Gretzky NHL 06 isn’t the prettiest game the PSP has seen. Oddly, when things are close up, they look par for the course. When the camera zooms out, however, the jaggies come out of the woodwork. There is nothing smooth about the graphics at all, including the animations. Though not all too bad when they stand alone, the animations fail miserably when trying to lock up with each other, and that is what happens most often in this game. Collisions between players look odd when the one being knocked down flies in the opposite direction you would expect. Worst of all, the puck does not conform to any model it comes in contact with, and shots will shoot forth from the other side of players’ bodies.

As this is a sports title, Gretzky NHL 06 has included a fair amount of commentary to keep the illusion of a real hockey game. Though the quips of the commentators, including Darren Pang, are enough to keep the flow of the game going, the quality of execution is lacking. Long delays and skips in the tracks plague this title, especially when goals are scored. Not only that, but the composition of the dialogue is choppy, being more reminiscent of earlier titles that were experimenting with play by play commentary.

Gretzky NHL 06 is strictly a hockey game and nothing more. It has a lot of standard options, a team managing ability, and a Multiplayer mode, but these things are just tinsel on an ordinary title. Unless you’re buying this game based on your extreme love of hockey, you would do well to look elsewhere.

The standard Season and Pro Manager modes are included in Gretzky NHL 06. In the former, you can take any NHL team on a full-fledged season, right up through the Stanley Cup. You can manage rosters, make trades, and simulate games to move more quickly. The Pro Manager mode gives you full reign over your team’s roster and playing styles. These modes are for those who are looking at seriously messing with the statistics, as both are highly involved and unforgiving to the layman of sports management.

Once you get out of these hardcore hockey modes, Gretzky NHL 06 has little to offer. The biggest tangent the game goes on is in its 3v3 mode. Here, you pick a team and play with three of its star players against another team, trying to score the prescribed amount of goals in an unlimited amount of time. All rules have been turned off, there is no fighting, and everybody can shoot like Wayne Gretzky. While it has its merits at first, the effect quickly wears off after a few games and becomes dull.

Gretzky NHL 06 also has many unlockables for you to discover. Simply by playing the game and logging records in a book (winning faceoffs, checking so many times during a game, getting shutouts, etc.), you attain points. These points can be used to unlock a bunch of goodies that mainly consist of alternate uniforms. There are one or two gameplay gimmicks that can be unlocked, but there really isn’t any depth here.

A Gretzky Challenge is also offered, where you take your favorite team and challenge every single other team in the NHL, including two all-star teams. Once you have beaten all of these teams, you face a lineup consisting of 5 Wayne Gretzkys. Again, this is an interesting novelty that will attract you at first, but will inevitably end up becoming a boring chore with no true reward in sight.

Gretzky NHL 06 has included support for both ad-hoc and infrastructure modes, but they are only capable of handling two players at a time in a single match of hockey. While it is good that Multiplayer support of both kinds is included, only when sports games on the PSP can handle multiple players in multiple variations of a game will these features really become something special.

You don’t have to come from Canada to be able to play Gretzky NHL 06, but you do have to have some perseverance. Overall, the game is a challenging one, but the experience is hindered by some control issues. Handling the players on the ice is awkward, as the physics seem to be aimed more towards an arcade feel than a realistic one. The tempo of the game is so quick that it takes a little more getting used to than other sports titles. Overall, however, there is plenty of challenge for both die-hard hockey fans and casual gamers alike.

As mentioned before, Gretzky NHL 06 doesn’t quite feel how you would expect a hockey game to feel. Players dart around the rink sporadically, and the puck will either be flying by at unimaginable speeds or get caught up in the “sticky” boards or the back side of the net. What results is chaotic gameplay that just feels strange.

There are some good things about the control in Gretzky NHL 06 however. Icon passing, while not necessary to win, is a great boon to controlling the actions of your team. Also, you are able to aim your shots and call plays on the fly. Using the D-pad, you can switch plays depending whether you are on offense or defense, and when you are able to move the puck down to your opponent’s goal, manually aiming your shots enables you to finish off these plays nicely.

Sadly, the Gretzky line of hockey games is the only one currently out for PSP. These games don’t meet the same standards other sports titles do on this capable handheld. What Gretzky NHL 06 offers is a flawed core experience, coupled with lackluster bells and whistles. If you were in the mood for a great handheld hockey game, you’re going to have to wait a little longer.