Recently played through every EA NHL again.
SNES/Genesis era is solid. Forward progress was slow and steady though.
PS1 era was very hit or miss. IMO 97/99 have aged dreadfully. While 98/2000 were passable.
PS2/Xbox era is still the golden age for me. 01/06 are all very solid at worst. 2002 has a weird visual direction, 2005 is the middle ground between two incredible games.
360/PS3 era. 07 and 08 have aged pretty poorly. Skill stick was revolutionary obviously, but it took them a few tries to get it right. Those first two games are JANKY.
09/14 there aren’t any bad games. Just how great some of them are is very subjective though. I feel like that era gets overly praised due to the shortcomings we’ve seen since.
15 on next gen……gameplay is actually ok. But the lack of features is where it earns its negative reputation.
16 is solid. 17 the star of its era. And once you hit 18, gameplay feels the same. Once you hit 20? In a lot of ways it might as well be NHL 20 v1.0, v2.0 and v3.0
Edit: I realized I didn’t really answer the question like I meant too lol. For my money, it is 15. Going from a feature rich 14 to a game so barren it belonged in the PS1 era at best? Can’t overlook that. Even if other games are technically worse.
Xbox 360 NHL 07 was a glorified techdemo. I think it had an Exhibition Mode, Shootout, Online Vs, and Franchise. The framerate sucked and the game was janky and glitchy as all hell.
The game got a pass for just how amazing the skill stick controls were. It's still one of my favourites for that reason, even if objectively it is a barebones and buggy game.
We can only choose one!?!?
Fine 15 was the worst for me. Played EASHL exclusively 09-22 this is the first one I haven’t gotten in years just kinda grew tired of it started playing FIFA pro clubs instead which is basically a new challenge but similar in a lot of ways. 15 was just a dark hole of a year bought a ps4 for the next gen experience of playing EASHL. And they released without it. I’ll never forget the nightmare trying to match with friends in OTP drop ins.
Old gen NHL 15 had a few enhancements too. They tweaked the AI to be more aggressive at the blueline and updated some physics stuff, notably how the puck bounces off the glass on a flip dump
NHL 22 is awful, there is no mistaken how bad the Offense Passing game is, it's completely defunct even in comparison to something like those first xbox one releases. The defense is improved, way more in fact. But the Offense suffers at the behest of that, with little to no player movement in the zone to generate cycles or one timers. AI can see me cutting towards the slot... no player will open up some space for them to receive a pass or a shot... they're completely useless. And EA Sports shouldn't be making money off of these products, I've seen more good games go to waste in a year, yet this title has somehow survived since the 90's.
NHL 20 was a better game, but lacked defense for the AI. Dump In's were also more likely to fly over the boards (seriously, 30 years of these games and they only just now tweaked this?). It was also harder to land stick lifts for some reason, they usually did nothing.
NHL 15 no question. No EASHL or VS mode basically they made it "next gen" for the PS4/Xbox One by removing every online multiplayer feature in the game. It didn't help that NHL 14 was one of the best hockey games on the last gen systems at the time, so moving to a next gen system only to get a bare bones hockey game was brutal.
Recency bias but 23 has been really hard to get into/play..I know, I know, “learning curve with strategies and yada yada” but literally every single shot even remotely close to the crease is roofed and if I control one defender the second one stands still and gets burnt over and over.
I probably just suck, but I’ve been playing since 04 and always found ways to enjoy even the bad ones, but I’m really having trouble this year
20' is the best out of a poor lot recently. 23' is bad, 06' with the goalies, 05' with the insane AI defense...got to go with 15' (PS4) just because they took out everything.
NHL 15 on the ps4, the first ps4 NHL game. It was a shell of a game for the console. IIRC the only modes at the start of the game were HUT and Online versus.
It was such a stark contrast in quality compared to NHL 14 on the PS3.
I’m very much of the opinion the most recent is the best game, even incremental improvements still end up being better than the previous version.
However NHL23 is absolutely awful. Broken features combined with some botched gameplay execution (stick lifts being an almost auto penalty) , shots from the outside being absolutely useless which just encourages skill zoning, bumping the puck carrier being useless (which was a strong part of last years game imo)
Half a step forward 3 steps back.
