With the advent of portable video game consoles in the 1970’s, electronic gaming moved from the bars to people’s living rooms. The earliest true video game Pong (first appeared in 1972), spawned its slightly altered counterpart, Hockey. Hockey kept the same Pong-like sliders, except they added back walls and simple open goal and the action was all about angles and patience. No one cared that their was no color, simple black and white graphics were fine as was the square ‘puck.’ Was it really like hockey? No, but the game was more or less a slower, less rigorous version of what would eventually be air hockey. Since then hockey video games have continued to be decent sellers for a video game industry that has had plenty of ups and downs; and the games remain popular despite that a good portion of its customer base probably would not consider themselves to be hockey fans. They just love video game hockey.
As the gaming consoles and computing power of these machines increased so did the sophistication of the games to the point where even the subtle parts of hockey are replicated with a remarkable level of detail. The pucks, players now move in a more realistic fashion and with each version more minute details continue to be added. Goal songs, goal horns, arena music, alternate jersey possibilities are just small ways the video game designers keep adding to the flavor of these hockey video game releases. But that doesn’t answer the most important question? Which hockey video game is the best?
What is the ‘best’ is a pretty subjective assessment. So I decided to put it to Twitter in my KFAN-inspired video game bracket. The first thing I had to do was to seed a list of 8 hockey video games. I decided to only go with 8 partly to streamline the process. I will also admit I did not use any of the brand new Electronic Arts NHL games in part because they are so similar to one another I didn’t want to have to point all of the finite differences. Since this is meant to be more of ‘best of all time’ poll I simply will omit them altogether. I included a YouTube clip of the game being played just in case you haven’t played all of these different titles. Here are our top 8 seeds with systems they were played on in parentheses.
#1 – NHL ’94 (SNES & Sega Genesis)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l4C7pj05Qs]#2 – Blades of Steel (NES)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHk438I2lDA]#3 – ESPN NHL2k5 (Playstation 2, Xbox)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD38yMiVEls]#4 – Ice Hockey (NES)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kXVFCfBWoQ]#5 – NHL Faceoff ’98 (Playstation)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C78rYCZKc_8]#6 – NHL Hitz 2003 (Playstation 2, XBox)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdPyimzGZHI]#7 – Mutant League Hockey (Sega Genesis)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAoIe5O816I]#8 – Slap Shot Hockey (Intellivision)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQL0XWLBcM4]In the interest of full transparency I will show you how the Twitter poll worked itself out. The amount of votes varied by the poll but at the end of the day each poll was open 24 hours.
Quarterfinals
#4 Ice Hockey (NES) vs. #5 NHL Faceoff ’98 (Playstation) – please RT & vote! #NHL
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 28, 2016
The NES classic managed to eek out a win against one of the more unsung hockey video games. Ice Hockey‘s unique 3 player types may have seemed a bit cartoonish but overall the action was scrappy and those who grew up with it have a strong bond with it. NHL Faceoff ’98 had details no other hockey game had managed to tackle before. From using different goal horns for each arena, to home-friendly fans, to having a differentiated public address announcer who got extra excited for the home team and had just a mundane call for the road squad. No matter how cool it was to hear the PA announcer go Pat La-La-La-Fontaine on a goal call, Ice Hockey advances to the semi-finals.
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#3 ESPN NHL2K5 (Playstation 2, Xbox) vs. #6 NHL Hitz 2003 (Playstation 2, Xbox) – please RT & vote! #NHL
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 28, 2016
This one wasn’t as close I thought it might be. NHL Hitz 2003 was really NBA Jam on skates as it substituted realism for fast, hard-hitting play that made it ideal in an arcade setting. 3-on-3 hockey made for exciting end to end play and it was best enjoyed being played against fellow gamers as opposed to the computer. ESPN NHL 2k5 combined the more realistic and refined NHL 2k series and added ESPN elements to it. From ESPN’s NHL 2Night theme song, to the play-by-play announcers Gary Thorne and Bill Clement the game worked hard to make you feel as though you were going to a real NHL game. While it wasn’t the first game to have real announcers attached to it, the game was the first to utilize board battles where a player could kick the puck to an open area of the ice. It may seem like a small thing but hockey fans loved that realistic touch and along with lots of extras ESPN NHL 2k5 prevailed.
