Product ReviewsNHL 07 (Sony PlayStation 2, 2006)

NHL 07 by EA.

EA Sports are the best sports games and this one doesn't let them down. It has great graphics and is a lot of fun. I once bought a Gretzky hockey game just to have around when in a hockey mood and it was cheap. It was a pretty lame game. This one is a far better upgrade. Even my girl, who couldn't care less about sports video games, can tell it is higher quality.

As I said, the graphics are great. It took a little time to get used to the buttons, so I was getting spanked for a bit (it is really easy to accidentally take control of the goalie and move him out of position). Now it is a lot of fun. There are different levels of difficulty, so there's room for this game to grow. All in all it's a good game so far and should keep me busy for quite a while.Read full review...

Mediocre, but still fun

NHL 07 on Playstation 2 is an okay hockey game. On the XBOX 360 version of this game, commentary comes from Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, who were great announcers when working with ESPN and ABC. Instead of those two, we get okay Play-by-Play commentary from Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson. They're not bad, but compared to Gary and Bill, they're quite dull.

As far as gameplay goes, when you first play the game, it will feel like the controls are slippery. If you want to make a hit, you have to be extremely accurate in checking your opponent; several times, you will end up missing an opponent on a one-on-one situation and give your opponent a breakaway chance. Sometimes, when you're on a partial breakaway and you want to shoot, an opponent ends up stealing the puck from you before you can even get a shot off. Also, the players have a really hard time finding the net, especially on slap shots. If Don Taylor from NHL 2002 were announcing in this game, you would hear him say "If the object of this game was to completely miss the net, that would have been a heck of a shot!" about five times during the course of a game.

Also about the shooting, there are TWO shoot buttons in this game. One shoot button (R2) represents a wrist shot. The other shoot button (R1) has two types of shots assigned to it: a snap shot and a slap shot. A snap shot is taken when you tap the R1 button, but when you hold the R1 button, you take a slap shot. It gets too confusing to decide what kind of shot you want to take when there are THREE kinds of shots to choose from. I would much rather have just one shoot button and just the two regular kinds of shots (slap and wristshots).

The fighting in this game (not that I want to encourage you to do it in real life) can get a little frustrating. There are no health bars like in a real fighting game, and really, the only way you can tell who's winning the fight is by seeing whose helmet comes off first. It's a dirty job, but winning fights gives momentum to your team.

But what's REALLY frustrating in this game is the opponents' ability to score goals compared to your ability. You could take 50 shots on goal in the game and still end up losing if the other team just takes 5 shots on goal. Sometimes, your goalie will let in easy shots they should have stopped. Many times, your shots will hit the post or get saved.

Nevertheless, NHL 07 is pretty fun to play. The celebrations are a little dull and somewhat repetitive. Even for a player like Alexander Ovechkin, you still don't see the excitement of hockey players when they score in real life (and if you've seen Ovechkin score a goal on TV or in real life, then you'll know what I'm talking about). At least this game better than NHL 08 on PS2, which is basically NHL 07 with a roster update (unless if you get the XBOX Live version of NHL 08, then that's a different story).Read full review...

NHL 07 is a great game just like their past versions.

I have played many past EA sports NHL games. NHL 07’s gameplay is still as fun as the past games, but it seems they didn’t change too much from the older versions. They have changed the controls of passing and shooting. At first I didn't like the change, but quickly got used to it. After using the new controls, the game feels a bit smoother and easier to setup passes to your teammates. The rosters are pretty updated, but there are still some that need to be manually moved. The biggest downfall in this game is the artificial intelligence. It seems that easy is easy, normal is easy, and difficult is close to normal. I played my first game on normal and won. The second time I played the game, I started a season on the hardest level and I average over 8 goals a game. The goalies in this game do not do a very good job defending the goal. My goalie gives up a lot of goals as well, but I still win by a football game margin. There are some questionable things in this game, but for a regular price of $29.99, every hockey fan should get it.Read full review...

NHL 07 or NHL 06?

NHL 07... or NHL 06?

It's a decent game but it doesn't grow on past successes, that makes it a let down for me.

The Demo Video said the game would change the way you look at NHL video games. All new controls, better goaltenders, no speed burst, realistic puck movement, super intense dynasty mode and much more...

