Legends Come Alive In Video Game

 

Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux are among nine legends included in EA Sports video game franchise NHL 12.


Chris Chelios, Ray Bourque, Jeremy Roenick, Borje Salming, Patrick Roy and Steve Yzerman are the other legends included. Gamers will be able to play with or against the legends as a complete team, or add the legends to any team.

Imagine that - Wayne Gretzky centering the Leafs top line. Blasphemy!

Check out this high quality trailer:



The game is available in Europe on September 9th, and in North America on September 13th. You can pre-order your copy today:

Buy The Game:
Amazon.com - Xbox 360 - PS3
Amazon.ca - Xbox 360 - PS3

A History of Hockey Video Games

Looking to buy a hockey video game? Here is the Amazon.com Video Game Store

NHL Slapshot For Nintendo Wii

Pre-order EA Sports NHL Slapshot for Ninetendo Wii

Hockey Video Games

Next week features one of the most anticipated days on many hockey fans' calendar, for they will release the newest additions to the two very successful hockey video game franchises - EA Sports NHL 11 and 2K Sports' NHL 2k11. And then there's the all new Wayne Gretzky endorsed NHL Slapshot for the Nintendo Wii - I'll have to try that one out for sure.

Forget about that for just a second though. I want to take you way back to the one of the earliest video games released. From 1981 here is Activision's "Ice Hockey," released for the Atari 2600 gaming console.

Does that not bring back great memories, or what?!

Here's an old television commercial for video game. Check out the primitive graphics:



That's probably the best commercial I've ever seen for a hockey video game! Did anyone notice Phil Hartman?

Also be sure to check out this excellent history of hockey video games.

Pre-Order NHL Slapshot For Nintendo Wii

Pre-order EA Sports NHL Slapshot for Ninetendo Wii

A History of Hockey Video Games

Yesterday was a pretty big day in the hockey video gaming world, as EA Sports NHL 10 and 2K Games NHL 2K10 were both released:



Buy NHL 10 by EA Sports:

Amazon.ca | Playstation 3 or Xbox 360|
Amazon.com | Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 |

Buy NHL 2K10 by 2K Games

Amazon.ca | Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii|
Amazon.com | Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii|

And that's not even why yesterday was such a big day in the history of hockey video games. The reason was because now we have a definitive history of hockey video games courtesy of PensBlog.

They even included my favorite game as a kid: Wayne Gretzky Hockey by Bethesda. PensBlog certainly was not very complimentary of it, calling it so "terrible" that they "want to kill ourselves." I really enjoyed that game, being able to switch from player to player and then demand a pass from the whoever has the puck. My breakout schemes would have made Scotty Bowman proud.

By the way, this Odyssey image to the right is believed to be the first hockey video game.

Check out PensBlog's history of hockey video games today.