Pick your favorite NHL team then rock and roll. There are no power-ups like in 3 on 3 NHL Arcade or NBA Jam, but there are 3 players on each team plus a goalie, no neutral zone, big hits, snipes, and tons of fun. Most of this year's marketing was geared towards the brand new Threes mode. You, too, will be hip-checking like Andrei Mironov in no time. I wish these changes, among others, were more clearly communicated. It took me a while to figure this out though. Instead of simply clicking in the right stick before making contact with another player, the user must click in the right stick and press L1. For instance, instead of pressing R1 and moving the right stick either left or right for a puck chop, it is now done by pressing in the right stick and moving either left or right.

The addition of this, though, means that some controls are wonky now and hard to find. It really makes you feel in control on defense and the tools are finally there to add that little bit of realism that was lacking in previous games. It allows the player to sweep their stick in front of them while skating backward, aim poke checks, and block passing lanes. The reworked Defensive Skill Stick is one of the most net positive additions to the series in a very long time. Other than those small setbacks, though, the gameplay has been as good or better than in previous iterations with the introduction of the reworked Defensive Skill Stick. There are issues with the user controlled player over-skating the puck when trying to pick it up from open ice, as well as a strange issue with slapshots where the player just completely whiffs sometimes. Star players look like their real-life counterparts. For the most part, there are no complaints here. Adrenaline pumps when a defenseman lands an open-ice banger on an opposing forward.

Ripping a shot from the top of the hash marks top cheese over the goalie's glove still feels great. It felt mostly the same as 15 and 16, which is not necessarily a bad thing. As a seasoned veteran to the NHL franchise, the gameplay felt very familiar to me. I was also greeted with a Draft Champions mode and Threes, but I'll get to those later. Play Now, EASHL, HUT, and all of the other regular modes were still there. I skipped NHL 17 and was planning on skipping this years edition too until one day, it appeared in my inbox. 10 years of the skill stick, franchise mode, and Be-A-Pro (I realize the mode was introduced in 2009) was enough for me. As someone who had bought every EA NHL game from 2005 to 2016, I had had enough.

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