NHL 16

NHL 16 is the 25th installment of the NHL Series by EA (Electronic Arts) Sports.

It was published by EA Sports and released on Playstation 4 & Xbox One.

Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks is the official cover athlete on the game which marks his second appearance on an NHL cover, following NHL 11.

Upon release, "NHL 16" received positive reviews and was declared an improvement over NHL 15 by critics.

Gameplay

NHL 16 contains several game modes including:

• Be a GM, a mode where you control the general manager of a team of your choice.

• Be a Pro, a mode where you control your own custom player and progress his career

• Hockey Ultimate Team, a mode where you collect cards of real-life players, build a team and then take on either players online or A.I. teams.

• EA Sports Hockey League (abbreviated as EASHL), a multiplayer-only mode where you can use your own custom player to join other teams (also with custom players controlled by other people) and take on other teams.

The EASHL returns after being dropped from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of NHL 15.

It features some changes in its progression system to address balance issues, including a switch to a class-based progression model similar to the "Be a Pro" mode, and the removal of attributes and boosts.

A beta for the EASHL mode was available for NHL 15 owners from July 30 to August 10, 2015.

NHL: Legacy Edition

NHL: Legacy Edition is an updated version of NHL 15 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and was released on September 9, 2015 in Canada and September 15, 2015 in the United States.

There are some minor changes (such as the menu music, which are the aforementioned songs above, however, the EA Sports logo is instead shown for the album arts and the NHL Moments Live from 2013-14 being replaced by some new ones that will be available as the 2015-16 NHL season progresses.

Game Cover

NHL 16 did not have a cover vote in contrast to the previous year's iteration.

At the 2015 NHL Awards, it was revealed that Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks (who had won the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals) were selected to be on the cover of the game.

It is Toews' second appearance on the cover of an NHL game, following NHL 11.

It was supposed to be Kane's second appearance as well, following NHL 10, however, on August 12, 2015, EA Sports announced that Kane would no longer be appearing on the cover of the game in light of the fact he was the subject of a police investigation over a sexual assault allegation.

Release

NHL 16 launched in North America on September 15, 2015 in both a standard edition and a deluxe set, which includes bonus content for use with the Hockey Ultimate Team game mode.

NHL: Legacy Edition launched in North America on the same day as NHL 16, but it was released in a standard edition only.

In Canada, an exclusive PlayStation 4 bundle launched with the game simultaneously, packaging both a PS4 console and a copy of NHL 16

Release Dates

• September 15, 2015 (North America)
• September 17 and 18, 2015 (Europe, Australia, New Zealand)

Game Reception

Upon its release, NHL 16 received positive reviews from critics and received much more positive reviews compared to its predecessor, NHL 15 (which received more mixed and average reviews from critics).

On GameRankings, the PlayStation 4 version holds an 80.58% rating, based on eighteen reviews and the Xbox One version holds an 81.17% rating, based on six reviews.

On Metacritic, the PlayStation 4 version holds a 79/100 rating (based on sixteen reviews) and the Xbox One version holds a 79/100 rating (based on eight reviews).