NHL 09 is the favorite to win my personal Game of the Year award at this point. Unless one of the NBA games comes and knocks it off next month (I’m looking at you 2K9), the race is already over. We can leave the argument for MLB 08: The Show for another time, but what we can’t debate is that no matter how impressive NHL 09 is in terms of gameplay and replayability, there is one thing that is missing. It is something that is one of the most popular aspects of all hockey video games, if not the sport of hockey as a whole. I am of course speaking about the lack of a fully immersive fighting mode. It is something that 09 is plagued by. I did however come up with the way to fix it.

Fighting in 09 begins with the player being prompted with an overlay of the “Fighting Controls,” which consist of a punch button, and then dodge and grab buttons that you never get to use because every fight lasts no more than two presses of the punch button. Apparently if the fight does not result in a one punch knockout, you have failed at video games. Don’t feel too bad if you fail though, because on the plus side, the programmers did include a health bar for both fighters; so you are encouraged when after one punch your opponent has a tenth of his health left. It should also be comforting for you to know that as long as you pull off the first punch in the fight, you win! This is due to an inability to combo punch, something that has been around in fights (and fighting games) since the theory of fighting was conceived.

The real problem with the lack of a proper fighting engine is that EA Canada has done almost everything else right, making the poor fighting controls stick out like a really attractive woman with no arms -- or if she had arms, then she had man-hands but she couldn’t throw a one-two combo punch to save her life.

Outside of the plethora of game modes (Be a Pro and the OS Freezers are things that will sap months of my life), the thing that everyone seems to agree on over the last two years when it comes to EA’s NHL franchise is just how fluid and well done the controls are. This is especially evident in the way the right analog stick controls the player’s hockey stick.

NHL 09 is addicting, getting a better fighting engine would just put it over the top.

For my money, there is no greater feeling of accomplishment in a sports game than when I have the puck on my stick and I score on a deadly toe-drag wrist shot high to the goalie's stick side. It is something that, when accomplished, makes you want to save the replay so you can relive it as many times as you bloody feel like. The feeling of "awesomeness" you experience every time you watch it, coupled with that tone I get in my head of, “I made that happen with my hands! I have hands of magic!" (I am pretty sure you don’t necessarily hear my voice or those words in your head, but you know exactly what I am referring to.) Either way, it makes all the difference.

It reminds me of the first time I blocked someone else's punch and landed a perfect counter-punch haymaker in Fight Night Round 3 -- another EA title which used the right stick to perfection. (It should be noted that a right-cross haymaker is the exact same move on the right thumbstick as the toe-drag wrist shot mentioned above.) Some of you see where I am going with this. EA has already given us a solid boxing game and has given us a hockey game missing only a really good fighting mini-game. Is it too much to ask that they give us Fight Night on Ice? Both games are made at the same studio after all.

Think about the possibility of Fight Night on Ice for a second as I explain the logistics. First off, I am mapping out the controls to the Xbox 360 controller, so for you PS3 guys, substitute the word “bumper” for the number one and the word “trigger” for the number two. With that out of the way, once a fight begins the controls will be essentially the same as Fight Night Round 3; with the modifier on the left trigger to change the left thumbstick from moving to dodging, and the right trigger toggling blocking while using the right thumbstick as your hands.

Come on EA, you nailed everything else..where's the realism in the fighting?

I have no problem with the occasional one-punch knockout, but with that said, your average fight should last somewhere between 20-45 seconds; enough time to keep the game moving along, but also enough time for both fighters to move around the ice a bit and let your EASHL teammates give you advice and cheer you on. The developers should keep the health bar for both players and still have functionality for the face buttons, although not all face buttons are needed at that point. All the controller scheme really needs would be the grab button that is currently on the right trigger in 09.

The fight can be initiated with the back (select) button. This would take care of the current debacle: having the fight button mapped to the Y (Triangle) button, which also happens to be the hook button. As of now, having fight and hook on the same button leads to the following scenario -- just ask anyone that has played a full 6-on-6 game on an Xbox 360.

It is the final minutes of the third period of a blowout game, so people on both teams decide the game is over at this point. The only real motivation now for the players on either side is to go for the “Bully Achievement” (a secret achievement for winning a fight against another player worth a whooping zero Gamerscore points!). Next thing you know, everyone but the goalies and the puck carrier begin to face each other and hammer on the fight/hook button, resulting in either a hooking penalty or two players looking at each other while hooking the air.

I think the achievement is worth zero points because the developers decided that no one should be allowed to get a sense of accomplishment for winning against another human when playing their broken fighting mini-game. (Although, they do give you 25 Gamerscore points for beating the computer in a fight, so I can only assume that the programmers wanted you to feel good about beating the CPU. Maybe they are masochists and they want us to punish them the only way we can after purchasing their game: by beating the crap out of the CPU!)

Bottom line, EA Canada just needs to give us Fight Night on Ice in NHL 2010 so the punishment can stop, and the real battles can begin.