Sega Genesis
Released in 1994 by Sony Imagesoft
Grade: D-
This game sucks.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the one and only, released on Genesis, SNES, Sega CD, and MS-DOS.
Gripes
Watching someone else play this game won’t tell you how bad it is. You have to play it yourself to feel so woefully out of control.
It’s hard to move where you want to go, hitting requires good timing without an animation to help you know when that is, and passes often miss their mark. You can choose a horizontal or vertical view, but either way, you can’t see nearly enough ice, and you’ll make plenty of blind passes.
The AI and game logic is way too simple. Defenders play so far back that you can easily skate into the high slot and rip a slap shot, which, oddly enough, is the easiest way to score goals, even on the highest difficulty.
It sure is funny to think you’re on a breakaway, then see defensemen standing in front of the goalie, only to shoot and score anyway. It’s also funny anytime you try to make a gentle pass backwards and watch the puck zoom all the way to your own goalie. But I’m pretty sure “funny” wasn’t what they were going for.