NHL16 (PS4) I really enjoy NHL Hitz in all its forms, and I find it upsetting that its a series which isn't going to reappear any time soon. Its with trepidation that I purchased NHL16 in the Playstation Easter sale. EA Sports games tend to fall further into the realm of simulation, and for a sport I hardly understand that was intimidating. I was pleasantly surprised though, after being forced into a repeat of the 2015 Stanley cup final on starting, then playing a quick exhibition match which taught me that I was much more suited to switching the controls to the NHL '94 settings, the puck zipped about the ice quickly and it had a nice arcady feel to it. I then moved into the career mode, building myself as a young left winger coming from London. After a brief stint with a team i'd never heard of I then got drafted by the Dallas Stars. This was impressive, as for all the goals and assists I was getting I still didn't understand a lot of the basics of the sport. The offside marker is really useful but I continue to be caught offside, skate into offside with the puck (whatever that is?) and called up for icing too, another rule which is lost on me. Its a really cool feature in the career mode to let the game play out whilst your benched, endurance is pictured as a gauge at the bottom of the screen and I could make the call to either bench myself or when there's a break in play I'd be swapped out until the gauge refills. Theres a balance to timing returning to the action, too often I'd find myself returning and begging for the puck to be passed to me only to mess up an attack, my coaching tips are quite predictable at the end of every game, stay onside and try not to ask for the puck as much. The fighting mini game which has been in every hockey game i've played seems more measured now, theres a reason for it. When I take a petulant swing at the puck when the whistles blown I'm instantly put into an encounter I tend to loose. Frustration kicks in a lot though at my own stupidity of getting caught offside or icing (I really should look up what icing is) and its harder not to take aim when I've been pulled up. I'm getting the most fun out of the game continuing my rookie career, even though its about as far removed from the fast paced arcade action of NHL Hitz as ice hockey can get. Hopefully some of the finer points of the sport will rub off on me as I play it.
I also did quite a bit of traveling so played some mobile games, Downwell (iOS) continues to be the best thing I can play on my phone. Its so addictive, I'm still pretty appalling at the game itself, can only get as far as the underwater stages. For such a seemingly simple game (effectively 3 buttons) there is a lot going on, reading enemies weaknesses and attacks and building combos to refill health or gems are things i've learnt more of the more I play. Played a little bit of SkiFree (iOS), more to show my nephew, most of the fun in the game comes from the distance you can get before getting eaten by the yeti but its still charming in its simplicity. Finally I tried a bit of Nintendos first mobile effort Miitomo (iOS) the most interesting thing I found in this game was playing what felt like a very Nintendo experience on an alien device, the colour palette, sounds, UI, characters and music all feels Nintendo. Even down to the fact it took me way too long to sync up my Nintendo ID to the game. The game itself seems to be a sequence of questions, I assume that it would be a lot more fun once a friends list of sorts is built. You can also take "comedy" pictures of your Mii or place him or her into your own photos. Theres a pachinko mini game too to get new clothing items, its not as much fun as the pachinko game in Nintendoland.
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