What the Demo video forgot to mention was that all of this was only available on the X-Box 360. There is no dual joystick puck control, the right joystick is now used for passing the puck, which I actually enjoy, but it isn't a necessary change to the game. The goaltenders are a little better, as they do not flop around like they did in 06, there is still speed burst just like in 06. The puck movement isn't as realistic as the Xbox 360 version, but sometimes that's a good thing. I've seen goals go in that were cosmically impossible on the Xbox 360. But at least on the Xbox 360 you can't skate to the left face-off dot, take a slapshot and have it go in 50% of the time. The dynasty mode is terrible. Again you can put a custom made team in Dynasty mode, that's cool. The problem however is that you cannot change ticket prices, you never get offered a new tv contract (Always one of the lowest grossing teams in the league), and you have unbelievable expectations from your GM eveyr year (160pts, 5 trophies, win the Stanley Cup). The Create-a-Player screen is the exact same. I'd rather have more than 4 hair colour/style options, than the ability to add scars. I'm starting to ramble on a bit, but I'm still upset that I spent $35 on this NHL 06 Knock-off.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:
- If you're good at NHL 06, you'll be jsut as good at NHL 07
- Updated Music
- Updated Roster
- Hockey is the Best Sport Ever
- New Shootout Mini Game Mode
- Right Joystick Passing
Cons:
- Goaltenders still aren't very good
- Gameplay doesn't make sense (Sometimes the other team is so bad it hurts, 3 minutes later they skate through all 5 of your players, make 36 passes and score 15 goals)
- Right Joystick Passing (Sorry, but I'd still rather have right joystick stick control)
- Dynasty Mode
- Fighting hasn't changed in 5 years
- New Mini Game shots selection (Instead of goals, it's which player gets the most shots in the alotted time, however, after playing it twice, once by myself and once with a friend, I found out that nothing counts as a shot)
- Mini Game shot mode also available in Shootouts (WTF???, how can you have a shot game in a shootout, each player gets one shot!)
- Nothing in the Commercials say that the new features are only available on Xbox 360
- Players faces have stayed the same since NHL 2002

Final Verdict:

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this game, mainly because I was good at it right from the start. But I was so dissapointed with the fact that it was just NHL 06 with 5 new features. If you have a friend with an Xbox 360, go halfers on the game with him and start spending more time eating dinner at his house. If not, wait until it goes on sale for $9.95 before buying it. I'm not saying the game isn't fun. It's just not worth more than $10 in my eyes.

PLEASE VOTE IF YOU FIND THIS REVIEW HELPFUL. Thank you.Read full review...

EA Sports NHL 2007

Overall it's a pretty good game. The graphics are good, the action is close to the real thing. There's several different camera modes you can choose from, i.e. ice level, broadcast, etc. I've only been playing it in season mode so I can't comment on the others. If you're familiar with EA Sports games you know how they change things, some for the better but at the expense of leaving out the best parts of ealier versions?Read full review...

Nice.

In the past year's time I have logged countless hours playing this game. It's a blast to play against another person. The gameplay is so intense, just like the real sport. NHL 07 for PS2 uses it's simplicity to its advantage. Unlike the 360 version, this game has a slightly more unrealistic feel. But the scoring options are right on. Hard slappers from the point, crafty dekes and one-timers are all gold. I would recomend changing the controls back to basic. Otherwise, this game is just solid. You might find yourself getting in tune with any number of the NHL teams. Thats the real beauty of the game. There are different kinds of players who can score goals in their own way. BUY BUY BUY! This game is one for the collection.Read full review...

EA's Hockey Games Suck!!! Boycott EA!!! Buy NHL 2K7!!!

This is the worst hockey game that has ever come out. The team rosters are from last year. They had to change the control scheme to confuse everyone. Graphics and gameplay suck!!! When you score a goal in Joe Louis Arena playing as the Detroit Red Wings, the goal horn does not sound like the real thing!!! NHL 2K7 has the real authentic goal horns. Not to mention they say that this game is revolutionary, when in reality, its just like last years game. I suggest a boycott on all Electronic Arts Games and support 2K Sports, as they have the most realistic sports games on the market at a cheaper price!!! Don't buy NHL 07, its a waste of money!!!Read full review...

Good!

It works very good! Shipping took a long time though, but the game is great!

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: yourgamingshop

Great Game!!!

Great Game!!! Will buy next years edition. Let's Go Pens!!! Only thing i dont like is that it needs current roster and players in team system.

right on

My son loves the game, and the graphics are great. Looks like you are there in the game as its being played. The game has better graphics than the year before.