NHL ‘94

Introduction

Yeah, it’s all ice hockey. From EA Sports of course. We used to have great times with this game as kids, and it still kicks rear end. Best in multi-player of course.

Story

It was a dark and stormy night a long, long time ago…SHOOTS AND SCORES!

Gameplay (9/10)

Feels very good. Checking and shooting both feel powerful. Fairly easy to learn, and there’s a few techniques to score. You can control the goalie yourself, which feels pretty good too. In this installment the controls are still really basic, shoot, check, pass, hook, attempt a save, that’s about it. But I think it’s very good that they are so basic.

Graphics (8.5/10)

For their time, they we’re good quality. It’s all clear and nice, doesn’t get messy at all. Well I guess it doesn’t push the machine to the fullest, but that’s not the point. I appreciate the clarity.

Sound (8.5/10)

Shooting, checking, powerful. Crowd, well, it’s fun to try to get the crowd really loud (there’s a nice meter for this as an extra). The music in the play is the legendary organ stuff, and the game theme is really cool and rocking, I think.

Replayability (8.5/10)

With a friend or two it’s endless fun! You’ll get tired playing by yourself, but want to get back every now and then to score some nice goals. You can play the play-offs, which is quite cool, this installment doesn’t have the season.

Challenge

The computer can get quite easy after you’ve played some time, but with your friend it’s always harder (AND 1000x BETTER!) Playing the play-offs with the worst team can be a challenge too.

Overall (9/10)

If you like ice hockey, and have a friend or two coming over, this game is really great. The controls are really basic and quick to learn. There’s a good hockey mood in the game. Really good for it’s time, and still very enjoyable, at least in multi-player mode. I guess you can find this fairly easily, since all the NHL games were/are very popular. You can get it cheap, but the fun is worth much more.

Screenshots