PlayStation 1
Released in 1998 by 989 Sports
Grade: D+
All I can say is, “Ow! My eyes hurt!” This game is ugly! It looks more like an experiment than a finished product.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the fourth of six on PS1. On PS2, there were two games with the FaceOff name, then two more with the Wayne Gretzky name, a marketing move that shows how bad FaceOff’s reputation was compared to EA’s NHL series. I gave the first two FaceOff games more favorable reviews, so you may want to check out NHL FaceOff and NHL FaceOff ’97.
Praises and gripes
I try not to let graphics sway my reviews too much. This game is 20 years old at this point, so I’m not expecting the Mona Lisa. But boy, graphics this ugly are hard to look past. They’re lousy, crummy, sketchy, and scratchy. They’re clumps of pixels. I tried kinda leaning back and squinting to blur my vision — maybe that would make this game more playable — but then I couldn’t keep up with the little ugly puck!
Gameplay-wise, whatever refinements that were made from early versions aren’t good ones. The game is fast and simple. Skaters do a little more drifting than they should, and the puck doesn’t seem ruled by realistic physics. It can be fun to glide around open ice or twist in little circles with the puck, but it’s frustratingly difficult to make hits.
Goals are scored and not scored without much basis in reality too. Goalies somehow block the best one-timers and then let a stupid slap shot through. A lot of shots look really awkward. Scoring feels more lucky than well-earned.
Skip this game.