Ice Hockey
System: NES
Release Date: March 1988
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Sports
The Nintendo finally takes it to the rink with Ice Hockey! I didn’t play much of this as a youngster, I was more of a Blades of Steel kind of guy, but we won’t see that until the end of 1988.
Choose from the USA, Sweden, Poland, Canada, the USSR, and Czechoslovakia. Then you can choose the game speed, 1 is slowest, 5 is fastest. Finally, you can choose your period length. Once you have that taken care of, it’s time to set your lineup. You have four skaters on the ice and can choose among a skinny guy, medium guy, and fat guy. The skinny guy is fast, but weak. The fat guy is strong, but slow. The medium guy is average all around.
I’m sure the internet has broken down the best combination of players, but I first tried a skinny guy surrounded by fat guys. I got stomped by the USSR. I had trouble because I have to control the goalie and he moves way too fast to block anything except the edges consistently. This deflated my happiness. I tried next with a skinny guy, medium guy, and two fat guys. Again, I got wasted, this time by Czechoslovakia. I think I did better with the goalie control, but not good enough.
Graphics: 1.0
Graphics haven’t improved from the Volleyball days. They get the job done and that’s all.
Sound: 1.0
The music and sound effects are nothing special.
Gameplay: 1.5
I can’t in good conscious say nice things about a hockey game that forces me to control both my goalie and a regular skater at the same time.
Difficulty: 3.0
I’m sure the more you play, the better you’ll get. The different team configurations make for scaling difficulty.
Fun Factor: 1.5
This is kind of fun, but not very fun.
Overall Grade: 1.6
Ice Hockey earns a C-. It’s alright, but I wasn’t too pleased while playing it.