a.k.a. NHL 94 without one-timers
Sega Genesis
Released in 1992 by Electronic Arts
Grade: A-
This is an awesome pick-up-and-play hockey game, known for its intuitive controls, smooth movement, big hits, satisfying goals, intense games, a feeling that your players are on actual ice, bleeding heads, and fights.
Where it falls in the series
This follows EA’s first hockey game, NHL Hockey, which broke ground with its smooth gameplay but came with some serious easy-scoring issues. It’s followed by the universally appreciated NHL ’94, which made the critical improvement of adding one-timers, along with several minor gameplay improvements and a full NHL license.
The NHLPA license here means you get the real players but miss out on team names and logos. You’ll hardly notice, though, because there are still team cities and accurate team colors.
Praises and gripes
This game is undeniably fun. The controls are just right. Games are always chaotic and exciting.
The lack of one-timers actually has its charm, and gives you a reason to pick up this game if you’ve played ’94 to death.
Player skills vary widely, so teams vary widely. If the game gets too easy when you play as the Penguins, you can switch to the Nordiques for an instant difficulty boost.
The gameplay has a great chaos factor. There are enough fluky goals, bad passes and odd bounces to keep it feeling organic. And no two individual games feel the same. You’ll get comebacks, nail-biters, blowouts and shutouts.
The glaring flaw is that savvy players will discover an almost flawless method of scoring goals at will.
In terms of fun perks, this game has the celebrated “bleeding heads” and fighting. After a player loses a fight, he looks hilarious as he dizzily stumbles to the penalty box.
You can also break the glass behind the net by taking a hard slap shot from just behind the blue line. I’m not sure what other games had that before or after this game.
Top teams
Pittsburgh beat Chicago for the Cup in 92, so these two teams are naturally the top two. Chicago may actually technically be the best all around team in the game, but Pitt’s forward line of Lemieux, Jagr, and Stevens was the game’s most deadly weapon.
Other strong teams included the New York Rangers, Montreal, Los Angeles, Boston, Vancouver and Detroit. Fun middle of the road teams: Toronto, Buffalo, and St. Louis.
In the 93 finals, Patrick Roy’s Canadiens beat Gretzky’s Kings.