I personally would vote for NHL 2004 Rebuilt.
You might eventually find your new favorite hockey game, but you won't find anything close to the "perfect" hockey game.Īs others have suggested, there is no definitive right or wrong answer to this question. Even the modern EA NHL games, with as much flak as they get, do some great stuff on the ice that none of the past games can do. I will tell you that with basically every game in both the EA and 2k series, there is some stuff done great and other stuff done horribly. Other than that, you just have to do what was said earlier and watch some gameplay from some old titles and pick a few that you think look fun to try out. If you're on PC, NHL '04 is cool as it still has a decent modding community keeping the game alive, although it can be hit or miss as modern hardware has made it kind of a pain to keep working, and the game is starting to show its age with the mechanics. As already stated, you can ask 10 different people about the best hockey video game and get 10 completely different answers.
The NFL has 2k5/Madden 08, college football has NCAA '06, baseball has MVP '05, but hockey has never had that "one" game. This is always an interesting topic for hockey, as there has never really been a game that is widely considered the "best" representation of the sport.