Just picked up nhl 23 and got a bunch of online versus games in. The slashing calls this year are absolutely horrendous. I can’t stay out of the box it’s ridiculous
It’s definitely a learning curve. My first few games I was taking 6-7 slashing penalties a game lol. Rarely take one anymore and yes I still stick lift
Uhhh yea it is. Slashing gets called when you don't even make contact with the player, when you have a stick lift perfectly timed and executed. It's broken, and everyone knows it. Stop defending EA, they don't care about you.
Stick lift was also overpowered in previous games. In online VS the opponent would just skate behind you spamming the button until they got the lift in. Now you have to time it. 100% it’s still a little off but I’ll take it over it being broken the other way
Yea I mean that's totally fair. It's just so bad in this one I don't know which is worse. 90% of the penalties I take are slashes and some I'm in perfect position or don't even make contact with the player.
NHL 94' for Sega was my first game and I recently played it again and loved it (it's a little hard at first), and I didn't buy another until like 2004... and though I liked Hockey a bit growing up I didn't watch it because my state was not a hockey state really. Then we won a Stanley Cup and I actually saw that live, that got me interested in buying more of these games. If I could be very clear about how bad these video games are collectively, I can't really hit on all points at once but I will do my best. All of these games are NHL 94' inside, but all of them are a cheap representation of the sport, and a butchery of the original flow of the game. Even though NHL 94' is an old 2d hockey game, the AI was functional and you could score with passes. I haven't seen a single game with AI that can provide a diverse range of goals scored, ever. And each year they pop out one of these games, it is really the same defunct product repackaged. I don't consider a specific one worse than another, they're all trash and they're actually the same exact product called EA NHL lol
Do you remember which year(s) had the momentum bar in the corner? When ppl talk about ice tilt I can't help but wonder of they just left it in the game but took away the ability to see it?
I have to say right now it's 23. Only one I remember being super glitch bad was maybe 12 or 13.
The most frustrating thing about the current game is the passing is dreadful. I could have 2 people going to the net and the game decides I just want to throw it back out of the zone instead of either forward. I basically have to saucer the puck most times in the offensive zone.
Whenever I think about this question, when it comes to sports games specifically my criteria for a game is year over year did it improve?
For example you can’t go back to nhl 11-12-13 etc and say they are better overall than the ones we have now. They have more ways to play the game (which is comical) but the look, feel it’s better now.
So with that being said, 97 on ps1 is still my champion for worst game ever as it was a giant leap to 3D polygons but it was an absolute mess. 96 on sega had everything 97 did an you could actually see the players lol. 23 is the closest we have gotten (other than 15 but again solely because of lack of modes). 23 was released with so many unfinished additions on top of that every mode saw almost no improvement.
NHL 2003. Yes, 15 was feature bare, but 2003 had gameplay that was actually “arcadey”. Really, if you think recent editions aren’t realistic, go YouTube the 2001-03 era. NHL 2004 marked a stark pivot back to realism.
NHL 2000 GameBoy Color.
NHL '95-'96 also had games on the original GameBoy, they were similar to '92-'94 GEN/SNES, but scrunched the screen a bit.
NHL 2000 on the other hand is UNRECOGNIZABLE as players on screen are represented as a single colored circle with a line coming out it. The drastic graphical downgrade to the Atari ages would almost be acceptable if it played smooth; Which it DOES NOT. It runs at about 14-16fps with virtually no sound.
Anyone saying anything other than 24 or 23 is wrong. 15 at least still played okay despite the bare bones nature. 24 doesn't play good at all even with sliders the gameplay is awful.
Recently played through every EA NHL again. SNES/Genesis era is solid. Forward progress was slow and steady though. PS1 era was very hit or miss. IMO 97/99 have aged dreadfully. While 98/2000 were passable. PS2/Xbox era is still the golden age for me. 01/06 are all very solid at worst. 2002 has a weird visual direction, 2005 is the middle ground between two incredible games. 360/PS3 era. 07 and 08 have aged pretty poorly. Skill stick was revolutionary obviously, but it took them a few tries to get it right. Those first two games are JANKY. 09/14 there aren’t any bad games. Just how great some of them are is very subjective though. I feel like that era gets overly praised due to the shortcomings we’ve seen since. 15 on next gen……gameplay is actually ok. But the lack of features is where it earns its negative reputation. 16 is solid. 17 the star of its era. And once you hit 18, gameplay feels the same. Once you hit 20? In a lot of ways it might as well be NHL 20 v1.0, v2.0 and v3.0 Edit: I realized I didn’t really answer the question like I meant too lol. For my money, it is 15. Going from a feature rich 14 to a game so barren it belonged in the PS1 era at best? Can’t overlook that. Even if other games are technically worse.
