The Best Hockey Game on the NES
Growing up, there were two contenders for the title of best hockey game on the NES: Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel.
At the time I believed Blades of Steel was the better of the two because the crowd, players, and overall graphics seemed more realistic (seems hard to believe now -- realistic on the NES, hah!). It also had a cool fighting system where you could battle it out leaving the loser in the penalty box.
After picking up both titles a couple of decades later my opinion has changed. Though BoS has its merits, it did not age as well.
Ice Hockey makes for a better game to play with friends. It mixes things up by allowing you to mix and match your players from the big-and-slow tank to the quick-and-skinny player. All team builds are viable -- which is way better than a simple team colour swap (ala Blades of Steel).
The game is very hectic which leads to lots of laughter. Though it requires a lot of skill to play, the game tends to get crazy which makes it hard to concentrate through the deep belly laughs. Friends who aren't playing will roar as they cheer for the underdog.
The only problem with this game is that it requires a lot of button mashing (whether it be intentional or not) which leads your thumbs very sore.
Reviewed by: Mr. Gazillion from Ottawa, Canada on 11/3/2012
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