NHL Slapshot winding up on Wii

Take-Two Interactive's NHL 2K hockey series is in a rebuilding year, skipping the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions to focus on the Wii, where it has yet to face any competition. That's going to change this year, as Canoe.ca is reporting that Electronic Arts is putting on the foil for an old-fashioned donnybrook on the Wii.

According to the site's gaming blog, EA will be making its hockey debut on the Wii with NHL Slapshot. The game will launch September 7, alongside the Xbox 360 and PS3 debuts of NHL 11.

As might be expected, EA's first hockey game on Nintendo's system will use the motion-sensing functions of the Wii Remote controller. More surprising is the miniature hockey stick controller shell that the publisher will be including with each copy of the game. According to the report, the 21-inch stick will snap together from three separate pieces and let players shoot, pass, stick-handle, and poke-check much as they would in real life.

The publisher is also bringing out the big guns to promote the game, as it has lined up hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to be the game's cover athlete. "The Great One" will appear not only on the box art, but also in the game as a playable character and as a coach in the game's career mode, which follows a created character from the peewee leagues through the juniors, CHL, AHL, and, finally, the NHL itself.