The screen flipping back and forth like that is gonna make me hurl...
During the early years of the SNES, Nintendo developers created two sports games with then-new �Mode 7� technology that allowed for 360 degree gaming. These games were called NCAA Basketball and NHL Stanley Cup Hockey. Both of these games were overshadowed by the more popular EA series. Due to their relative lack of popularity, sequels of the games were never made.
NHL Stanley Cup Hockey lacked the Players Association license that had popularized the EA NHL series. However, this game will be remembered for its unique game-play and bone-jarring hits. Had this game been real life, every hit would have resulted in an injury�purely nasty.
| | NHL Stanley Cup | Graphics: 5
The graphics were high class at the time of release but of course they look like crap now. I feel lonely when I play the game because all you can see is the ice. There is no indication of any kind of arena, referee, bench players, or fans. One feature I liked about the game was how your players left marks from their skates and they wouldn�t disappear until the next period or faceoff�I can�t remember which. Anyways, I had never seen that in a game previously. I remember always arguing with my friends that the graphics of this game were clearly superior to NHLPA 93. |
Playability: 4
The gameplay wasn�t all that great and that is probably one of the reasons the series didn�t last. Every time the puck switches hands the screen has to turn 180 degrees. I found this to be pretty obnoxious as you have to suddenly start going the opposite direction on your gamepad. It also made me dizzy at times. Also, I remember becoming very frustrated because goalies were so brutal. 9 times out of 10 I�d be on a breakaway and instead of putting a nice deke on the goalie and scoring I was instead thrown 4 feet in the air by a brick wall on skates. I couldn�t ever top 3 goals in a game until I found out the cheap ways to score. This ruined the gameplay too. If you ever want to score in this game, all you have to do is either take a slapshot from the half-line or dump the puck straight on goal from directly behind the blue-line. Using this cheap strategy I could put up 10-12 goals per game. |
Fun Factor: 2.5
The game�s selling points were its graphics and mode 7 technology. Both of these have been deemed obsolete by modern technology, making this game only good for nostalgic purposes. |
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