Original Release: EA, 1991, Genesis
The first game for EA’s long-running hockey series was groundbreaking, but has aged much more poorly than other 16-bit series entries.
NHL Hockey (Genesis, EA, 1991)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
NHL Hockey is the exact same game engine as EA Hockey … I’m still not certain which came first … but NHL Hockey has the benefit of NHL licensed teams and logos (not players … you just get jersey numbers instead.)
Unfortunately, it’s also like 50% slower than EA Hockey and I still have no idea why. The game is notably slower than any other game in the NHL series, and if you’ve played any others before this one, you’ll likely find this one just too painfully sluggardly to be bothered with.
No season mode in this one – just playoff series of either single games or seven-game series, saved and continued with rather long passwords. This makes the game more suited to one-off games between two human players, and there’s the nice option of playing both on the same side against the computer, which is great for generating real offense (since the AI allies don’t do very well at getting open or positioning well) and also for taking over goaltending duties manually.
It isn’t really bad, but I think this one is easily the weakest overall entry in the whole EA NHL series.
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