Genre: Sports
Year: 2004
Developed by: EA Black Box
Published by: EA Sports
Platforms: PC, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox
#185
Feeling Like: Super Mario Steve
I decided long ago to only include two NHL games on the 500. It seemed pointless to have every EA hockey game from 1992-2010, even ones like NHL’99 which was responsible for the most amount of time I ever played a single sports game. I probably should have at least counted that one, but then why not NHL’98? I did a computer science project on NHL 2000, where’s that entry? NHL 2001 was the first sports game I played online.
And so on.
But NHL 2005 triumphs over them and possibly every other sports game for one single reason.
Free For All.
My GameCube got a ton of work being in Bigelow House from 2002-2005. As far as I know, I was the only one in the entire building with one and greatly encouraged anybody to come play, at any time. Even when I was asleep, I’d leave my door unlocked and often wake up to Fuzzy playing Resident Evil 4 or Trevor and Dan trying to beat the computer on the hardest difficulty with offsides on. I don’t know if they ever won.
My open door policy meant that room 203 was a social hub. I had four controllers (five, actually) so multiplayer games were always at the ready. It didn’t matter what genre, they all got attention: RPGs like Tales of Symphonia, solo efforts like Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker & Ikaruga, or fighting games like Soulcalibur 2 garnered a ton of noise and camaraderie. Gamers and non-gamers alike gathered for digital parties, often prior to going out to the pub on a Friday or Saturday.
Once we discovered Free For All though, that was it. Game Over. Nothing else was to be played, especially among the hockey fans. Getting a group of four to coordinate on a single team was nigh impossible, particularly since everybody wanted to rush up the ice. Nobody could stay in position and could you blame them? Playing conservative defense in an NHL 2005 game is like behaving like a law-abiding citizen in a Grand Theft Auto game. Sure, you can do it…but why?
You play as a single player against three others. Most of the ice surface is completely blocked off – the playing area is just one offensive zone. There’s a goalie in net that will try to stop anything, regardless of who shoots. First to five goals wins. It’s that simple, it’s that easy. And it’s the greatest hockey video game thing ever created.
Once Jason Groom let in on the secret that if you released the speed burst button, your burst would build back up, it was anybody’s game. Trade offs were frequent, it was common to have up to six of us watching the four combatants. No allies, no passing the puck. Oh you could gang up on the leading player, but you were risking your own victory by not focusing on putting the biscuit in the basket.
God, I loved this mode. Especially when I found my spirit animal, Steve Sullivan.
If you’ll remember my Typing of the Dead: Overkill entry, I mentioned how I’m not great at many things, but typing is one of them. Playing Free For All Mode in NHL 2005 with Steve Sullivan is another.
I was tempted to go with Mario since I’m a massive Pittsburgh Penguins fan, but he seemed a bit too slow for this type of fictional hockey. Playmaking and assists were non-existent and I was getting crushed, often. So I switched to the 5 foot 9 Super Saiyan Waterbug himself, Steve Sullivan.
Drafted in the NINTH ROUND (the league only does seven rounds now) in 1994, GMs at the time thought 232 players would be better than him. They look beyond foolish now – every re-draft page I looked at had Steve Sullivan in the Top 20. He went on to accrue 757 points in 1,011 games. Not too shabby.
But in Free For All, he might as well have been the Almighty himself because I was a terror with him. His speed and small stature meant I could zip around like a coked up hedgehog and score at will, dodge checks like I was Bayonetta and hammer the puck home like Ovechkin. I got so much practice in that scoring became impossibly easy. Streak right, slap shot left. Wraprounds. Hail Mary wrist shots from the blue line, cheeky rebounds, and backhands that had no business going in kept going in. I don’t know how, or understand why. When it comes to local, competitive multiplayer I tend to gravitate towards the broken ones, or the cheap ones that soon result in lamentations from my competition. No Oddjob in Goldeneye 007 though, that’s too egregious, even for me.
I started to spot my friends goals. One time I had to use the washroom and instead of pausing, three others just kept playing. I was down 4-3-2-0 upon my return and magically ended up winning. I never let them forget that one.
This is probably why it’s for the best I’m not good at many other things. My ego spirals out of control. But when you’re standing tall against 11 other drunk idiots in residence, all of which want to see you finally go down, you can’t help but feel like you’re 6″10 instead of a 5″9 guy from Timmins, Ontario.
As if the hockey gods couldn’t bestow more glory upon the Almighty Super Steve, he’s also responsible for possibly my favorite sports moment ever. Behold.
I was elated when he played for the Penguins, albeit just for one season. I don’t know why future NHL games didn’t offer this mode, but I doubt it would have gotten as much play from me outside of residence, so I suppose it was a “you had to be there” kind of thing. But when it comes to frantic, amazing, loud, bombastic multiplayer experiences, NHL 2005 takes the crown with Free For All.
The 500 