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#2 Blades of Steel (NES) vs. #7 Mutant League Hockey (Genesis) – please RT & vote! #NHL
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 28, 2016
I had a feeling this one might be a blowout. Konami’s Blades of Steel has cult like following much the way the movie Slap Shot does for a lot of hockey fans. The game play was kind of similar to fellow NES title Ice Hockey but with some notable additions. It had a more realistic fighting engine to the penalty shot, Blades of Steel just naturally gets people worked up which is why the game holds up so well despite being introduced back in 1987. Mutant League Hockey basically used the same game play as Electronic Arts’ NHL ’96, but with mutant players who had various abilities. The action is predictably cartoonish (like the ability to literally destroy opposing players) in some respects, but since they used a real hockey game as its base program it still plays out pretty decently. Yet it didn’t stand a chance to power house Blades of Steel.
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#1 NHL ’94 (SNES, Genesis) vs. #8 Slap Shot Hockey (Intellivision) – please RT & vote! #NHL
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 28, 2016
This matchup was like bringing a knife to a gun fight. As much nostalgia as Blades of Steel has going for it, NHL ’94 is revered by many hockey video gamers as the best one ever. The game introduced the vaunted one-timer to hockey video games and savvy players knew how to ambush their foes well with it. The game was still fairly fast and physical and the integration of real NHL players and their relative player ratings was about as good as it gets from the mid-1990’s. Hearing arena-appropriate organ music from ‘Brass Bonanza’ with the Hartford Whalers to ‘Here Come the Hawks’ for Chicago the game found a way to connect to gamers the way no other hockey game did up to that time. On the flipside was the first real ‘hockey’ video game with Intellivision’s Slap Shot Hockey. Its slow, and the action is what you see in your typical Mites game of herd hockey but it was the first step away from the Pong-style of play you had before. The game was probably victimized by the fact not many people have ever played it but the game still deserves a stick tap to getting it all started, but it was no surprise it didn’t hold a candle to the NHL ’94 juggernaut.
Semifinals
#2 Blades of Steel (NES) vs. #3 ESPN NHL 2k5 – please vote and RT! @TonyDeanHB@BMileskiKFAN
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 29, 2016
ESPN NHL 2k5 did not go away quietly as it battled the NES classic to a pretty good showdown in the semi-finals. If I had to guess, the greater familiarity (and its subsequent cult-like popularity) of Blades of Steel probably helped it advance to the championship.
#1 NHL ’94 (SNES, Genesis) vs. #4 Ice Hockey (NES) – please vote and RT! @TonyDeanHB@BMileskiKFAN
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 29, 2016
To use Ice Hockey terms, this was like playing the person who tried to use 4 fat (big) guys for his team. You simply used small or tall guys and skated circles around them as you won in a blowout. However this time it was the NES classic’s turn to get curbstomped. In another example of absolute domination, NHL ’94 rolled to the championship as the clear favorite. But did it have enough to win it all?
Championship
#1 NHL ’94 vs. #2 Blades of Steel for best hockey video game of all time, please vote & RT @TonyDeanHB @BMileskiKFAN
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 30, 2016
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A tie!?!? Again the sample size was pretty modest but the tie put me in a bit of a bind as I didn’t want it to have it end in controversy so I simply Tweeted out the poll again and here was the result.
@BMileskiKFAN@thoen88@TonyDeanHB@3InTheBox please RT and vote on this poll for greatest hockey video game ever!
— Derek Felska (@StateofHckyNews) July 31, 2016
So finally a decision, but I will admit there are some significant flaws. The sample size from the survey is still way too small to say that NHL ’94 is the best hockey video game of all time. Yet, with the result being what it was the style of survey and time the poll was open was equal for all of the rounds. While Blades of Steel certainly has a strong following and certainly is without question one of the best, but NHL ’94 is the gold standard that changed what hockey video games were expected to be.
If you find yourself disagreeing with the results of this tournament of sorts that is just fine. Everyone has their own preferences and my poll isn’t as much an assessment of quality as it is popularity. I do not think this proved definitively which hockey video game is the most popular, afterall the first championship poll resulted in a tie. My advice is to embrace what you like. If that’s NHL ’94; awesome, if it is Blades of Steel; terrific. There is no wrong answer. If (insert game here) is your favorite or the best one in your opinion, celebrate it and keep playing it!
We’d like to hear from you? What do you think is the best hockey video game of all time? Share that in the comments below or with me on Twitter @StateofHckyNews and game on!
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