Which NHL game has the best intro?

The EA Sports NHL Hockey series began in 1994. Whilst stumbling across the introduction on YouTube, I figured to post them here so that ArmchairGMers could have their say on the best one.

Original Theme Music

1994

1995

New Compilations

1996

1997

1998

Golden Era

1999

2000

End of the Great Intros

2001

2002

EA Sports, it's in the game era

2003

2004

2005

Revival?

2006

2007

My favourite

The golden era was the turn of the millennium in terms of intros. That said, looking back, I now realise the 2000 intro was the best bit of the game. The intros from 2002 on were awful. 2007 however shows signs of getting back to the good introductions from the 2000 era. But 2000 is definitely my favourite of the NHL series.

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CityhockeyfeverVarsity Captain

775 days ago

Score 2

My top two were very close in rating which was the best. I agree with you on your top choice, Alex. It is NHL 2000.

1. NHL 2000 - Why this is my favorite? First of all, absolutely love the use of Garbage's hit song "Push It" and the speed of the video and animation cuts took the cake.

2. NHL 99 - Love how this intro was split into two with a slow build up to the second part. Having David Bowie's "We Can Be Heroes" used in the opening sequence and Jim Hughson's livecalls on the two featured game highlights got the job done. Then the high-paced second highlight montage with perfect music to edit cuts synched up perfectly.

3. NHL 2001 - The only reason why I even like this intro is the use of Collective Soul's "Heavy" for this game. I prefer the use of actual game footage, not really the computer-generated highlights. If there were actual NHL game highlights like NHL 2000 and NHL 99, this could've had a chance as my top pick.

4. NHL 98 - There is only one reason why I didn't rank this ahead of NHL 2001. That would be the lack of a great intro song to accompany the great graphics. Many times at least for me, the song makes a big difference in my book for the fine line between championship-quality game intro and an average or one that sucks. NHL 2002 to NHL 2005, I don't want to even talk about them. Is there a revival since 2006? We'll see, but I'm not impressed yet.

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