"Revenge of the cheap organ music."

Introduction to: NHL '95

Hockey is a sport that just about anybody can enjoy watching. Whether it's the hard hits that you love, or the constant high speed, or the goals, just about everyone can find something about hockey to enjoy. NHL '95 is the sequel to the original '94 on Genesis, and is basically the exact same game. It looks the same, sounds the same, but it has updated '95 stats. This isn't good, because none of the previous problems were fixed.

Gameplay

The gameplay is incredibly simple to learn and is laid out very easily. First of all you choose your mode. There's several different modes, quick games and seasons. The season mode is pretty good, but it gets boring after a while, even though you can trade players and things like in real hockey. It's easy to skate and the puck handling is pretty consistent. You can turn to hide the puck from opponents and they won't be able to take the puck away. Skating in general is okay, tapping power boost makes you jut out in speed bumps.

The main problems are with scoring and defending. The goalie system is very weak, there is only a few different goalie animations, and it's basically impossible to score on a straight on shot. Only about one or two goalie moves were added since '94. So, normal shots rarely go in, but often, you can still score all the way from the opposite end of the ice. There's also a glitch that allows you to simply skate across the front of the goal and you have an empty net since the goalie is too slow to stop keep up with you. Defending is basically impossible, since you can't skate backwards, so you have to rely on checking or possibly knocking the puck away. Since '94, these problems have not been fixed, and this is a disappointment, since they are some of the few major negative points of the game.

Graphics

As mentioned earlier, the graphics are very simplistic. Everything is flat, and the ice is blue. Overall, the graphics aren't bad, but they are just very plain. A few additions have been made since '94, but nothing that changes the game, for example, every now and then you see a fan banging on the boards, and perhaps the player graphics were very slightly improved. The game overall isn't very colorful (a little more colorful than '94, but still not impressive), and I think that there could have been more work put into improving the mediocre graphics.

Sound

The sound is really depressing. There is no music or any commentary or anything during gameplay, except for random organ music in between plays and things. There is also an annoying whistle noise that is sounded every stop of play. There is the occasional sound of grunting players, the bounce of the puck off of the boards, etc. There is a rather comically bad audience sound set, it's the same exact two sounds: 1 is weak cheering, 1 is booing, they are both rather pathetic. So there is about 5 different sounds overall in the game, and most of the time you are listening to silence, and the faint sound of ice skates. This did not improve at all from '94.

Multiplayer

In terms of multiplayer, this game works out all right. It's very much like one player, and the control of the two different players is pretty clear. There isn't too many problems with the two-player system, so overall, multiplayer is fun, and well done.

Buy or Ignore?

I'll say just what I said about '94, if you're a hockey fan, then try to find this, but if you aren't, don't bother. Since this game and '94 are practically the same game, just '95 has updated stats, don't buy both, it's just a waste.

Final Score: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/06