact controls, 3rd person fighting engine, bigger checks, new contact moves, heritage classic, it had a ton of depth, its a insane jump from nhl 2k4, this is one of the greatest nhl ice hockey video game, ever made, i would like to see espn nhl 2k5, retrospective.
I remember getting NHL 2k10 during Halloween because Ove lived near us and with him being the cover star had like thousands of those games and instead of candy he gave us copies of both NHL and NBA 2k10. Looking back on it, it's pretty neat and wonder if Kobe did the same thing or if cover athletes do that shit today?
So glad to see this series getting some love. I played the hell out of NHL2K3 and ESPN NHL Hockey. Great games. Sadly, I dropped out of the series before 2K8, so I've never played that or later ones. Thank you for doing this vid. There's so little content on these games it's good to see this vid.
Tougie24 (as seen at 17:18) is such a fan of NHL2K10 that he did 2 full 82-game season series on his channel. 1st with Philadelphia where he traded for Kovalchuk and renamed him Philya Kovaldoop and the 2nd which is currently ongoing on Twogie24 is an Ottawa series where the goal is to get Alfredsson and Heatley a Stanley Cup
I remembered playing the NHL2k11 Game simply for its gameplay, fun modes, and the mode I most remembered is “Road to the Cup.” Which ironically is one of the main inspirations for an irl event I held with my family every December. Fun memories!
I have no doubt the realism of an NHL 2k game in 2022 would be insane.... could you imagine the atmosphere they would've presented for playoff games. I remember playing NHL 2k10 and having a blast.... A kid who lived in Cleveland Ohio, the only sports I ever played being Baseball, Football, and Basketball and my only knowledge of being on ice was going to my local skating rink around winter I HAD A GODDAMN BLAST PLAYING A HOCKEY GAME...
2k5 was so fun , I played a demo of it on a PlayStation magazine demo disc and made me a fan of hockey . In middle school I would play this game at the boys and girls club with a staff member and kept beating him it was such good times
I loved the nhl 2k games as a kid. My first game for the Wii was NHL 2k9. It had everything, even more features on the wii compared to the 360/ps3 version. The one things that I also liked were the goal horns since nhl 2k4 had the actual goal horns of most of the NHL teams and at that it was amazing. I wish they had more games afterwards.
Back then I preferred EA over 2K but I still bought 2K because I was such an NHL video game fanatic. Everyone as a kid was looking forward to the future with future powerful consoles and how amazing “real life” hockey would be…man how disappointed my young self would be looking at the market.
Thank you for covering the NHL 2K series. I love your videos, they have a documentary style that I can’t get enough of. Would you ever consider covering the NHL Hitz series?
Fantastic video, thank you for doing such a deep dive into this. It's crazy to see how much a "rivalry" can produce such great games by wanting to win over the masses. I can only imagine what kind of features the games would have nowadays if both companies had a loyal fanbase. Guarantee HUT would be a lot lower on the priority list, that's for sure! Also, I still can't believe that the crowds in 2K games are better optimized than NHL 22 on PS5. Absolutely nuts.
NHL 04 had the best crowds in hockey game history and I don’t think it’s close… chanting the team’s name/nickname, chanting “we want the cup” in the finals, being loud in general, etc
Nice to see you here J1mmy, I also wish that we could’ve seen what we could’ve been playing with these two companies battling it out every year and having more and more new features.
Agreed. Very good video. Sports games, same thing as a lot of things in this world, are ruined by capitalism. People think 'competition is great', but they forget or don't know that what EA did to monopolize the market of hockey games IS part of the incentives of free market capitalism. The freedom to take over and then lower quality and produce stupid little microtransaction games within the game. Collaboration to make the best possible hockey game would be much better, especially if it was open-sourced meaning the fans would get a say in the features they have been asking for for so many years. All those features that have been taken out could be quickly put back in. And instead of buying a new $70 game each year as a roster and team update - a free DLC of a roster/team update could be provided each year. Then a more significant update every 4-6 years. But, of course, that would destroy the capitalist profit motive and thus why we can't have great things very often. But that gets down to a system level problem. Sorry to get a little philosophical and technical on everyone. It just gets me a bit sad to think how of much better we could all have it with a resource-based economy instead of what we have now.
