A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

NHL Powerplay video game for Sony PlayStation.

Price: $49.95.

“Just like real pro hockey” touts the blurb on the CD jacket, so I was disappointed to discover, after a couple of test drives, that NHL Powerplay features:

--A “Regular Season” mode with no “Pause For Pointless, Wholly Unnecessary Three-Month Work Stoppage” button.

--A Stanley Cup “Playoff” mode with no tiny blow-torch icon to double-click to create an illegally curved stick.

--An “Edit Lines” setting that enables you to move players from third line to first line, but not from Winnipeg to Phoenix.

--A realistically rotten King team that plays all home games in front of a raucous, standing-room-only crowd.

--And, much to the chagrin of my hockey-loving friend who assisted in this assignment, no “Fight” button.

(Although my friend was happy to discover the technique for cross-checking an opponent into the boards. “There we go!” he cheerily exclaimed as Sandis Ozolinsh waylaid Teemu Selanne, leaving the Mighty Duck forward flat, dazed and spread-eagle on his back.)

Other than that, “NHL Powerplay” pretty much gets the details right. Players actually look and move like real players--three-dimensional virtual goons and goalies, not stick figures on skates. Bodies grunt when they crash into the boards. Goal posts register a metallic ping! when struck by a puck. Zoom in close enough to the red and blue lines and you’ll find skate marks etched into the ice.

Two highlights: Play can be viewed from a variety of camera angles--bird’s eye, 45-degree, ice level--and players are identified by name when they touch the puck.

In the interest of science, I decided to pit the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche against the Ducks. The computer played as the Ducks, I played as the Avalanche--and I set aside the controller, wanting to see how long it would take the Ducks to score against an opponent that could only skate aimlessly across the ice and block passes and shots only by accident.

It took the Ducks 9:45 to finally score--on their 27th shot against Patrick Roy.

As the packaging says, just like real pro hockey.