NHL 2000 is an ice hockeyvideo game developed by Electronic Arts Canada. It was released in 1999 and was the successor to NHL 99. The game did not boast great improvements to the game from NHL 99, nor did NHL 2001 feature any idea the two previous versions didn't until NHL 2002.
Features
A season mode with a retirement feature, drafting, and player trades were added to the series in this game, as well as the ability to use any photo for created players' faces, which is textured onto the head. Similar gameplay was used in this version, as well as the previous version, NHL 99. Another mode in NHL 2000 is the Tournament mode, in which the user chooses 16 countries to play a round robin. After the round robin, eight teams are eliminated and then the remaining eight have a "playoff," but instead of it being out of seven games it was single-elimination. Eventually, a winner is crowned gold in the championship match. There is also a third place match for the losers of the semi-finals. The game has a total of 28 NHL teams, including the new expansion Atlanta Thrashers, which was the only team in the game that didn't exist in the 1998–99 season. Online leagues of the game also became more organized. Daryl Reaugh left the series as colour commentator in this game and was replaced by Bill Clement. Jim Hughson remained as play-by-play announcer throughout the series.
Reception
The PlayStation and PC versions received "favorable" reviews, while the Game Boy Color version received "mixed" reviews, according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Jim Preston of Next Generation said of the PlayStation version, "EA Sports once again proves it does hockey better than anyone else on the planet." PC Gamer US nominated NHL 2000 for their 1999 "Best Sports Game" award, which ultimately went to High Heat Baseball 2000. The staff wrote of NHL 2000, "Arcade-style hockey just doesn't get any better." In the United States, the PC version alone sold 97,219 copies by April 2000.
