I don't know much about ice hockey. For me it's just soccer on ice with a stick, where players can beat each other up. With that in mind, I challenged Tim for a match of hockey.

When selecting teams, it really showed that this game wasn't finished yet. The players were still missing their faces, which looked pretty weird as you can imagine. The actual game itself looked really cool though, you didn't really notice that things needed to be improved. The only that didn't have me impressed was the 2D audience, but overall everything else looked good.

The controls were simple and very smooth. Pressing the A-button made your player shoot for goal, the B-button made a pass, Y made him go faster, and X was used for special moves. When defending, Y and X were used for the well-known bodychecks, or just for hitting your opponent.

The best part is when you break through the defense of your opponent, and it's only you against the keeper. The music becomes thrilling, and everything changes to slow-motion for a couple of seconds. You see the attacking player from the front, slowly moving towards the keeper. Then, everything is normal again, and you can try to score. Very cool, this really adds to the value of the game.

The easy, smooth controls and the good-looking graphics should make this game fun for any gamer, not just hockey fans. Make sure you try it out this October when it's released.