@@coolioso808 People rarely work on things for free. Back then consumers had a higher standard for products, but now as you see with modern Madden they don’t give a shit anymore.
@@theobserver4214 Oh the lovely "invisible hand of the market" thy God is the only way to organize human society, right? We can't have people actually working on things because they are passionate about it, right? We can't organize by Natural Law on the things we really need to produce and distribute them efficiently. No, no, that would be madness. Let's continuing this monetary-market system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the masses actually don't think the system is a problem, they keep blaming small entities that they think are just 'not working right'.
Man, I remember having 21-19 scorelines with my buddy for the 2K games. Defense was optional and the old ESPN commentary was an absolute hoot. Thanks for the rush of nostalgia with this video!
2K's goaltending was a little bit TOO good. I remember playing against a friend, and the game only being 2-1 (Overtime) despite us both having over 70 shots...
@@brendan9868 yeah i hate that the "best" goalie has a save% of 900 or just over and most have like 880 at the end of a season and the best gaa is like 2.50, its so unrealistic xd. i loved when goalies had realistic stats
@@brendan9868 ...what? I haven't played NHL 22 in a hot minute but I always feel like there are 3-4 goalies a year with a .910+ SV%. I've been playing NHL 12 a bit recently and that game genuinely does have a goalie problem where guys like Roberto Luongo will win 45 games in a season with a .888 SV% but I've felt as if the recent games do alright with at least simulated goalie realism.
Played 2k10 a few years ago after getting bored of the modern EA games and immediately had a CPU pull the Forsberg on me. It's insane what these games had back then
I don't think I ever played 2K8 but I wish I did. The gameplay is great, it looks very immersive. The rink size and camera is perfect. It sucks EA don't have any competition anymore.
NHL 2K needs to make a comeback fr. Heres my wishlist for NHL 2k: -Historic jerseys -Historic draft classes -Classic and decade teams -ERAS mode (Play in the 70s 80s 90s and so on) -Heavy metal/hard rock soundtrack -Huge customization for rosters, players, franchise mode, arenas, etc -Zamboni mode between periods
After purchasing the EA NHL games since the first one on the Genesis, I switched over to 2K with NHL 2K5 and was instantly blown away by the depths of its gameplay. Till this day, I still believe that NHL 2K8 is the greatest hockey videogame of all time with unrivaled Goalie mechanics and puck physics. I played its franchise mode for so long that I actually broke the game. I begrudgingly went back to EA after NHL 2K9. Eventually, I just stopped buying hockey games altogether after NHL 20. A real shame what happened to both series.
Oh gosh if 2k released NHL now it would be amazing. Imagine franchise mode all set up like MYNba. It’s would be so in-depth and have so much too it. Even BAP
How did you forget in nhl 2k6 The commentary in franchise mode would do fan mail questions when idling from a pause the game just like the real life hockey night in Canada broadcasters would do I thought that was an insane detail growing up And personally I think NHL 2K six had a great commentary as it Had the hockey night in Canada crew
2K5, 2K6 and 2K7 were the first NHL games I ever owned and I played them all the time on my old reliable crystal case Xbox. I’ll never forget listening to the tutorial videos with the voices of Peter O’Keefe and Dan Stevens, explaining in detail how to play the game. That goes for ESPN NFL 2K5 as well. It’s 2024 now and I haven’t played another NHL game since those old 2K games, but want to get back into NHL games. But sadly it seems the modern EA ones aren’t even worth trying.
as a kid i got a copy of 2K5 as part of a combo deal they did with NBA 2K5 and at that point my knowledge of hockey went as far as the Mighty Duck movies. However, despite that and despite me barely knowing the rules of hockey the franchise mode and customisation options meant that i ended up spending the majority of my time on NHL 2K5! One of the most fun sporting game experiences i had in my childhood for sure
Soft drink tv, 3 retrospective I want to see is, ESPN NHL 2k5, the greatest NHL 2k video game ever, NHL 07, the game that introduced the skill stick, and NHL 08, continued evolution of the skill stick, combined with new skating engine, 1on1 loose puck deking system, create custom plays, creation zone includes Create a player, edit player, create a team, edit team and goalie mode, I really want to see these 3 future retrospective videos please.
