3 on 3 NHL Arcade

EA Sports, under their more casual light-hearted banner called EA Sports Freestyle, have brought us 3 on 3 NHL Arcade. What do I feel about this game? Well in all honesty it is one extremely frustrating game that left me wanting to check my opponents right out of the ice rink. It is a typical arcade style ice hockey game which allows up to four players offline and six players through Xbox Live. There is not much to this game as there is only one game mode, quick play.

Right from the get go, the controls are hard to get the hang of and the powerups are a little confusing - all due to a lack of tutorials. The controls vary in difficulty depending on your choice of setup. As for the powerups at your disposal, the game offers up Double Score – score twice as much from one goal, Big and Small Goalie – makes your opponent's goalie small or your goalie big, and Super Shot – a powerful shot at goals.

The game is extremely quick and busy and if you don't get the feel for the controls early on, it can be a little frustrating and confusing. However, the no-rule aspect keeps things enjoyable as it's great to see you opponent biting the ice because you hit him from the side.

3 on 3 NHL Arcade feels like there should've been more to it and you tend to get bored of it quickly with just the quick play mode. A nice gesture would have been a small cup league or something just to give the game some variation.

There are 3 skill levels to choose from and 3 kinds of players, either strong, fast or all-round. You can choose how many goals it will take to win the game with a max of 20 goals. The graphics are pretty good with loads of time being taken to get the player reflection on the ice just right, however, the text is small and not user-friendly on standard definition TVs. The characters are rather basic and look like they could fall over any minute, with their small bodies and big heads. They kind of remind me of the bobble head guys in Fallout 3.

Playing online you'll need to be registered on the EA servers. From my experience on a 384kb line, the game felt sluggish at times. Every so often it would pause game play for a split-second, but still very playable online.

This title is very similar to Mario Super Strikers on the Wii, and if you have played that, and liked it, then I am sure you will enjoy this. 3 on 3 NHL Arcade costs 800 MS Points and I feel that if you are into fast paced sports games and you like ice hockey then this game is worth a try. But is it well worth the money? I don't think so. If you are at all interested, I’d suggest trying out the trial game first.

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