"NHL is a great game that i still love to play"

When EA Sports released EA Hockey in 1992, I doubt they saw the vision that would turn their empire into a set of the most successful sports games of all time.
Yet in 1993 they released a version of their Hockey game that was officially licenced to and took the name of the best league in the world, the NHL.
By 1994, this had become refined and possibly the best release of an NHL game for about the next 3 years.

On the Megadrive platform, it utilised the most of the 16 bit operating system and provided stunning graphics for its day. Although coming to the end of its lifespan in 1994, the Megadrive provided the home for 1 more releases of this game, NHL '95.

Lets look at NHL 94 and what I like about it.
Firstly were the detailed rosters for the first time. Yes, you now had real players on real teams along with the appropriate skill levels. It was the first time that the 2 expansion teams, Anaheim and Florida had appeared in a game.

Missing from the 94 game, (which was a relief) was the rediculous fight sequences that have returned today. In EA Hockey, you could fight and at random times. They realised that this was fun for the first couple of fights and then it soon got tedious. They removed it for 94 which was a blessed relief.

You could operate either a Penalty Shoot Out, Exhibition game Play off tournament or a season on NHL 94. It stored the information on the in build game save device within the game cartridge. I found that there was a small limit to this and a long season with plenty of goals would end up crashing during games. You could never get one player to 100 in a season without it crashing.
The Playoff tournaments could be set as indiviual games for a quick game or ''best of 7 series'' for those that want to play their hockey properly. You could also set the period length from 2 minutes for a quick game right up to 20 minutes for a realistic game.

Scoring was simple when you knew how.

Simply skate down the boards to the center of the face off circle and shoot. Every time.

Skate along the goal line, wait for the goalie to commit (as he always did) and then shoot high.Every time.

Skate to the corner, pass back through the middle of the ice and score a one timer. 8 out of 10.

It made a game very predictable and easy to play. At least with the later releases it became more difficult to shoot and eliminated these easy scoring options.

It had some sound but not as complex as todays modern version. The commentary ws limited when saying who scored. the Names never fitted into the sentences.
''blah blah blah......GRETSKY... scores....blah blah blah....''

For its time, it was cutting edge but it is interesting to see just how far this game has come on as well as the complimenting game playing technology.

I'm a hug hug hockey fan in this day of age, actually in this day of age NHL 2003 has just recently came out, so now there is a big difference in gameplay and graphics! I don't mind playing NHL '94 even though there are still better games out there. Actually in my opionion, this is my second favorite NHL game (first being 2002).

Graphics: 7
The Graphics arn't exactly that bad for a Sega Genese game! Come on, who here likes 2-D animation still??? It's not that bad!

Sound: 7
The music was catchy... but then got enoying. Who would of guessed that was possible to be annoyed with over 70 songs in it? The crowed is the same, but it never actually got anoying (thank God).

Gameplay: 5
The only way to score in this game is by being in a cetain spot, there are like 15 of them, and if your in one of them it’s too easy to score!

Replay Value: 7.
I love playing it still, even though NHL 2003 is out

Overall: 7
NHL is a great game that i still love to play

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/03, Updated 02/18/03