NHL 2004 is the final game of EA Sports' NHL series and was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, PC, and the Xbox 360 on September 28, 2003. The game includes 30 teams, 100 NHL players and 35 new arenas. Also, NHL 2004 introduced new gameplay features, including a revamped hockey stick control, an improved fighting system, and new effects such as the heads-up 3D display and EA's "Matchstick" system, which allows the players' sticks to be modeled accurately.
The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game use Sony's and Microsoft's EAX systems to allow the audio to be better heard. While the console version runs at 60 FPS, the PlayStation Portable and Game Boy Advance versions run at 50 FPS. NHL 2004 is the last game in the NHL series developed for the Game Boy Advance, which was discontinued after NHL 2005. The Game Boy Advance version of NHL 2004 was not released outside of Japan.
The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of NHL 2004 were the first NHL games to receive a "4" rating from ESRB, the "E" rating being for E10+ content (roughly equivalent to an "M" rating for the Xbox version) and the "M" rating being for M-13+ content.
The PC version of NHL 2004 was the first game in the series to be published by EA's official game label, EA Sports, rather than by DMA Design, the game's developer.
NHL 2005, a GameCube and PlayStation 2 version of NHL 2004, was released in October 2004.
Reception
NHL 2004 has received generally positive reviews. GameSpot awarded the game 8.4 out of 10, praising the game's visuals, gameplay and features. Game Revolution awarded the game 4.5 out of 5, saying the game provides "much deeper hockey gameplay" compared to the previous game in the series, NHL 2003. GameSpy awarded the game 8.8 out of 10, saying, "The improvement in overall gameplay in NHL 2004 is huge, and it's evident in everything from player AI to puck physics. If you don't like it, it's easy enough to go back and tweak all those elements." Next Generation reviewed the GameCube version of the game, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "NHL 2004 is a great game, and as always, fans of EA's NHL series can expect at least
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