5. Hockey
by Kaes Delgrego 
{ Aug 4th 2008 at 11:47AM }
Is there anything scarier than 250 pounds of Eastern European muscle barreling towards you, weapon in hands? While most of the other big sports series have made their way to the Wii, waggle-lovers have been deprived of the NHL. When I first learned of the Wii's motion-sensitive controller, I immediately pined for a new type of ice hockey game. Although the beautifully simplistic Ice Hockey for the NES still plays nicely and the 16-bit era of NHL games were marvelous, the best addition to the realm of video ice hockey occured in the previous generation when 2K Games made excellent use of a second analog stick. With a simple flick of the right thumbstick, the player was given complete intuitive control over shots, dekes, and passes.
The idea of making that system even simpler by utilizing motion controls with the Wiimote remind us of why the Wii was created: to simplify and enhance the status quo of gaming. And do we even need to mention the benefit of having a fairly deep combat system readily available for fights? Just start throwing punches! Maybe if you thrust the nunchuk forward and hold in one of the triggers, you can grab your opponent's jersey and attempt to blind him with it. Thankfully, 2K Games has announced NHL 2K9 for the Wii. Although details have yet to be revealed, one can only assume they'll take full advantage of Nintendo's controller. Hopefully, it delivers the goods.
