2K Sports' NHL 2K9 is now available for purchase at retailers across North America. This game's release sets a precedent though, as NHL 2K9 also released for Wii today, making it the first official hockey game for Wii, and no, I'm not counting Kidz Sports: Ice Hockey , which barely counts as a video game. This is the one many Canadian Wii owners, and hockey lovers across North America have been waiting for.

Was it worth the wait? According to a number of reviews I've been reading about the game so far, the answer would be “rent it first”. On the positive side, since this is the first full fledged offering of a hockey game for Wii, 2K Sports has done rather well with it, earning between the mid sixes and low eights in review scores. 2K is also quite lucky that it has no competition this year, as EA SPORTS is not releasing NHL 09 on Wii. What the development team comes up with next year should be the proving point for the Wii version of the franchise.

NHL 2K9 is available on Wii for $49.99 USD/CAD and is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up. It is also available, at various prices, for Playstation 2, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.