ESPN NHL 2K5

ESPN NHL 2K5

Martin St. Louis on the cover of ESPN NHL 2K5
Developer(s) Kush Games
Publisher(s) Sega
Distributor(s) ESPN
Series NHL 2K
Platform(s) PlayStation 2, Xbox
Release date(s)
  • NA 30 August 2004
  • PAL 4 February 2005
Genre(s) Traditional ice hockey simulation

ESPN NHL 2K5 is an ice hockey simulation made by ESPN Videogames (now 2K Games) and published on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles. ESPN's Gary Thorne on play-by-play commentary and Bill Clement on color commentary calls all the action. This is also the last NHL Game to be published by Sega.

Gameplay

The game includes an extensive franchise mode where you can perform many team management functions, including hiring staff, managing player contracts, scouting new players and sending players back to minor teams for training. It also includes more traditional game modes like season, playoffs, exhibition and shootout. The game manual is also built into the software.

The 2004's edition of the game also introduces an advanced control setting which allows much more flexible control of your player, using the entire control pad rather than only a few buttons.

The cover of ESPN NHL 2K5, features Tampa Bay Lightning's Martin St. Louis.

Reception

The game received strong reviews from critics. It received a score of 86 out of 100 on Metacritic.[1] IGN gave the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions a 9.2/10, calling it the "best current-gen hockey game" that they had played.[2]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack, known in-game as arena music, can also be customizable to the extent that certain arenas can play certain songs at certain times (for example, if the visiting team gets a penalty or when the home team scores a late go-ahead goal).

Controls

The controls in the game allow you to have full stick control on both offense and defense. On the offensive side you can control your dekes by moving the right analog stick. This does a deke in the direction the analog stick was pushed. Also on offense when you want to deke out a goalie you hold the preset button(ex: for Advance hold L1+O)and move the stick with the left analog stick and then release to shoot. This provides for exciting dekes, but also on offense you can protect the puck from poke-checking defensemen by hold circle and choosing where you want to protect it with the analog stick. On the other side the defensive stick control allows you to skate backwards and also swing your stick across the ice to hit the puck away from the opposing player.

See also

References

  1. "ESPN NHL 2K5". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  2. Goldstein, Hilary. "ESPN NHL 2K5". IGN. Retrieved 5 May 2014.

External links

Preceded by
ESPN NHL Hockey
ESPN NHL 2K5
2004
Succeeded by
NHL 2K6