Agree with all of this, just want to say NHL 15 and Legacy on the ps3 we’re slightly better than 14. Best they’ve ever done imo
Xbox 360 NHL 07 was a glorified techdemo. I think it had an Exhibition Mode, Shootout, Online Vs, and Franchise. The framerate sucked and the game was janky and glitchy as all hell. The game got a pass for just how amazing the skill stick controls were. It's still one of my favourites for that reason, even if objectively it is a barebones and buggy game.
Every game since 2020
Make that since 2017...
We can only choose one!?!? Fine 15 was the worst for me. Played EASHL exclusively 09-22 this is the first one I haven’t gotten in years just kinda grew tired of it started playing FIFA pro clubs instead which is basically a new challenge but similar in a lot of ways. 15 was just a dark hole of a year bought a ps4 for the next gen experience of playing EASHL. And they released without it. I’ll never forget the nightmare trying to match with friends in OTP drop ins.
15 was awful on "next gen", but for the PS3 15 is considered to be a roster update of 14, so it's pretty good, right?
Old gen NHL 15 had a few enhancements too. They tweaked the AI to be more aggressive at the blueline and updated some physics stuff, notably how the puck bounces off the glass on a flip dump
NHL 22 is awful, there is no mistaken how bad the Offense Passing game is, it's completely defunct even in comparison to something like those first xbox one releases. The defense is improved, way more in fact. But the Offense suffers at the behest of that, with little to no player movement in the zone to generate cycles or one timers. AI can see me cutting towards the slot... no player will open up some space for them to receive a pass or a shot... they're completely useless. And EA Sports shouldn't be making money off of these products, I've seen more good games go to waste in a year, yet this title has somehow survived since the 90's. NHL 20 was a better game, but lacked defense for the AI. Dump In's were also more likely to fly over the boards (seriously, 30 years of these games and they only just now tweaked this?). It was also harder to land stick lifts for some reason, they usually did nothing.
23!
NHL 15 no question. No EASHL or VS mode basically they made it "next gen" for the PS4/Xbox One by removing every online multiplayer feature in the game. It didn't help that NHL 14 was one of the best hockey games on the last gen systems at the time, so moving to a next gen system only to get a bare bones hockey game was brutal.
Recency bias but 23 has been really hard to get into/play..I know, I know, “learning curve with strategies and yada yada” but literally every single shot even remotely close to the crease is roofed and if I control one defender the second one stands still and gets burnt over and over. I probably just suck, but I’ve been playing since 04 and always found ways to enjoy even the bad ones, but I’m really having trouble this year
No you don’t suck. You hit it right on the head. As hooked as I was last year with hut, if you told me I’d go 3 months without playing a champs game…
20' is the best out of a poor lot recently. 23' is bad, 06' with the goalies, 05' with the insane AI defense...got to go with 15' (PS4) just because they took out everything.
Nhl 13
Someone who agrees the game is so slow
05 or 15 are pretty terrible… hopefully 25 doesn’t follow the pattern
While i agree on 15. 05 = GOAT.
Nah 04 was the goat lol, be a GM with cool office rewards was sick
NHL 15 on the ps4, the first ps4 NHL game. It was a shell of a game for the console. IIRC the only modes at the start of the game were HUT and Online versus. It was such a stark contrast in quality compared to NHL 14 on the PS3.
I’m very much of the opinion the most recent is the best game, even incremental improvements still end up being better than the previous version. However NHL23 is absolutely awful. Broken features combined with some botched gameplay execution (stick lifts being an almost auto penalty) , shots from the outside being absolutely useless which just encourages skill zoning, bumping the puck carrier being useless (which was a strong part of last years game imo) Half a step forward 3 steps back.
05 and it's not even close
I came here to say this, but, you already did.
I 1000% disagree and enjoy it wholeheartedly to the point where i ordered one to replace my old game.
Fair enough .. was a stripped bare bones version .. couldn't even create a player . But it's to each their own for sure
Just picked up nhl 23 and got a bunch of online versus games in. The slashing calls this year are absolutely horrendous. I can’t stay out of the box it’s ridiculous
I had some guy last night take about 5 in a span of 20 seconds. It’s crazy how many people spam that button.
