My first experience with Sonic was in 1992. Now, seventeen years later, I look at what the Sonic franchise has become and I am disappointed. Once a distinct character, Sonic has been reduced to a supporting actor in the Nintendo universe (the most fun I’ve had playing as Sonic in the past five years was when I played Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games). Clearly, the Sonic series hasn’t aged well. I wondered, then, if there was a series from my childhood that has done so. Is there a game series that is known for quality gameplay, consistent innovation, and meaningful impact in popular culture? I answer yes: the NHL series of video games by Electronic Arts. Because of these factors, it is the best video-game series of all time.

NHL then...

The previous statement may offend some videogame purists. They’ll point to the fact that Super Mario Bros. saved the industry after the great video game crash of 1983. They’ll point to the emotional storytelling of Final Fantasy VII. They’ll point to the epic scale of The Legend of Zelda series. They’ll even point to Madden NFL and claim that it’s a better sports series. Those purists are wrong.

If they claim that Super Mario Bros. is the best series, they need to accept that SMB2 was a re-skin of Doki Doki Panic and that the series’ offering for the GameCube, Super Mario Sunshine, was a letdown and certainly not a classic. If they claim that Final Fantasy represents the ultimate in video game series, they haven’t played a Final Fantasy game since 2002. If they want to claim that Zelda is the best series, they’ll be ignoring the CD-I system (maybe that’s for the best), the fact that there was no reason to make two Oracle games, and that there has been no proper Wii game in the series. If they claim Madden is a better sports series, then they skipped the 2006 through 2009 iterations and think that the newest generation of video game systems started yesterday.

So this leaves us with the NHL series. My first criterion for a great series is that it always offers quality game play. Here, the NHL series delivers in spades. From its humble days as NHLPA Hockey ’93 on the Sega Genesis, the NHL series offered a degree of realism not seen in sports games of the time. It translated the fast paced nature of the game of hockey to the home console. While the graphics are nothing to look at now, back then they represented quality never before seen. Everything was included in these early games: lightning-quick slap shots, punishing body-checks, and crisp passes. In the later days, as the series grew and added more features, the core gameplay always remained true to the sport that inspired it.

...and now

But a tradition of quality gameplay isn’t enough, which leads to the next criterion: innovation. It is here that the NHL series comes up in spades. NHLPA Hockey ’93 was the first game in the series that obtained a license from the player’s association to use actual player names in the game. This importance of this acquisition cannot be stated enough. Instead of scoring with Center #27, the game showed that you scored with Jeremy Roenick. The NHL series acquired such a license two years before the Madden NFL series, which did so in Madden NFL ’95. Another such innovation was the introduction of the skill stick in NHL 07. This feature mapped the hockey stick to the right analog stick and provided for fluid gameplay. Performing dekes, an essential part of hockey, used to be next to impossible. Now, they could be done in a life-like manner. Finally, NHL 09 introduced Be A Pro mode, which lets the player control one player throughout the entire game. This immersive experience could be used in a franchise-mode-style of play or online, where you could play with eleven additional players. These innovations are characteristic of the NHL series of games.

Gameplay and innovation, while important, don’t make a series the best. Those two elements when combined with a strong impact on popular culture do. Everyone recognizes the theme song from Super Mario Bros. and they know where it’s from, even if they know nothing about video games. Did the NHL series make that impact? An examination of the evidence proves that it certainly did. In a 1994 Sports Illustrated article entitled “Hot Not”, E.M. Swift writes about the NHL’s increasing popularity over the NBA (look how long that lasted). One reason for this popularity was the NHL series of video games. Swift quotes EA’s VP of spoils marketing, Don Transeth, “It’s big in England. It’s huge on campuses. And a lot of these people are learning hockey through the video game.” The NHL was able to expand its reach through the NHL series of video games. Additionally, who can forget this classic scene in the 1996 film Swingers with Vince Vaughn, Patrick Van Horn, and Jon Favreau? (NSFW)

In conclusion, the NHL series is the best videogame series ever. It’s consistent- a quality game is released every year. It’s innovative- many of the game’s features have set the standard for sports games. It’s had a meaningful impact outside of video game culture- just look at Swingers. While many purists will be busy enjoying their classics, I’ll be sitting on the couch, plugging in my old Genesis, and firing up my copy of NHLPA Hockey ’93. It’s time to make Wayne’s head bleed.