Great Ice Hockey
System: SMS
Release Date: December 1986
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Sports
Great Ice Hockey is our first sports title for Sega Master System. It’s… not good. First of all, it requires the Sega Sport Pad, which does not emulate correctly. The peripheral was a trackball controller that wasn’t widely used, only a few titles required it. Well, I figured it would pair well with analog controllers, it didn’t.
Luckily, there was a patch someone made to allow for normal controller support. Unfortunately, I don’t think it works like it was supposed to. Making an analog control digital takes away any of the precision that is required. Though, even with it, I don’t think this game is fleshed out enough to be any good.
You are the USA and play against one of seven teams. Each team gets faster as you move along. Poland is the lowest level team you face and it’s pretty easy to get the puck to the sweet spot and shoot it in every time. The goalie seems to mirror where the player is, so a diagonally shot is the only way to score. After crushing the Poles, I challenged the Soviets and got my butt kicked worse than Apollo Creed.
All you can do is pass and shoot. The game chooses which person on the ice you are, not by a button press or anything, just whatever is closest to the puck. I find that kind of control annoying. You take the puck by running into it, even if an opponent has it in their control. Easy with the Poles, impossible with the Soviets. This game sucks.
Graphics: 2.0
This is probably the best part of the game. The rink is illustrated correctly. The players have lots of colors to them, which I find appealing. The animation isn’t terrible.
Sound: 1.0
There’s music. It’s not awful. They even have some national anthem dittys.
Gameplay: 0.5
The controls are the ultimate in plain. Pass and shoot. Oh, and at certain thresholds, control your goalie, oops, goal against you.
Difficulty: 1.0
Pick your level of difficulty by choosing the team you play. If you can beat the Soviets, show me.
Fun Factor: 0.0
This is a poor facsimile of hockey. Not fun.
Overall Grade: 0.9
Great Ice Hockey gets a D that leans heavily on graphics and sound quality. I make room that in reality, with the Sega Sports Pad, the game plays better, but I don’t think it would play much better.