I have never played hockey in my life.

When I first picked up the controller to play NHL 16, it was a nerve-racking experience. I am a sports buff who follows everything from football to golf and from baseball to soccer, but the NHL? It was a foreign concept to me. So imagine my surprise when I played my first game and had an absolute blast.

It all starts with the presentation. Every game feels important to me, and the commentary from Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk carries enough hockey jargon that eventually I began to pick up on the terms. Every arena is lifelike without making you feel as if you must know the environment you are playing in, and the mascots bring back the feel of old NCAA Football titles.

Similarly to FIFA, the game just breathes fun and accessibility. The controls are simple, and the idea of the sport is already so straightforward that the learning curve was not bad at all. The game asks you to have fun with it and take it as seriously as you would like. As a newbie, I'm sure there's probably a point where the more "hardcore" fans hit a wall where they want more tactics and gameplay variety, but so far I have not hit that wall.

To build on that, I feel like the game probably seems doubly good when you don't really understand the concept of puck physics or the in-depth strategy behind passing. While not completely a situation of ignorance meaning bliss, the worst parts of NHL 16 seem to go unnoticed unless you've watched a fair bit of the sport. Passing, while not as precise as it should be for those better at the game, works just fine when you don't know what you're doing.

NHL 16 also boasts an "on-ice" trainer that flashes small bits of help or advice when more complicated situations like face-offs come up. It isn't ideal, and it would be better if there was a fully functional training system, but it helps when you rarely have to go into the menus for help on how to do something. There is little time spent learning the game and more time just experiencing it -- something a series like NBA Live could take note of. (I do know EA is trying to put these in-game tutorial systems in all games, it just seems like NHL went further with it than Live this year.)

Ultimately, NHL 16 feels like a perfect pick up and play title that lets you control how in-depth you want to get with it. It's the game I'm now having the most fun with in a head to head environment, in part because it does not require much background information to get into. It allows you start with the basics and work your way up.

NHL 16 has earned its latest hockey fan.