This is actually not terrible except for the fact that on defense you control both your goalkeeper and another play at once, which is still one of the most baffling design decisions even when considering the tech.
Pros: You can pick the USSR!
Cons: Is Gorbachevs…
Cons: Is Gorbachevs…
The best of the sports NES games I have played so far(excluding Excitebike). It's fast-paced and excited in comparison, though it wasn't anything too special. The Zamboni stuff during intermissions was cute.
6.2/10
6.2/10
Lowkey hidden gem when played multiplayer
There is something about Nintendo sport games on the NES that always feels they miss something. Probably because by how over-simple they were and have the most basic content. But this was made in 1988...which surprises and made me perplexed.
Maybe I'm just over-thinking over a hockey game that I played just to see if it could click on me. Didn't much in single, I heard in multiplayer does get a little interesting.
Maybe I'm just over-thinking over a hockey game that I played just to see if it could click on me. Didn't much in single, I heard in multiplayer does get a little interesting.
I played a lot of this game like a good Canadian should, buts its the inferior hockey game on NES. The best part of this game is turning on the rubber puck code so that they puck never stops after a shot.
This is actually not bad. It's basically Foosball.
Game #65 of my challenge
Sports games was really popular at the time. It was meant to reach out to different type of kids and try to reach the interest of some to play video games. A lot of sports had their own games, but it was time for Hockey to have his place to shine.
Once again, there ain't no plot to this game since it's a sports game on the NES. Simply be the hockey champion and beat every country.
The Intro music and game music is catchy. Nothing extraordinaire here but does the job.
The visuals are neat. The ice is good looking and nothing is really missing for an arena type of view. The characters looks decent. They created 3 types of shapes for the players on the ice and the only thing that they did is to swap colors to represent each country in this game.
The controls are where the shit show starts : You control a hockey player. You can shoot or pass the puck. This is the basics of how a hockey game should work. You can tackle the player with the puck to steal it from them. What is the most annoying thing about this game is that when you control your hockey player, you also control the goalie. This is the worst design decision ever. The reason for that is if you are at a disadvantage, you can't really control the player, because if you do that, the net will be so vulnerable. So the only thing that you can do is to goalie for the whole disadvantage situation until you are lucky enough for the goalie to keep the puck.
The gameplay is really not good as well. You have 3 type of players on the ice : The skinny, the medium and the fat one. They each have their speed and strength associated to one another. However, there isn't much difference between the stats of all of them (especially the speed). This makes the game really frustrating since the skinny one are kind of useless. Scoring in this game is also really hard. The computer is so good to block your shots. It was so painful to play this game that once I scored one point more than the other team, I kept the puck behind my goal and wasted time until the game is over. I know this is shameless, but I did what I got to do to win a game and get over with it.
While this game was really popular at the time, I had no fun at all playing this game. Maybe this game was more appreciated for his 2 player gameplay, but I didn't tried it and probably won't. This game is not be open from me ever again.
Sports games was really popular at the time. It was meant to reach out to different type of kids and try to reach the interest of some to play video games. A lot of sports had their own games, but it was time for Hockey to have his place to shine.
Once again, there ain't no plot to this game since it's a sports game on the NES. Simply be the hockey champion and beat every country.
The Intro music and game music is catchy. Nothing extraordinaire here but does the job.
The visuals are neat. The ice is good looking and nothing is really missing for an arena type of view. The characters looks decent. They created 3 types of shapes for the players on the ice and the only thing that they did is to swap colors to represent each country in this game.
The controls are where the shit show starts : You control a hockey player. You can shoot or pass the puck. This is the basics of how a hockey game should work. You can tackle the player with the puck to steal it from them. What is the most annoying thing about this game is that when you control your hockey player, you also control the goalie. This is the worst design decision ever. The reason for that is if you are at a disadvantage, you can't really control the player, because if you do that, the net will be so vulnerable. So the only thing that you can do is to goalie for the whole disadvantage situation until you are lucky enough for the goalie to keep the puck.
The gameplay is really not good as well. You have 3 type of players on the ice : The skinny, the medium and the fat one. They each have their speed and strength associated to one another. However, there isn't much difference between the stats of all of them (especially the speed). This makes the game really frustrating since the skinny one are kind of useless. Scoring in this game is also really hard. The computer is so good to block your shots. It was so painful to play this game that once I scored one point more than the other team, I kept the puck behind my goal and wasted time until the game is over. I know this is shameless, but I did what I got to do to win a game and get over with it.
While this game was really popular at the time, I had no fun at all playing this game. Maybe this game was more appreciated for his 2 player gameplay, but I didn't tried it and probably won't. This game is not be open from me ever again.
what the fuck do you do in this game
It's above average for NES sports standards. That's not saying much.
Once again, just like Soccer, how does the game read my mind and switch to the exact player that I want to control?!?!
It would be a 2.5 star game, but gains a star because the USSR is a playable character (team), and that's just really weighty and un-sarcastically meaningful looking back.
This game made hockey fights fun.
Probably the only semi-decent sports game on the NES made by Nintendo.