Sega Saturn
Released in 1995 by Sega
Grade: F
Let’s make this one quick, shall we?
Where it falls in the series
There’s sort of a sequel to this, NHL All-Star Hockey 98, but Sega went with a different developer, Radical Entertainment, who made NHL Powerplay ’96 on PS1, which, by the way, also scores an F on this fine website.
Gripes
This might literally be the worst hockey game I’ve played.
It’s excruciatingly slow. The skating physics aren’t realistic or user-friendly. The controls are sometimes delayed. The “change player” command is particularly useless, never switching to the guy you need to control. Goalie logic is terrible, stopping solid one-timer chances but letting in weak ass junk.
The graphics are abysmal. You literally can’t see the puck a lot of the time. The skaters have lousy animations. There’s a bunch of camera options, and none of them are good.
That’s enough. Don’t buy this game.