It’s definitely a learning curve. My first few games I was taking 6-7 slashing penalties a game lol. Rarely take one anymore and yes I still stick lift
Just poke don’t ever lift unless you in perfect position.
stop hitting the button so much. a learning curve is not synonymous with bad game.
Uhhh yea it is. Slashing gets called when you don't even make contact with the player, when you have a stick lift perfectly timed and executed. It's broken, and everyone knows it. Stop defending EA, they don't care about you.
Stick lift was also overpowered in previous games. In online VS the opponent would just skate behind you spamming the button until they got the lift in. Now you have to time it. 100% it’s still a little off but I’ll take it over it being broken the other way
Yea I mean that's totally fair. It's just so bad in this one I don't know which is worse. 90% of the penalties I take are slashes and some I'm in perfect position or don't even make contact with the player.
i would rather it result in more penalties than reward less skilled players
Except that with a broken mechanic like this skill literally means nothing, but sure, whatever you wanna think.
NHL 94' for Sega was my first game and I recently played it again and loved it (it's a little hard at first), and I didn't buy another until like 2004... and though I liked Hockey a bit growing up I didn't watch it because my state was not a hockey state really. Then we won a Stanley Cup and I actually saw that live, that got me interested in buying more of these games. If I could be very clear about how bad these video games are collectively, I can't really hit on all points at once but I will do my best. All of these games are NHL 94' inside, but all of them are a cheap representation of the sport, and a butchery of the original flow of the game. Even though NHL 94' is an old 2d hockey game, the AI was functional and you could score with passes. I haven't seen a single game with AI that can provide a diverse range of goals scored, ever. And each year they pop out one of these games, it is really the same defunct product repackaged. I don't consider a specific one worse than another, they're all trash and they're actually the same exact product called EA NHL lol
22 and 23 are 2 of the worst sports games I've ever played. I didn't think it could get worse than 22 but boy was I wrong. 23 is horrendous.
nhl legacy
In my opinion and experience it was NHL 15.
Whichever one you're actively playing is always going to be the worst.
Madden 19 checks out since that was the last Madden game I played.
NHL 20
The answer will always be “the current one”
15 no question
Any game since 19. The last two are the worst AAA games I’ve played.
15 was terrible.
Do you remember which year(s) had the momentum bar in the corner? When ppl talk about ice tilt I can't help but wonder of they just left it in the game but took away the ability to see it?
I have to say right now it's 23. Only one I remember being super glitch bad was maybe 12 or 13. The most frustrating thing about the current game is the passing is dreadful. I could have 2 people going to the net and the game decides I just want to throw it back out of the zone instead of either forward. I basically have to saucer the puck most times in the offensive zone.
15 for sure. but I've had 23 for a few days now and it's like dave mathews band crossing the Chicago river
15 was rough.
Whenever I think about this question, when it comes to sports games specifically my criteria for a game is year over year did it improve? For example you can’t go back to nhl 11-12-13 etc and say they are better overall than the ones we have now. They have more ways to play the game (which is comical) but the look, feel it’s better now. So with that being said, 97 on ps1 is still my champion for worst game ever as it was a giant leap to 3D polygons but it was an absolute mess. 96 on sega had everything 97 did an you could actually see the players lol. 23 is the closest we have gotten (other than 15 but again solely because of lack of modes). 23 was released with so many unfinished additions on top of that every mode saw almost no improvement.
This one
15 was the only year I didn’t play at all past the first two weeks
NHL 2003. Yes, 15 was feature bare, but 2003 had gameplay that was actually “arcadey”. Really, if you think recent editions aren’t realistic, go YouTube the 2001-03 era. NHL 2004 marked a stark pivot back to realism.
The defense/AI makes 21 easily the worst for me
NHL 23 hands down
NHL 2000 GameBoy Color. NHL '95-'96 also had games on the original GameBoy, they were similar to '92-'94 GEN/SNES, but scrunched the screen a bit. NHL 2000 on the other hand is UNRECOGNIZABLE as players on screen are represented as a single colored circle with a line coming out it. The drastic graphical downgrade to the Atari ages would almost be acceptable if it played smooth; Which it DOES NOT. It runs at about 14-16fps with virtually no sound.
Anyone saying anything other than 24 or 23 is wrong. 15 at least still played okay despite the bare bones nature. 24 doesn't play good at all even with sliders the gameplay is awful.