Fantastic video! I miss NHL 2K SO MUCH! I’m a massive hockey fan but I haven’t touched a hockey game since 2K stopped producing the series. Would love to see 2K make more sports games period.
I remember playing this with my buddy on his sega Dreamcast and honestly it was a waaaaay better game than EA. I played hockey, and 2K felt so much closer to the actual game, as far as a video game can.
The entire 2k5 lineup of games (nhl, nba, nfl, mlb) changes sport games forever in my eyes. To me it’s the greatest overall generation of sports games.
I only had 2k11 and didn't play a new nhl game until nhl 22, lots of changes but I really liked 2ks season mode and the commentary was way better than what it is now I also liked how you could zamboni the ice between periods. It also had achievements related to all the teams
Not every gaming industry have those problems, to be fair it is a company so without profit there is no company no matter if the game plays good or not, they bottom line is does it sell if not then cancel because the company doesn't get anything in return but wasting their money
I personally am an NHL Faceoff guy, I still loved NHL2K as a Sega fan. NHL 2K6 on 360 is my personal favorite due to it's "targeting system" for goals. Funnily enough, I bought my first of 3 Dreamcasts (they all still work fine) 3 days before NHL 2K2 released. Will we be getting an NHL Faceoff video anytime? Faceoff 99 was AWESOME!!!!
The one feature that killed the NHL 2K game franchise: CINEMOTION! Kidding though that feature really was useless. I think it was in 2K9. I do miss these games though. Played every NHL 2K games from 2K3 to 2K10. I actually liked it better than EA NHL's series for a few years. RIP NHL 2K series. You are dearly missed.
There is another NHL game called Hockey Franchise Manager, but it's literally what it sounds like, a franchise manager. From what I have seen, you don't actually play you're just a gm.
You're a GM and coach. But no, you don't actually play the game. Still, the depth is unparalleled; I'm currently using the Senators starting in 1991 with the expansion draft and seeing how quick I can build a winner.
TL;DR, The best times to have bought any sports games were from 2000-2008, since that was when all the competition was around. There is now no more competition for NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB games. That is kinda what I got from watching loads of your videos.
NHL2K now would be so sick with career mode, imagine something around world of chel but there’s a whole city you can explore. Much better than what world of chel is today imo.
2K7 had one of the greatest soundtracks ever. Before internet roster updates I made trades myself if not in Franchise. So you heard the songs a lot, and got attached
I really miss the days of the 2k sim focused games it was such a good counter to the casual friendly games of EA. It really brought out the best of both companies
As a Wii owner, I was over the moon when 2k finally brought hockey to the Wii, and it was damn good. Wish they’d have stuck around, or at least stuck to exclusively dropping hockey games for Nintendo consoles.
5:19 *It was the last game released for the Dreamcast in North America. Karous (2007) was the last officially released Dreamcast game in Japan. Heavy Metal:Geomatrix Evil Twin (both released on the same day in 2002) were the last officially released Dreamcast games in PAL regions. Sorry for the pedantry. Love your videos!
I still have my copy of NHL2K9 for the ps3, It’s one I still from time to time still play mainly because the presentation just feels nostalgic. (Plus I was able to get my copy signed by Nash before he left to the Rangers)
One thing I like to do is go to a local used games store and pick up a bunch of old sports games for my 360. Sports games are generally dirt cheap for obvious reasons, but I've always liked checking out the older sports games compared to the newer ones. I always found that the 2K games controlled better in my opinion. Specifically 2K8 which I had a lot of fun with. I wish the modern EA sports games weren't soulless cash grabs anymore.
Got 2k10 for Christmas when I was 5 or 6. Didn’t play it until 11-12, I started getting into rosters and jerseys and now I’ve poured hundreds of hours of roster customization into that game. I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth for it.
